Part 1 - Thermal Comfort

T HERMAL CO MF O RT HONEYCO MB HOUSING T H E A F F O R D A B L E A LT E R N A T I V E T O T E R R A C E H O U S I N G

MO HD

P ET ER

MAZ LIN UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA

DAVIS

GHAZ A LI

NO R A Z IAN

NORDIN

The Problem and the Solution… SOLAR RADIATION

OUTSIDE AIR TEMPERATURE

ON HOT DAYS TERRACE HOUSES GROSSLY OVERHEAT Thermal Comfort Housing is an environmentally friendly solution to the general problem of overheated Malaysian houses which causes misery to millions.

TEMPERATURE GRADIENT

Environment AF Cool Shady HONEYCOMB AAFFORDABLE HOUSING FFORDABLE FORDABLE A Cool Shady HONEYCOMB Environment A New Urban Lifestyle

Neighbours now share a child friendly park, bringing nature back into urban living.

Perpustakaan Negara Malaysia Cataloguing in Publication Data Mohd Peter Davis Thermal comfort honeycomb housing /

Mohd Peter Davis, Mazlin Ghazali, Nor Azian Nordin. Bibliography: p. 188 ISBN 983-3455-38-7 Key words: 1. Architecture, Domestic — Design and plans. 2. Dwellings — Heating and ventilation. 3. Dwellings — Design and construction. 4. Housing — Research. I. Mazlin Ghazali. II.Nor Azian Nordin. III Title. 728 First Published 2006 by Institute of Advanced

Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia 43400, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, MALAYSIA.

The trademark application for HONEYCOMB was advertised in the Malaysian Government Gazette no. 19847 dated 24th November 2005. Applications for patents in respect of A METHOD OF SUBDIVIDING A PLOT FOR HOUSING AND A HOUSING SUBDIVISION SO FORMED were filed in Australia on the 16th of January 2004 no. 200400191 and in Malaysia on the 30th of July 2004

no. 20043089. Cover illustration by Mohd. Hairi Jamaluddin and

Mohd. Erwan Othman. The layout of this book was designed and composed on a Pentium 4 computer system with Windows XP Professional by Anniz Bajunid. The typeface, Arial, was used in Adobe InDesign CS Version 3.0.1. Printed and bound by Uniprints Marketing Sdn. Bhd.,

Copyright © 2006 by Mohd Peter Davis and

Mazlin Ghazali. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Malaysian Copyright Act, no part of this publication may be produced in any form or by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

11-15 Jalan 3/148A, Taman Sungai Besi Industrial

Park, 57100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Further information on Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Housing can be obtained online at www.tessellar. com.

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING THE AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE TO TERRACE HOUSING

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING THE AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVE TO TERRACE HOUSING

MOHD PETER DAVIS MAZLIN GHAZALI NOR AZIAN NORDIN

Institute of Advanced Technology (ITMA)

UNIVERSITI PUTRA MALAYSIA (UPM)

T H E R M A L

C O M F O R T

H O N E Y C O M B

H O U S I N G

Contents Contents ......................................................... v Preface ........................................................... vii Message from the Sarawak Minister of Housing .......................... ix Part 1 - THERMAL COMFORT MOHD PETER DAVIS with NOR AZIAN BIN NORDIN

Part 2 - HONEYCOMB HOUSING MAZLIN GHAZALI

Chapter 1

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11

Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14

Housing Studies At Universiti Putra Malaysia............. 3 Building A Dream Bungalow (1989-1992) .............. 9 Housing Problems .....................17 Population Density .................... 21 Thermal Comfort ....................... 27 Thermal Discomfort In Malaysia .................................... 33 How Houses Heat Up ............... 41 Kampong Housing .................... 47 Roof Wind Turbines – Do They Work? ............................... 51 Computer Simulation Of Houses ...................................... 53 Scientific Architecture ................ 57 Ventilation Strategy For Malaysian Houses .....................69 How We Invented ‘Cool Roof’ ... 73 Designing Thermally Comfortable Housing ................ 83

Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5

Honeycomb Housing ............... 95 The Basic Concept Of Honeycomb Housing ............... 111 The External Spaces ............... 117 The Housing Units ...................125 Pioneer Project Kuching, Sarawak ................... 135

Part 3 - BUILDING THE FUTURE MOHD PETER DAVIS ..............

147

List of Figures ................................................ 171 Bibliography ................................................... 180 Acknowledgements ....................................... 182 About The Authors ......................................... 183 Reviews and What We Think ........................ 184 v

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Preface

Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Housing The Affordable Alternative to Terrace Housing

The intention of this book is to demonstrate the feasibility of supplying Malaysian families with environment-friendly homes of high quality at an affordable price, even for young married couples before their babies start arriving. We present the scientific case for achieving this ambitious national goal and invite fellow

professionals in the housing industry to collaborate.

Our optimism comes from a long period of research and development beginning in 1989 as recounted in this book, not in a dry academic style but as a real life story. We discovered that sheep in our cool animal sheds at Universiti Putra Malaysia were living more comfortably than humans in overheated terrace houses. On detailed investigation the situation was found to be even more ridiculous. On hot days residents of terrace houses would suffer two to three times less heat stress if they abandoned their houses altogether and lived under trees! Indeed, up to 75% of residents in our random household surveys said their terrace houses were too hot on around half the days of the year. After years of steady progress, designing, building and testing thermal comfort houses on the university campus, we were joined by a real architect, hardened to the harsh commercial realities of low-cost housing, but attracted to our rather idealistic social housing aims and our scientific approach to architecture.

Together we discovered how to provide thermal comfort housing without airconditioning but at no extra cost to the home buyer. This cool house technology, if fully implemented, could save Malaysia RM 200 billion in electricity over a 30 year period. This story forms the first part of the book.

vii

Then in 2003 came the scientific leap. Honeycomb Housing, the subject

of the second part of the book written by Mazlin Ghazali, suddenly crystallized and increasingly revealed a practical solution to the social and environmental problems caused by terrace housing. A new way of subdividing land into hexagonal culs-desac had been discovered which saved up to 20% of the roads, liberating lands in front of the houses for cosy neighbourhood parks. Now we had the chance to bring nature back into urban areas. A wide variety of rare fruit-bearing rainforest trees could be introduced to attract the birds and shade the roads. Instead of monotonous rows of ‘concrete jungle’ terrace houses, the Honeycomb layout allowed us to design wide frontage bungalows, semi-Ds and triplex houses and clusters of very affordable quadruplexes (4 units of corner lot houses) and very novel sextuplexes (6 units of corner lot houses) and all built around the parks. We have created in Honeycomb housing the physical basis for co-operative neighbourhoods, safe for small children to play outdoors. In short, we have discovered a modern scientific

way of bringing the best aspects of Lat’s kampongs into urban developments. Consumers agree. In market surveys, conducted by UPM, 95% of respondents liked our overall concept and 80% would like to buy one of our affordable houses. Now it’s down to action. Developers are beginning to gear up to build Affordable Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Housing for many families. In the longer term there is potential in every other developing country. The world market for housing is immense. The developing world, if it is to lift itself out of poverty, urgently needs 500 million new dwellings in perhaps 1000 new cities. Malaysia, with a 50-year track record of successfully urbanizing its population, can become a major builder of thermal comfort Honeycomb cities for developing countries. We hope this book will inspire students to take up science and technology and dedicate themselves to ‘Building the Future’, the title of the closing chapter of this book.

Mohd Peter Davis

Visiting Scientist, Institute of Advanced Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia [email protected]

viii

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Message from the Sarawak Minister of Housing

YB Dato Sri Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Abang Haji Openg Sarawak Minister of Housing A house, regardless of its pricing, is a home. It is not just a structure for dwelling. It has to be felt and treated as a home where each family may live for generations to come. It is where a family grows to create a healthier community society and living environment and eventually evolving into a better nation. When we look at the previous concept of housing for the lower income group, the answer was always ‘low-cost housing’ without much thought of comfort, suitability and the future it holds. A house, no matter how low its cost, is a future investment, both spiritually and physically. It is part and parcel of the community and the future well-being of the nation. So the concept of ‘Affordable Homes’ demands an extra effort by both the Government and the public to build better homes. In Sarawak, our role in the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) is to find suitable resources to build such homes at an affordable price for the

public to own. These houses may be priced somewhat higher than existing ‘low-cost’ houses, but they are more spacious and surely can be called homes, and an investment for generations to come. So, this branding is to eliminate the social stigma attached to the idea of ‘low-cost houses’ and to develop the community-based housing schemes. From there we will move on to create a new brand of ‘HDC Homes’. ix

When HDC develops housing projects, HDC does not only build houses. We are building a future community, a new well-equipped township. A new approach to housing development has to be evolved. The basic principle of ‘HDC Homes’ concept is that it must deliver a healthier community and stimulate community bonding. HDC Homes encompass not only affordable homes but any other commercially viable homes within the same surrounding that can help bridge the gap between the lower income and the higher income groups whilst creating a healthy and well bonded community. HDC Homes will accommodate the needs of various type of homebuyer, including the elders and the handicapped, larger families and the need for growing children and youth in the community. Facilities such as internet linkage, library and playground will make HDC Homes, homes for the future, homes to come back to and grow in, be it affordable ones for the lower income or any high-end homes. I am asked ‘Will it be practical to build such ambitious homes especially for the lower income group considering the increase in the prices of raw material?’. The answer is that we have to be more creative and innovative. We must find ways and means to be cost effective. We are looking into new technologies

and designs. There are new methods and technology that can shorten the construction period and with less raw materials. We must learn to adapt and change.

The Sarawak government has looked carefully into “Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Housing”, the subject of this book. We have held detailed discussions with the inventors, Mazlin Ghazali, Principal of Arkitek M. Ghazali and Mohd Peter Davis, a Visiting Scientist with Universiti Putra Malaysia. Their new Malaysian concept is very much in line with our requirements. As announced on 3 September 2005, the Sarawak Ministry of Housing will be introducing the Thermal Comfort Honeycomb concept in the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

YB Dato Sri Abang Haji Abdul Rahman Zohari bin Tun Abang Haji Openg Sarawak Minister of Housing December 2005

x

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

PART 1 THERMAL COMFORT MOHD PETER DAVIS with NOR AZIAN BIN NORDIN

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

PART 1

Chapter 1

O

Experimental Australian Sheep

Housing Studies at Universiti Putra Malaysia

ur research at UPM over the last 17 years has concentrated on Thermal Comfort. We did most of our basic climatic studies not with houses but with sheep sheds. After a lot of research we discovered that our experimental sheep at UPM were living far more comfortably than humans in terrace houses! This is how it happened. The Malaysian Government had imported a

Division of Animal Production in Sydney, the headquarters of sheep research for the Australian Government. In fact that was where I met my wife Noni (Zainur Alsmi Sharif) who had been sent by MARDI, where she was a research scientist, to tour sheep production laboratories throughout Australia.

large flock of sheep from Australia in 1988

assigned to look after UPM’s Australian

and distributed them to various universities and research institutions with the intention of establishing a sheep industry under rubber trees. With only three day’s warning, three hundred large Australian sheep were given to Universiti Pertanian Malaysia

sheep under the direction of Dr Ali Rajion, another sheep man. The sheep were a tough breed adapted to the hot and dry

Between us, we knew a lot about

sheep and it was inevitable that I was

Australian outback, but they soon started

I (Mohd Peter) came from Australia to

dying at the alarming rate of 10% per month. They could not cope with the horrendous disease load in Malaysia, the heat stress of the humid climate and the poor quality pastures. We adopted an emergency rescue

take up a two-year contract lecturing in

strategy and quickly modified the animal

animal science at UPM. I had worked for

houses to keep them cool and help them

many years as a biochemist in the CSIRO

survive.

(UPM). By coincidence, a few weeks later

3

thermal comfort

Figure 1.1 Sheep in this experimental animal shed at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) are more thermally comfortable than humans in terrace houses.

This was very successful and with good care, improved nutrition, better housing and 8 years of basic sheep research, Ali

Rajion and I, with our own animal science diploma students as research assistants, were able to produce lambs ready for the dinner table in only 4 months. It was in the course of these studies that we discovered just how well we were looking after our

animals. We named the sheds the UPM Hilton for Sheep. It is absurd of course for domestic animals to live better than humans. This thought inspired the long series of experiments on low-cost houses, terrace houses, semi-detached houses, bungalows

and apartments. We recorded temperatures using a new technique we developed with MARDI and discovered that gross overheating is a general problem in all of the 4

2 million concrete houses in Malaysia, from low cost houses to luxury bungalows. Our rather sad, though inescapable conclusion was that 10 million Malaysians would suffer 2 to 3 times less thermal discomfort if they abandoned their overheated houses and lived under trees! Something must be terribly wrong, since one basic function of a house is to protect its inhabitants from the extremes of the climate, the wind, the rain, the cold and the heat.

We would suffer 2 to 3 times less thermal discomfort if we abandoned our overheated houses and lived under trees!

UPM Hilton for Sheep

1. housing studies in upm

Figure 1.2 Sheep grow very fast when heat stress is prevented.

Figure 1.3 UPM students at the ‘Hilton Hotel for Sheep’.

We also uncovered health problems in overheated houses by conducting scientific

random household surveys. These were carried out by very keen final year project

students from UPM under the supervision of Dr Nurizan Yahaya. The studies concentrated on terrace houses since 70% of the urban population lives in this type of housing. Half to three quarters of all respondents said that their terrace houses were too hot on about half the days of the year, confirming our objective indoor temperature studies. When asked how they

Health Problems in Overheated Houses On hot days inside their terrace houses 62% suffer HEADACHES 37% get ANGRY 34% get SICK These are the basic symptoms of HEAT STRESS Based on UPM Random Household Surveys Figure 1.4 Overheated houses are a community health problem.

3 Major Defects of Terrace Houses

felt on hot days inside their terrace houses, a high percentage of owners reported symptoms of heat stress. The household surveys also consistently revealed two other major

House too hot — on half the days of the year

problems of terrace houses — the kitchens

Based on UPM Random Household Surveys

are too small and the roofs leak.

Kitchen too small Roof leaks

Figure 1.5 Defects of Terrace Houses

5

thermal comfort

‘Heat Island Effect’

Many cities are getting hotter by 0.1 to 0.60C (per decade) Baltimore, USA 0.1 0C Shanghai, China 0.1 0C Oakland, USA 0.2 0C Tokyo, Japan 0.3 0C Los Angeles, USA 0.4 0C Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 0.6 0C Conclusion : Malaysia holds the World Record! Figure 1 Fi 1.6 .6 K Kuala la LLumpur got ho hotter and nd

10 million Malaysians suffer these problems in poorly designed terrace houses. Can we overcome these problems?

hotter from 1975 to 1995. This temperature monitoring of KL and other cities deserves to be updated every 10 years and the public informed.

Virtually every terrace house owner in the surveys claimed that their original kitchen was too small. This explains the main renovation owners make, often hacking into their new terrace houses even

before they move in the furniture. Build and renovate. What a crazy way to build a house! Why not design terrace houses with bigger kitchens in the first place and keep

everybody happy? There is no land space to do so. This is another absurdity. It is against the building code to build up to the back lane but once the certificate of fitness has been

issued the local authorities seem to turn a blind eye. Our studies at UPM, in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark, also revealed that Kuala Lumpur, like many

other growing cities in the world, is becoming hotter and hotter. It appears that whole cities, 6

not just individual houses, can overheat. This phenomenon is termed the ‘Heat Island Effect’. Unfortunately for its residents, the average temperature in Kuala Lumpur increased by 1.2 0C over the last 20 years, a world record. Indeed, long term residents of KL say it is now becoming impossible to survive without air-conditioning.

It is very easy for the long suffering consumer to become demoralized with the problems of urban housing. A house or apartment is the most expensive and most important item we ever buy and we spend most of our working lives paying it off.

Defects in dwellings and neighbourhoods are a source of great dissatisfaction and irritation, which appear constantly in the newspapers.

Heat Island Effect

1. housing studies in upm

Figure 1.7 UPM Students with Dr Ahmad Hariza Hashim (left), conducted random household surveys and discovered that terrace houses are too hot on about half the days of the year.

Our motivation as scientists has always been to unearth and understand the basic problems. Once we do that, history has proven that the technological solutions are not far away. This is because we humans are very inventive creatures!

21 YEARS (1975-1995) SUBANG METEOROLOGICAL STATION, MALAYSIA

(Gregers Reimann, Nor Azian Nordin, Mohd Peter Davis, December 1999)

Average Annual Temperature ºC

28.0 27.5

R2 = 0.75 Slope = 0.06 ºC/yr

27.0 26.5

Conclusion : The outdoor temperature in Kuala Lumpur has increased 1.2ºC in 20 years.

26.0

Figure 1.8 How can we stop Kuala Lumpur from overheating?

25.5 1975

1980

1985 Year

1990

1995

7

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING Chapter 2

D

My Kampong House

Building A Dream Bungalow (1989-1992)

esigning and building a thermally comfortable bungalow for my family was not a sudden decision. Instead it was a long process, in which our other plans collapsed one after the other. My wife had a perfectly good 22’ x 80’ double storey terrace house in Subang Jaya, which she had bought whilst single and had devotedly decorated and equipped, with cabinets, elegant light fittings in every room and a

modern kitchen. She was in love with this dream house in the city, a far cry from a childhood spent studying by the light of a kerosene lamp in a wooden kampong house in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan (Figure 2.1). The only trouble was that I could not live in the modern terrace house, no matter how hard I tried after we got married in 1984. It was simply too hot. What made it worse was that the sweaty work I was doing decorating the house and improving the electrical wiring and plumbing happened to be in March. We

now know March is the hottest month of the year (at least in Kuala Lumpur). I could not sleep, I could not think and I could not wait for the weekends. I just wanted to get back to the beautifully cool and restful nights in my mother-in-law’s classic kampong house. This house was designed by my wife’s grandfather in the 1930s and combined traditional architectural elements from various Malayan States into an elegant family home shared by three generations and by the whole community on religious occasions. I went back to work in Sydney, as a biochemist with CSIRO, the Australian Government research organization, and my wife soon followed to do a PhD for 4 years at Sydney University. I carried with me the dream of one day living in the tranquillity of the Rembau foothills with their wonderful kampong architecture: a long, long way from the concrete and, even then, the mind9

thermal comfort

boggling traffic of KL. I reasoned that it

was possible to combine the best of both worlds: city jobs and kampong living, connected by fast cars and Malaysia’s rapidly emerging North South Highway. Being a home handyman I wanted to revive the pre-war glory of the classic kampong house and tastefully install all the modern comforts, such as the Australian kitchen, bathroom, workshop and garage. At that time Malays were in love with the city and joyfully left their kampongs for work and study. I saw things differently. The real history of Malaysia lies not just in the British Colonial buildings of the cities, but goes back to the kampong

architecture imported from much earlier thriving civilizations in South-East Asia. This is faithfully recreated in ‘Mini Malaysia’ at Ayer Keroh, Melacca, but the

real thing exists in thousands of beautiful, now partly abandoned kampongs around Malaysia. However, kampong houses are biodegradable and if not cared for can be taken over by insects and secondary jungle in two years. They deserve a better fate and could be safeguarded for many generations to come, using the modern preservation technology employed in old buildings and museums and by archaeologists. It is not too late.

Home Handyman

Figure 2.1 Kampong houses are beautifully cool at night (Chembong, Rembau). See Chapter 8 for a complete discussion of this house and kampong houses in general.

10

2. building a dream bungalow

I had witnessed in the early 1970s the attempted destruction of Sydney’s historic houses in ‘The Rocks’ for the planned erection of office blocks. Thanks

The temperature inside a kampong house follows within half an hour the outdoor temperature.

to the noble and spirited opposition by concerned citizens and the trade unions, The Rocks, near the Opera House, is now a major tourist attraction for overseas and local visitors alike and an essential historical outing for all Australian school kids. We returned in 1988 to live permanently in Malaysia and raise a family. I was armed with all the home handyman books, videos, tools and machines we could afford. Australia is the land of do-it-yourself and I had readily acquired some of the skills and knowledge needed for house renovation (building on my interest in woodwork whilst I was growing up and working in England). I reasoned that my chances of renewing my two-year contract as a lecturer with Universiti Pertanian Malaysia were not good, given the limited work permits at that time. If Malaysia did not want my brains then I would earn my living with my hands, fixing

houses, making kitchens, operating from home. Meanwhile, my wife generously gave in to my only condition for living permanently in Malaysia. Instead of remaining in Subang Jaya we moved to Rembau to my dream kampong house, completing the urgent renovations whilst planning the longer term innovations. This arrangement, however, soon turned into an ordeal. I was travelling two hours every day, whizzing back and forth

to Serdang with a heavily pregnant wife and we were both suffering from the heat and humidity. At weekends I was stuck in the kampong house for much of the time preparing new lectures, being just one page ahead of my veterinary students. I could not think on hot afternoons. The temperature inside a kampong house, I now know, follows within half an hour the outdoor temperature, which can be hopelessly above the upper thermal comfort level during the day time. Do not worship the kampong house, beautifully comfortable at night, but a torture chamber by day. You can survive under a fan but you cannot think. You get a headache and become lethargic and irritable — the general symptoms of mild long term heat stress. The other problem was social. There was almost no one of our generation left in the kampongs; they are really old peoples’ homes. So we began looking all around Seremban for a cool bungalow to buy and renovate. We hunted for nearly a year, but they were all too hot. It slowly dawned on me that if we wanted a naturally cool bungalow we would have to design and build our own. That is what we did. We bought PKNS land at RM 6.50psf, on ready-to-build

land, in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor and I put my head together with my colleague in animal housing, Dr Shanmugavellu from MARDI. Since we had no model cool house 11

thermal comfort

Figure 2.2 Mohd Peter’s Cool Bungalow

to follow we started from basic physical principles (Figure 2.2). We agreed that we needed to orientate the house to keep out the sun and we needed an insulated roof, shaded walls and plenty of natural ventilation. I wanted to build a wooden house on stilts, based on kampong architecture, but Bomba (the Fire Brigade) advised me

Risks and Hurdles of a Wooden House

of the fire risks and the bureaucratic hurdles

I would need to jump to get approval in an urban area. So I reluctantly settled on concrete. This was a lucky accident because, as we discovered much later, thermal mass is essential for keeping a house cool in Malaysia during the day. Also, I 12

Figure 2.3 Large Veranda and Awnings

2. building a dream bungalow

Jumbled up three architectural styles

was lucky that I was not an architect so I did not follow their mistakes. I just jumbled up three architectural styles I liked — kampong architecture (with maximum door and window openings for natural ventilation), a British colonial wrap round 8-foot veranda (Figure 2.3) from Queensland, Australia (to keep the sun off the walls) and an insulated American farmhouse roof with six dormer windows (to let out the hot air). I spent 400 hours at night and at weekends designing the house, building scale models and incorporating the interior design required by my wife. Only at the end did we try to make the bungalow attractive from all angles (Figure 2.4 and 2.5).

Form followed function, unlike much of modern Malaysian architecture where looks come first. We got a draftsman to make the final drawings, an architect to

check and stamp them and an established house builder, Steven Tan from Kajang, to

build our dream bungalow for RM 282 000. I had beginner’s luck as an amateur architect and the house worked! It was thermally comfortable and became my most successful experiment in a long career as a researcher. Perhaps this was because we were spending our own money for once, instead of the Government’s. To this day, 14 years later, we are still living comfortably in this house without any air-conditioning,

Figure 2.4 Mohd Peter’s thermal comfort bungalow was designed to stay cool without air-conditioning (Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor).

13

thermal comfort

Figure 2.5 Family living positioned on the ground floor, where we spent most time during the day.

continuously testing and improving the ventilation system. We have not done any alterations to the bungalow, except for the roof, which is now made of beautiful glazed blue tiles kindly sponsored by Golden Clay Tiles, in return for a series of experiments to determine if clay tiles make a house cooler than do concrete tiles. The one big mistake I made was not putting enough insulation in the roof : at that time we did not have computer simulation. However, I avoided an even bigger mistake. I did not follow the crowd and build a conventional bungalow with aircons throughout. In the long run this move saved us a great deal of money. I estimate, conservatively, that it would cost RM 1000 per month for electricity to air-condition a normal 14

bungalow of the same size, that is 4000 sf internal area. It follows that the electricity saved will pay for the construction of the house in 23 years. It seems too good to be true, but it is true — free housing, funded by

Electricity saved on air-conditioning pays for the construction of the house in 23 years!

practical, energy-efficient technology, is clearly

possible. ‘Thermal Discomfort’ is our measure of human heat stress. One unit is defined as

one degree Celsius above the upper thermal comfort level for one hour whilst sitting and wearing light clothing. The aim of house design is to reduce thermal discomfort units to zero or below. Thermal comfort is almost achieved, even during the hottest month of the year, in the downstairs rooms and first floor bedrooms

of the house pictured in Figure 2.6, but not in the living room and especially the loft.

Thermal Discomfort

2. building a dream bungalow

Our dream bungalow, designed to suit our family needs, has served a wider purpose; it is the first scientific demonstration that energy efficient thermally comfortable houses can be built in Malaysia without using airconditioning. If you ever get the chance, have fun and design your own dream house.

THERMAL COMFORT HOUSE - BANGI 2 1/2 STOREY BUNGALOW WITH PASSIVE VENTILATION AND NO AIR-CONDITIONING IN UNITS OF THERMAL DISCOMFORT*

CONCLUSION:Indoor environment stays acceptably cool for an electricity cost of RM 25 per month to run the ceiling fans Loft

Bedroom 1

Figure 2.6 Experiments prove that cool houses can be designed for the Malaysian humid tropics without heart-stopping electricity bills.

Bedroom 2

Living

Bedroom 3

41 units of Thermal Discomfort

OUTDOORS IN SHADE

*Values indicate units of Thermal Discomfort per 12 daylight hours (5-9 March 2000) Values under fans (at moderate speed) show reduced Thermal Discomfort (see Chapter 6)

15

T H E R M A L

C O M F O R T

H O N E Y C O M B

H O U S I N G

Chapter 3

Housing Problems

B

efore we discuss in more detail some of the mistakes made in urban housing, we should first put Malaysian housing into a proper perspective. The United Nations’ 2003 report on Human Settlements found that almost half the world’s urban population lives in slums (characterized by lack of basic services or clean water, poorly built housing and overcrowding). However, this serious social problem was largely avoided in Malaysia. The Malaysian housing industry since Independence has been outstandingly successful. The construction of reasonable quality urban housing, built to Government regulations, kept pace with the large population increase and the mass migration from the rural areas. Malaysia’s Figure 3.1 Nelson Mandela wants Malaysia’s help in designing and building houses for Africa.

housing success has become a role model for developing countries and high on the agenda of visiting dignitaries, such as South Africa’s Nelson Mandela.

17

thermal comfort

Figure 3.2 House prices have become ridiculous: 80% of Malaysian families cannot afford to buy a house.

A major problem with Malaysian

month. The 3-year affordability rule may

houses today is the price. Houses are

seem too strict, but in fact is perfectly

just too expensive for the large majority

sensible. It leaves sufficient income for

of families. How do we assess housing

other essential family expenditure such

affordability? The international rule of

as food, clothing, transport, household

thumb is that a house or an apartment

expenditures, health, schooling and

should not cost more than 3 years of

entertainment. Housing loans are usually

gross family income. For instance, if the

over periods of 20 to 30 years, so you

average gross family income is RM 2000

have to think long term. If a family breaks

per month, as reported in the Malaysian

this rule its monthly housing repayments

census, affordable housing for the

will be too high and it will not be able to

average family is therefore RM 72 000

make ends meet. A family member will

(that is RM 2000 x 12 months x 3 years).

have to look for a second job, which often

We can now determine the type of house,

undermines the welfare of the children.

apartment or flat a family can safely afford based on their gross family income per

18

Housing Affordability

3. housing problems

‘Affordable Quality Housing’ is a concept introduced by Universiti Putra Malaysia at a Government/Industry seminar in 1997, and formally adopted by the Government of Sarawak in 2005.

From the housing affordability

apartments. The Malaysian squatters’

table (Figure 3.2) it can be seen that the

organizations highlighted one of the

cheapest double storey terrace house

problems at a national forum, reported in

( s a y R M 150 000) will require a family

The New Straits Times of 6 October 2003.

income of RM 4170 per month to sustain

They said to the Government, in effect,

the house repayments. In reality perhaps

‘We don’t mind shifting from squatter

only 20% of families actually earn this

housing but when you move us, please

amount or more per month. Therefore,

give us bigger flats and apartments’.

80% of Malaysian families cannot really afford to buy a house. Apartments, and ‘pigeon hole’ flats are therefore the only hope of home ownership for most families. Over the last 20 years Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Associate Professor Nurizan Yahaya has documented serious social problems with low cost houses, flats and

19

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Chapter 4 Population Density

MALAYSIAN POPULATION 37 Million 2050

40 23 Million

Million

30

Malaysia will be 10 times its 1900 population by 2050.

0 1900

Developed Nation

Industrialization

20 10

Figure 4.1 Malaysia is a young growing nation and will need a good supply of houses for the next two generations.

2003

Population : 10 FOLD INCREASE in 150 YEARS

Agriculture 1925

1950

1975 Year

2000

2025

2050

Projected Population : UNITED NATIONS

T

he Malaysian population in 2003 reached 23 million. The United Nations forecasts that it will increase by 60% to 37 million by the year 2050. However, one hundred years ago when Malaya was a patchwork of British colonies and protectorates and an agricultural society, the population was

only 3 million. Independence was followed by a rapid transition from agriculture to an industrial society and this created the national wealth to support an expanding population. By 2050 when Malaysia is expected to be fully developed, and hopefully far wealthier, the population will be 10 times its 1900 level. 21

thermal comfort

Asia :(person Population Density per square kilometre)

Laos Myanmar Malaysia Cambodia Indonesia Thailand China Vietnam Philippines Japan

24 62 69 112 by year 2050? 71 119 121 134 246 281 336

Such a ‘population explosion’ creations to enhance the productivity and terrified my generation in the 1960s and natural bounty of nature. This after all is 1970s with the dire predictions from precisely the intellectual path of civilization ‘The Club of Rome’ and the sprouting that humans have always followed. It has environmental movement that the food, oil allowed the human population to expand and mineral resources on ‘spaceship earth’ tremendously by orders of magnitude were about to run out. The fear, orchestrated beyond the capabilities of any ape-like notoriously by American Secretary of State animal, particularly over the last 50 000 Henry Kissinger in ‘Agenda 200’, was that years. The latest genetic analysis of the population growth in underdeveloped mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal DNA from countries threatened to use up all the all races on earth proves convincingly that mineral resources of our (American owned!) we all descended extremely recently from a planet. small group of humans in Africa. This did not happen and will not Our common ancestors quite happen provided that we develop our brains literally walked and sailed out of Africa and and thereby the discoveries, inventions and spread throughout the world to form the six 22

Figure 4.2 Malaysia has plenty of room to grow when compared to other Asian countries.

Population Explosion

4. population density

Population Density

billion population we have today (Reference ‘The Journey of Man’ 2002 by Spencer Wells). This means that in reality there is only one race on earth — the human race. This should come as no surprise; it is exactly in accordance with the teachings of all the major religions. We are all related. We all have the same basic needs. We should all settle our differences and strive to live up to our common heritage and be one big happy family! Since Independence from the British, multiracial Malaysia has tried very hard to do exactly this and has won the respect of other developing nations for its relatively successful efforts so far. Malaysia’s population has

Perlis 257

Figure 4.3 Malaysia has a very satisfying rate of growth but needs a balanced distribution of population densities between states.

THAILAND 121

increased three fold since independence, yet it is far better fed, housed and educated than during colonial days and not in any way at the expense of other countries. Even so, Malaysia’s population density (people per square kilometre of land) is still low compared to the neighbouring countries and especially the developed countries. When we look into more detail it is clear that Malaysia’s population is not evenly distributed around the states. Selangor has 526 people per square kilometre whilst Sarawak has only 17. The population density map indicates where we should be planning new cities to uplift the living standards of the present generation, our children and grandchildren.

POPULATION DENSITY —2 YEAR 2000 (persons per km )

Kedah Penang 175 Kelantan 1274 87 Terengganu Perak 69 98 Pahang Selangor 36 Kuala Lumpur 526 Negeri Sembilan 5676 129 Johor Melacca 144 385

Malaysia Indonesia Philippines

69 119 281

Sabah 35

Sarawak 17

SINGAPORE 6428

23

thermal comfort

Figure 4.4 We have to plan now for the housing needs of these children… and their children! According to leading world economist and American statesman, Lyndon LaRouche, two generations (25 to 50 years) of forward planning are needed for a nation to be successful. (see www. larouchepub.com)

The Future of the Housing Industry

Malaysia is a young multicultural nation with a very young population : half of its people are under 23 years of age. They will soon come on to the housing market and be joined in due time by their children and grandchildren. With present advances in labour-saving building technology, home ownership for every Malaysian family is fast becoming a realizable dream. With residential building and urban renewal (to replace sub-standard housing with new houses, community parks and public amenities) the prospect emerges of a very healthy housing market for the next 50 years, in other words for the next two generations. 24

This is how far ahead we have to think when we talk about housing and basic infrastructure like roads, railways, water, and electricity as well as food production for a growing population. The problem is that such long term national planning does not come naturally to people. Indeed Malaysia is a youthful, energetic nation and just wants to get on with the job as fast as possible. We have developed what newspaper reporters, investigating the uncoordinated public transport in Kuala Lumpur, have termed the ‘Build now… think later!’ culture.

Half of Malaysia’s population is under 23 years of age and will soon come on to the housing market.

4. population density

Malaysia’s population is set to increase by 60% by 2050, which is within the lifespan of half the present population. The current map of population density indicates where new Malaysian cities need to be built. This offers a great opportunity to correct the mistakes of the last 50 years and design tropical urban environments more suitable for this hot and humid climate.

25

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Chapter 5

Thermal Comfort

T

Indoor Thermal Comfort

hermal comfort is subjective. It is said to exist where 80% of those persons exposed to an environment indicate that it is ‘comfortable’ on the scale:cold, cool, comfortable, warm, and hot Indoor thermal comfort can be determined by a quite simple experiment. Students attending a lecture of mine in a large hall at UPM were asked to vote on how they felt on the cool to hot scale. Each student was allowed one vote. Figure 5.1 shows the results:-

Eighty-two per cent were comfortable with the hall temperature at 260C, meaning that the air-conditioning was set just right for this size of class. Of course you can never satisfy everyone. One student felt hot, but he gave a good reason — he had a fever. From simple experiments of this type we have concluded that the thermal comfort zone for Malaysia is within 240C to 280C. Grander versions of these experiments conducted by researchers using climate chambers have confirmed this conclusion.

COLD COOL COMFORTABLE WARM HOT Figure 5.1 Indoor Thermal Comfort

NUMBER OF STUDENTS HALL TEMPERATURE

0 41 260 15 1

f 82% 317 26 0C

27

thermal comfort

Figure 5.2 The genetic differences between the people of the world are extremely small. We all experience and suffer from heat in the same way. Skin colour makes no difference.

Racial Differences There is a popular belief that Asians and Africans can withstand the heat better than Europeans. Indeed it is a common view, even in Malaysia, that Indians can take the heat and are said to be biologically better suited than Malays for working in plantations and on the roads. However, these beliefs are not true. Professor Fanger from Denmark, the foremost expert on human thermal comfort, concludes that there is no significant difference between

the various ethnic groups in the world. This simple conclusion, without any ifs or buts, comes from his own extensive studies with Danish and American college students. Prof. Fanger in his book Thermal Comfort 28

also quotes other researchers who have developed the same conclusion : ‘This applies to various studies including by Ellis among Asian and European residents in Singapore; a study by Angus among students of many different races in London and the investigation by Wyon in British operating rooms comprising subjects of different ethnic groups’. On biological grounds these findings are not surprising.

All 6 billion humans on earth today come from the same human ancestors who lived in Africa just 60 000 years ago. We all belong to the same family. The genetic diversity that has occurred during man’s 50 000 year colonization of the world (representing just

No significant difference between various ethnic groups in the world.

thermal comfort

2000 generations) has been quite minor in this very short time. The minor, indeed superficial differences between various

ethnic groups (in skin,eye and hair colour for example), are insufficient to cause any

differences in basic human physiology.

When various ethnic groups are tested in rigorous experiments in climate chambers, scientists can find no significant differences in thermal comfort conditions for the different groups. As we have seen, there is only one race on earth, the human race. We all suffer from heat in the same way.

Why We Feel Hot

Blaming the climate is partly correct.

Figure 5.3 Cooling Effect of Fans Contrary to popular opinion, a ceiling fan does not cool a room. But it certainly makes us feel about 20C cooler.

When Malaysians feel hot they generally blame the climate. However, this is only partly correct. The source of our thermal discomfort is not only the climate, but the heat generated by our own bodies as a waste product of cellular metabolism and muscular work. Think about it. The Malaysian outdoor environment rarely exceeds 35 0 C, yet our normal body

temperature is always hotter, at the normal 370C. It is difficult for humans (of any ethnic group) to lose body heat to the outside environment during daylight hours. Under Malaysia’s rainforest climatic conditions the humidity is generally high (50% to 95% humidity on most days of the year) and the average wind speed is very low (less than 1.6 km per hour).

Heat Stressed

Thermal Comfort

Invisible envelope of hot humid air acts as insulation and prevents heat exchange with environment.

Fan creates artificial wind which removes hot humid air from skin, replacing it with cooler, slightly drier ambient air.

29

thermal comfort

These factors combined make it very difficult to lose heat from our bodies by evaporating sweat from our skin, a biological cooling process that humans do very well in hot dry climates such as Australia and the Arab countries. There is nothing much that we can do

about the Malaysian humidity, short of demolishing our national treasure, the rainforest. However, if we could increase the wind speed to even 6 km per hour, the Malaysian outdoor climate would become quite toleratable and far more acceptable to tourists from cold climates.

It would be nice if we could increase the wind speed to 6km

per hour!

Why Fans Are So Useful Malaysia is a major producer of ceiling fans and fans in general, for good reasons. Survival in our hot homes is unthinkable without fans. An electricity blackout causes misery. Our surveys by UPM students reveal an average of 5 fans per terrace house.

layer of hot air, replacing it with the cooler air inside the room and provides us with instant relief from the heat. Of course this physical cooling effect can only occur if we are sitting almost directly under the fan, in

To lose heat from our bodies we need a temperature gradient.

Ceiling fans create an artificial wind which

makes us feel 20C cooler. A fan allows us to tolerate a 300C indoor environment rather than one at 280C. The popular belief that a fan cools a room is not correct. In fact the heat generated by the electric motor of the fan actually makes the room around 0.10C hotter. To lose heat from our bodies we need a temperature gradient. We lose heat from our bodies (at 370C) through our skin (at 340C) to the cooler air in a room, say at 320C. However, in still air we have a problem. An invisible layer of hot air at 34350C builds up and covers our skin and acts as an insulator. This barrier of hot air prevents heat loss from the skin to the environmental air, which makes us feel uncomfortable. The wind generated by a fan rips away this 30

Figure 5.4 Before electricity a ceiling fan (called a punkah) required a man at the end of a rope. What a boring job!

5. thermal comfort

the pathway of the artificial wind. This is

the big limitation of a ceiling fan in a room. The fan is fixed; it needs to be movable

Liquid sweat alone provides no cooling effect at all.

— a problem in search of an inventor! As the house heats up the fan becomes less and less effective. As the room temperature approaches the 340C skin temperature, the ceiling fan provides no physical cooling at all. We are merely replacing the hot air surrounding our skin with the equally hot air in the room. We respond to this wretched situation by sweating. Nonetheless, the fan is still useful by assisting biological evaporative cooling of sweat. As the environmental air temperature reaches

300C in Malaysia we begin to sweat slightly; by 340C in still air many of us are sweating profusely. We feel and look miserable, often with sweat dripping off our ears. Liquid sweat provides no cooling effect at all. It is only when the water in sweat evaporates on our skin that our bodies are cooled down. A fan helps this evaporative cooling, again by replacing the layer of hot air surrounding the sweaty skin with equally hot but slightly drier environmental air. A fan replaces the air covering sweaty skin, which is almost 100% saturated with water, with air at around 60% relative humidity, that can still take up water from the sweating skin.

The ceiling fan exploits these biological and physical cooling principles yet only consumes 40 watts or one cent’s worth of electricity per hour. The humble fan is therefore one of mankind’s truly useful inventions. The poor ‘coolie’ of a century ago, obliged to spend the best years of his life fanning the British colonials at Singapore’s Raffles Hotel, would certainly have agreed... had he known.

31

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Chapter 6

Thermal Discomfort in Malaysia

T

Thermal Discomfort

he Malaysian outdoor climate is only thermally uncomfortable for 10 hours per day. Once the sun goes down the outdoor environment is well within the thermal comfort zone for 14 hours, even during a heat wave (Figure 6.1). ‘Thermal Discomfort’ is a very useful concept since it quantifies and characterizes both the indoor and outdoor environments in human terms. We have

defined one unit of thermal discomfort as

being the dissatisfaction experienced by a person wearing light clothing and resting, inside a building, or outdoors in the shade, when subjected to a temperature 10C above the upper thermal comfort level (28 C). The units, in 0C per hour, are cumulated. Thus, a person exposed to an average environmental temperature of 290C for 1 hour followed by a temperature of 310C 0

DAILY TEMPERATURE CYCLE 34 OUTDOOR TEMPERATURE 30 units of Thermal Discomfort

Figure 6.1 Daily Temperature Cycle The outdoor temperature in Malaysia is hot for sure. However, for 14 hours out of every 24 hours the temperature is within the human thermal comfort zone.

Temperature ºC

32 30 28 Thermal Comfort Zone 24ºC - 28ºC

26 24 22

6am

10am

2pm

Time

6pm

10pm

2am

33

thermal comfort

Dr Shanmugavelu’s Humidity Prediction Equation for Malaysia y + a+ bx + cx2 The humidity can be accurately calculated (±4%) knowing only the ambient temperature. y = Relative Humidity x = Temperature a = 231.04 b = -7.106 c = 0.0598

Temperature 24 0C 28 0C 30 0C 33 0C 35 0C

for the next hour, suffers 1+3 = 4 units of thermal discomfort over the two hour period. Likewise, in the daily temperature graph (Figure 6.1), the outdoor environment imposed 30 units of thermal discomfort in 24 hours. This is a measure, admittedly crude, of the 24-hour heat stress a person experiences outdoors in the shade. For the Malaysian humid tropics (i.e. the lowlands of the Peninsula) we have taken the liberty of disregarding the effect of sunshine, wind and humidity, which greatly affect the feeling of warmth in other climates. This sometimes offends our scientific colleagues, but we have adopted a

practical rather than an academic approach to human thermal comfort. We disregard 34

Humidity 95 % 79% 72% 62% 56%

direct solar radiation since Malaysians do everything possible to stay out of the sun, including the use of umbrellas. Malaysia is also the land of no wind, except for brief periods of strong winds, often associated with rain. Likewise, we also disregard the effect of humidity since in the Malaysian climate (but certainly not in other, drier climates) the humidity is determined solely by the air temperature. My collaborator, Dr Shanmugavelu from MARDI (the Malaysian Agricultural Research Institute) has proven this and indeed has written the non-linear formula from 15 000 pairs of outdoor temperatures with corresponding relative humidity values, as kindly supplied by the Kuala Lumpur Meteorological Office. As the

Figure 6.2 Humidity Prediction Equation As the temperature goes up the humidity comes down.

A practical rather than an academic approach to human thermal comfort.

6. thermal discomfort in malaysia

Environmental Air Temperature

temperature goes up the humidity comes down in a predictable way. As an example, when the temperature is 240C the humidity is 95%; when the temperature is 280C the humidity is 79%; and on a hot afternoon when the temperature is 340C the humidity is only 55% (Figure 6.2). Humidity in Malaysia can nearly always be predicted from the temperature. In practice, we can therefore greatly simplify matters and relate thermal discomfort in Malaysia to just one measurement, the environmental air temperature. For this to be useful we really need to know the thermal discomfort for every day of a typical Malaysian year. This may

sound easy but it first involves analysis

of the outdoor temperature data for every hour of the day… over the last 20 years! Fortunately, this enormous amount of precious data was generously supplied to UPM (for Subang Airport) by the Malaysian Meteorological Office in Kuala Lumpur. We were able to create the first approximation

of a typical Malaysian ‘temperature year’ where each day is expressed in units of thermal discomfort. This work was carried out during a 4-month study at UPM by a very smart Danish postgraduate student, Gregers Reimann, who has a close affinity for Malaysia since his father, Lesse

Reimann was Ambassador to Malaysia from 1997 to 2003.

Figure 6.3 Three ‘cool’ researchers: Mohd Peter, Gregers Reimann and Nor Azian Nordin.

35

thermal comfort

The UPM Thermal Discomfort Forecast Thermal discomfort provides an alternative method of representing the weather. The weather forecast appearing on TV every night is very misleading. It states the expected maximum and minimum temperatures for different parts of Malaysia. However, this information gives the impression that Malaysia has an extremely even climate throughout the year (Figure 6.4). This is not really true. When we analysed not just the peak daily temperatures, but the thermal discomfort caused by the hourly temperatures throughout the year, we discovered a quite different situation. When hourly outdoor temperatures were converted to units of thermal discomfort, the true seasonality of Malaysia was revealed

Figure 6.4 Maximum and Minimum Temperatures in Kuala Lumpur During the Year The data are misleading : they simply imply that each month is more or less the same (see text).

(Figure 6.5). We showed two regular heat wave periods for peninsular Malaysia, in early March and late May. The regular heat wave in early March always catches everyone by surprise since the last week of February is quite cool. Figure 6.6 shows the same data as Figure 6.5 but in more detail, in blocks of 3 days.

MALAYSIAN REFERENCE WEATHER YEAR March Heatwave

45

May Heatwave

40 ‘Hot’ Days

Temperature ºC

35 30 25

‘Average’ Days

20 15 10

‘Cold’ Days

5 0

36

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun Jul Month

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Figure 6.5 Malaysian Reference Weather Year Every day in Malaysia is hot but some days are hotter than others. The heat pattern in Malaysia is best visualized by dividing each month into 10 day periods. This reveals the regular heat waves at the beginning of March and the end of May. These hot months cause two to three times more thermal discomfort than the ‘cool’ months (September, November and December).

6. thermal discomfort in malaysia

Figure 6.6 Malaysian Weather Year : Thermal Discomfort Units (every 3 days) Planning a wedding? Check out this table. It forecasts how much your guests will suffer on different days of the year.

Clearly, the Malaysian climate is not just one hot day followed by another as suggested by the maximum temperatures. Instead there is great variation throughout the year; the hottest days (4th to 6th March) cause 16 times more heat stress than the coolest days (16th to 18th December). The Malaysian Climate

first six months of the year are considerably

hotter than the last six months. The average thermal discomfort during the hottest two months (March and May) is 32 units per day compared to only 14 units during the 4 cool months (September to December). We now have the prospect of a far more sensible TV weather report :- ‘Tomorrow is expected to be another

hot day in Kuala Lumpur causing 41 units of thermal discomfort, but next week is expected to be cooler, in the range of 20 to 25 units. The TV map gives tomorrow’s expected thermal discomfort in each State.’

Figure 6.6 is therefore a forecast of thermal discomfort throughout the year, providing very useful knowledge for planning a wedding or an outdoor activity. Who, for instance would enjoy a midday wedding under a tent during early March or late May? Just look at the Figure 6.5 to see the heat stress you are likely to impose on your guests. Figure 6.6 will also help agricultural enterprises 37

thermal comfort

to take precautions, especially chicken farmers who can lose half their birds on a hot day. The thermal discomfort forecast will also greatly assist Tenaga National

in estimating the widely fluctuating daily electricity demand for air-conditioning and ensure sufficient electricity production during hot periods.

El Nino Effect The 20 year temperature study we conducted at UPM also revealed an exceptionally severe heat wave between January and June 1998 caused by the El Nino effect (thought to be related to periodic flare ups on the sun). The thermal discomfort

in Kuala Lumpur was 75% higher than in the same months of the previous nine years (Figure 6.7) and caused a great deal of

suffering in Malaysia. The insides of concrete houses were well above the upper thermal comfort level every minute of the night and day for months on end and sleep was difficult. This

turned the urban population into zombies — too tired to think straight. We suspect this exceptional heat wave caused (and that possibly the March and May heat waves

Thermal Discomfort per 24 hours (monthly average)

THERMAL DISCOMFORT (1989-1998)

38

Exceptional Heat Wave Jan-May 1998 Thermal Discomfort 75% more than same months in previous 9 years

55 50 45

Jan-May 1998 : Mean 45.4 ± 1.37 s.e. Jan-May 1989-1997 : Mean 25.9 ± 0.32 s.e.

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 1989

1990

1991

1992

1993

1994 Year

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

Figure 6.7 Thermal Discomfort (1989-1998) Petaling Jaya Meteorological Station, Selangor A spectacular heat wave occurred in Malaysia in 1998 (January to May). It was part of the worldwide ‘El Nino’ effect.

6. thermal discomfort in malaysia

which occur every year, may be causing) an increase in accident rates at home, on the roads and at work, particularly for the urban population living in overheated concrete houses. A statistical study to test this

hypothesis, comparing accident rates during hot and cooler times of the year, would be very worthwhile. We will be delighted to give our 20-year thermal discomfort data to any serious students undertaking this project.

Living with Thermal Discomfort When you are outdoors in Malaysia, almost all of the thermal discomforts you experience occur whilst the sun is high in the sky between about 10am and 5pm. People generally do not choose to be outdoors during these hot times. Indeed, the noonday sun is reserved, according to Indian tradition, for ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’. Agricultural Malays, a generation or two ago, were culturally adapted to the harsh climate and chosed to

leave the rice fields at 11am, rested under

the house and only returned at 3pm. The early mornings, late afternoons and all the hours of darkness are quite comfortable in spite of the 60% to 90% humidity. People voluntarily move outdoors to wash cars, take care of the garden, play sports and engage in Malaysia’s favourite pastime, outdoor eating. The Malaysian climate is therefore pleasantly comfortable for 14 hours per day.

However, if the Arabs had colonized Malaya instead of the British, we would probably have ended up with a far more sensible lifestyle in Malaysia. We might work and socialize outdoors during the cooler night and sleep through the hot part of the day. Turning night into day and building houses under floodlights, instead of the blazing sun,

would certainly make a lot of sense, improving productivity as well as the long term health of building workers.

39

T H E R M A L

C O M F O R T

H O N E Y C O M B

H O U S I N G

Chapter 7 How Houses Heat Up

Our Early Experiments

The process of discovery, thinking and inventing is what distinguishes man from animals.

T

he very best way to find out

of discovery, thinking and inventing is what

how houses heat up is to repeat our original

distinguishes man from animals. All humans

experiments in your own house. This is quite

are born with this unique capability; which

cheap to do and very suitable for amateur

cannot be acquired by a single animal of

scientists, especially science students

any species, no matter how hard we train

looking for worthwhile projects. Please be

monkeys in the laboratory or dolphins

warned before you leap into action, that it

in the pool. Only humans, through their

requires a bit of dedication (like crawling out

technology, can change the natural world

of bed every one or two hours to measure

to their advantage.

temperatures!). Once you have discovered

This is why the human population on

for yourself how your house heats up and

earth has been able to increase, especially

cools down, you will never forget. More

over the last 50 000 years, to over 6 thousand

importantly the experiment will get you

million whereas dogs, apes, monkeys or

thinking, especially on hot days when you

elephants cannot expand naturally beyond

and your family are sweating and suffering

a few million (www.larouchepub.com ).

inside your house. You will start inventing

Do the following experiment in your

ways to make your house cooler, first in

house. While you are doing it, observe your

your mind and then putting your ideas into

cat. It is able to find the coolest spot in your

practice and testing the results. This process

hot house to sleep. However, this is all it can

41

thermal comfort

do, its highest pinnacle of achievement, its

Hang the thermometers in different

genetically determined career limit. Don’t

rooms of your house at about 4 feet from

expect your cat to contribute anything more

the floor and at least 2 inches from the

to your experiment. Buy your equipments.

wall (since you want to measure the air

Red alcohol thermometers for house and

temperature not the wall temperature, which

garden use can be purchased at some

can be several degrees different). Place a

large supermarkets for RM 10 to RM 20.

thermometer in the roof space. Hang one

With careful reading they can give the

or two thermometers outdoors under a tree

temperature to 0.20C accuracy.

or a large bush. As often as you can, or

Check the temperature of all the

preferably every hour, go round the house

thermometers on the shelf. Buy only those

and garden and record all the temperatures

that read the same temperature in the

for a few days. Plot graphs of temperature

controlled environment of the store. Don’t

against time of day to discover for yourself

be the sucker to buy the last thermometer in

how different rooms of your house heat up

the store: it could be very inaccurate. Armed

and cool down throughout the day compared

with just five to ten alcohol thermometers,

with the outdoor environment. Repeat the

the world is at your feet!

experiment on different days of the year.

Figure 7.1 (far left) Digital Temperature Data Logger The size of a match box.

Figure 7.2 (left) Internal view of a Digital Temperature Data Logger We routinely set the sensor to record the temperature every 24 minutes for 2 weeks. At the end of the experiment, the data are downloaded into a computer for analysis.

42

7. how houses heat up

TEMPERATURE INSIDE A CONCRETE HOUSE February 1998 Heatwave Temperature inside Single Storey Terrace House 94 units of Thermal Discomfort

34

Figure 7.3 Temperature Inside a Concrete House For most of the time the temperature inside a concrete house is much hotter than outdoors. This is the fundamental design fault of 2 million urban houses in Malaysia.

Why is your house always hotter?

Temperature ºC

32 30

Temperature outside 30 units of Thermal Discomfort

28

Thermal Comfort Zone 24ºC - 28ºC

26 24 22 6am

9am

12pm

3pm Time

6pm

9pm

12pm

3pm

If you want to know how your house

Perhaps they knew that this was dangerous;

performs thermally compared to your friend’s

that a storm could bring down the tree,

house, you will need to co-operate and

destroy the house and kill the occupants of

both do the experiment on the same days

the house. Instead of shading the roof, can

under the same climatic conditions. Why is

we insulate it against the heat of the sun?

your house always hotter? Your house is

So, whilst your cat can do little more than

single storey; your friend’s house is double

sleep and catch mice, you and potentially

storey with the same built-up area, but his

any other human in the world are now on the

roof is only half the area. You hypothesise

road to inventing a solution to overheated

that the overhead sun is the source of the

houses which will benefit not just you and

overheating in Malaysian houses. A larger

your family but every family in Malaysia and

roof lets in more solar heat. Can we shade

future generations. This represents human

the roof with a big tree? If your hypothesis

progress. It does not take the rare gifted

is true this action should then make your

person to discover and invent. All humans

single storey house much cooler, indeed

are born with this capacity and become very

even cooler than a double storey house. If it

happy when allowed to express this gift. In

is as simple as that, why didn’t our Malaysian

this regard, humans are unique amongst the

ancestors build houses under trees?

living creatures on earth.

43

thermal comfort

Temperature Data-logging Our early experiments were done with alcohol thermometers, but we needed an automatic method for measuring indoor temperatures which was less laborious and more civilized than crawling out of bed every few hours. We first tried a thermo hygrograph, a clockwork drum

Figure 7.4 Alcohol Thermometer

which graphically records the temperatures

44

and humidities for 24 hours or one week,

the temperature intervals. Generally we

depending on the gearing. However, this

recorded the temperature every 24 minutes

method is a long way from the cutting

for 28 days.

edge of technology. In fact, Charles

Since the sensors are wireless and

Darwin took a thermo hygrograph on his

so small, we could place many of them

voyage round the world in the Beagle in

inside a house (usually around 20 sensors

the 1830s. The instrument has earned its

per house) such as in the living room,

rightful place in science museums, but it

each bedroom and especially the roof

proved unsatisfactory for our purposes,

space. After the experiment we plugged

being extremely difficult to calibrate and

the sensors back into the computer and

not sufficiently accurate.My colleague, the

downloaded the data stored in the sensor’s

highly inventive Dr Shanmugavelu from

memory microchip. We then crunched up

MARDI, came up with the technical solution

the data using Excel spreadsheets and

whilst studying in Scotland at the Institute

constructed the time versus temperature

for Rural Buildings. The Institute was asked

graphs as seen in this book.

to evaluate a prototype miniature electronic

Armed with these electronic

temperature sensor and it proved ideal

temperature sensors, two of us were

for our housing studies. Even though it

able to do in a quite leisurely fashion, as

is the size of a matchbox, it has its own

much as perhaps 50 assistants working

battery and sensor and is able to record

round the clock using the primitive alcohol

on its microchip the air temperature on

thermometers. We were not worn out

1800 occasions together with the time and

collecting the data, a trap many young

date. Before the experiment we plugged

researchers fall into. We had plenty of time

the gadget into a computer and specified

to think. This is the power of technology.

Electronic Temperature Sensors

7. how houses heat up

TEMPERATURE OF KAMPONG HOUSE

32 31

INDOOR TEMPERATURE

Temperature ºC

30

Figure 7.5 Traditional Wooden Kampong House The temperature inside traditional wooden kampong houses closely follows the outdoor temperature.

29 28

OUTDOOR TEMPERATURE

27 26 25 24 23 8am

11am

2pm

5pm

8pm Time

11pm

2am

5am

Indoor Climate

Wooden kampong houses closely follow outdoor temperatures at all times with a lag of only half an hour.

It is a popular belief that hot houses

the day and remained hot throughout the

are a natural consequence of the hot and

night; it became an oven. Step outside the

humid Malaysian climate. Nonetheless, this

house at night time and the temperature

belief is a myth. We have proved at UPM

can be 5 0 C to 7 0 C cooler. In contrast

temperature, even during

to concrete houses, traditional wooden

the hottest month of the year (March) is

kampong houses do not retain heat at

within the human thermal comfort zone for

night: they do not exhibit the oven effect. In

14 hours per day. However, when we data-

fact their designs ensured that they closely

logged the temperatures

inside a terrace

follow the outdoor temperature at all times

house we discovered a completely different

of the day and night with a lag of only half an

The house did

hour. If kampong architecture overcomes

not cool down at night like the outdoor

the oven effect why can’t modern Malaysian

environment. Instead it heated up during

architecture?

that the outdoor

environment

(Figure 7.3).

Clearly, the overheating in modern concrete terrace houses is caused not so much by the hot tropical climate but more by poor architectural design. It is far easier to re-educate our architects than to change the climate. 45

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Chapter 8

Kampong Housing

T

here is a strong belief in Malaysia, reinforced by architects, that

Understanding Natural Cross Ventilation

from the virgin jungle. The logs were hauled to the Rembau sawmills where they were

natural cross flow ventilation in houses is

rough cut into columns, beams and planks.

ideal for achieving thermal comfort. This

The house stands proudly today surrounded

belief comes from kampong architecture.

by mature rambutan trees, giant mangosteen

Textbooks on tropical housing agree:-

trees and coconut palms, testimony to the

‘As movement of air is the only

craftsmanship of the Malays and a highly

available relief from climatic stress…

appropriate social housing type that we

the buildings will have to be opened

are trying to recapture in contemporary

up to breezes and orientated to catch

architecture. Cool Honeycomb housing is

whatever air movement there is…Door and

our attempt to create a comfortable, modern

window openings…should be as large as

form of kampong housing in urban areas,

possible, allowing for a free passage of air.’

with a sense of community and closeness

(Koenigsberger, 1973)

to nature.

However, this advice conflicts with

We have already seen the graphs of

my own experience of houses with natural

the indoor temperature of a kampong house

cross flow ventilation, particularly my mother-

compared to that of the outdoor environment.

in-law’s beautiful wooden kampong house

The inside temperature follows the outdoor

in Rembau, Negeri Sembilan. This house

temperature within half an hour. This is

was built in the early 1930s by my wife’s

due to the lightweight wooden construction

grandfather, who used the skills of the Orang

and the natural cross flow ventilation. This

Asli to select two giant termite resistant trees

makes kampong houses beautifully cool at

47

thermal comfort

night, but the penalty is paid during the day

hot. I thought long and hard about this problem

when temperatures are well above the upper

and the practicalities of making the upstairs

thermal comfort level.

of our kampong house thermally comfortable

In fact, the first floor of kampong

during the daytime. Why not block the cross

houses is not actually occupied during the

flow ventilation by closing all the windows and

daytime; it is too hot. In kampong houses (built

sealing all the openings above the windows

on stilts), the large downstairs kitchen serves

and even the gaps in the floorboards, the very

as the informal social centre, and provides

ventilation features that made the house cool

a more comfortable environment during the

at night, and then install air conditioning. Our

hotter part of the day. The kitchens rely on the

electrician said that this would put too big a

almost constant ground temperature (around

strain on the old electrical wiring.

280C) in Malaysia to moderate the daytime air temperature (which can reach 350C),

Kampong kitchens rely on constant ground temperature to moderate the daytime air temperature, not the cross ventilation.

We would have to rewire the

not

whole house and also replace the 2-phase

the cross flow ventilation. Despite what the

electricity supply with 3-phase, as required

textbooks say, it is not possible to keep a

by law when installing more than two air-

house cool in Malaysia during the daytime by

cons, but this was only the beginning. To

natural ventilation; the outdoor air is simply too

avoid an otherwise horrendous electricity

Figure 8.1 A Kampong House Kampong houses, unfortunately, cannot be renovated to make them cool all day without destroying their character.

48

8. kampong housing

The price of all the air-cons for a bungalow, replacing them every ten years, and the electricity bill over 30 years together exceed the initial cost of an old bungalow!

bill, the bare wooden walls would need to

would require whole house air conditioning.

be insulated with glass wool or rock wool

Are we against air-cons? Of course not. For

and subsequently lined with plasterboard.

those of us sweating it out in the tropics, the

We also desired an upstairs bathroom and

modern air-conditioner wins the vote as one

especially a small modern kitchen where

of the world’s truly great inventions!

the fridge, sink and stove formed a compact

Extensive research and development

triangle to minimize walking. We had grown

has created quiet, environment-friendly and

weary of the old downstairs ‘ten mile per day’

highly efficient air-cons. Malaysia is now the

kitchen. At this stage we stopped to think.

world’s number one producer. Whilst some

Perhaps we were trying to convert an old

people object to air-cons on health grounds,

wooden ship into a modern ocean liner. Our

our objection was purely financial. I had

plan to renovate our kampong house began

calculated that to purchase all the air cons

to crumble. Renovating a modern concrete

needed for a bungalow, to replace them

house seemed a more sensible strategy. All

every 10 years and to pay the probable

the bungalows we looked at in our first year

electricity bills over the next 30 years, could

after returning to Malaysia were also too

easily require a sum of money exceeding the

hot. In order to achieve thermal comfort they

initial cost of an old bungalow. This is crazy economics!

Figure 8.2 A Typical Concrete House A concrete house can be kept cool by air-conditioning it throughout, but the electricity bill over 40 years may exceed the cost of the house.

Saturating a house with air-conditioners is a hopelessly inefficient way of

cooling it. First design a passively cool house and only then install a single air-con in the living room to provide your perfect indoor environment when outdoor is particularly hot or when you have a house full of guests. 49

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Chapter 9 Roof Wind Turbines - Do They Work?

O

ur most frequently asked question, as specialists in cooling down houses is, ‘Do roof wind turbines work?’ This is no idle question. Almost every street in Malaysia has one house and sometimes many houses with the distinctive aluminium wind turbines sitting on their roofs. With 2 million overheated urban houses accommodating some 10 million heat stressed people, they find

a ready market, particularly during the hotter months from January to June. Wind turbines are big business : Malaysian consumers

have spent perhaps RM 200 million on them. Most are sold from attractive supermarket displays. The spinning wind turbines are flanked with impressive ventilation diagrams

and convincing salesmen who are armed with the absolute certainty that for well under RM 1000, including installation, you can cool down your house and immediately notice the difference. They don’t cost a cent to run… the wind is free. What a great solution! A made-inMalaysia environment-friendly product, with a 10 year guarantee against defects and leaks.

Figure 9.1 Effect of Roof Wind Turbines on the Indoor Environment of a Double Storey Terrace House, Subang Jaya The question on everyone’s lips : Do wind turbines work? Our experiment shows they have no effect.

51

thermal comfort

‘Look around : everyone is buying them. Our company has sold 500 in the last two weeks. What better proof do you need?’ Obviously, the public believes that wind turbines cool down houses. However, public opinion is often wrong; 200 years ago popular opinion believed that the earth was flat. Indeed, the

convicts being transported from England to the Australian penal colony believed and greatly feared that the ship would eventually fall off the edge of the ocean. I have been talking to the wind turbine salespeople for the last 15 years. I like to ask them this straightforward question: What is the temperature reduction in the roof space, the bedrooms and the living room when you install wind turbines, compared to the house next door? I am still waiting for a straight answer. Meanwhile we have conducted three detailed temperature data-logging experiments to answer this question. Figures 9.1 and 9.2

show the results of one of the experiments. Should you buy wind turbines for your house? Study the scientific evidence. Take

note of our conclusions, based admittedly on only three experiments, but decide for yourself based on the local To get a good ventilation rate in the roof conditions and space, sufficient to cool down the house the location of noticeably, requires a wind speed of 6kph your house. or more. The Malaysian salesmen’s claim Wind turbines is generally true...for Australia. are certainly effective in hot windy climates such as Texas where they were invented over 100 years ago, and they are standard components of outback houses in Australia. The trouble with Malaysia is the very low average wind speed (1.6 kph.) Check out wind turbines in your area over a year. See how often they are turning. Wind turbines need to be spinning quite fast to be effective.

WIND TURBINE EXPERIMENT

Normal House Wind Turbine House 43.1ºC Attic Average 43.8ºC 46.9ºC 49.0ºC Temperature 42.9ºC 41.3ºC 41.7ºC 39.0ºC NA 36.1ºC 36.5ºC 37.2ºC 36.5ºC 35.0ºC 32.6ºC

33.2ºC

32.3ºC

32.5ºC

33.1ºC

32.5ºC

B/R 1

B/R 2

B/R 3

B/R 1

B/R 2

B/R 3

31.3ºC

31.1ºC

30.2ºC 31.3ºC

30.2ºC

30.2ºC

33.2ºC 31.3ºC

Living

Dining Kitchen Store

Living

Dining Kitchen Store

CONCLUSION : ROOF WIND TURBINES HAVE NO COOLING EFFECT ON HOUSE 52

Figure 9.2 Wind Turbine Experiment Two neighbouring terrace houses in Subang Jaya. Temperature taken at 2pm on 13 October 2000. Wind turbine salesmen claim wonderful benefits. We disagree. Check our evidence.

T H E R M A L

C O M F O R T

H O N E Y C O M B

H O U S I N G

Chapter 10

Computer Simulation of Houses

C

omputer simulation technology has dramatically improved our ability to predict the indoor environment of Malaysian houses. Denmark is the world leader in its application to the design of energyA Malaysian ‘Weather Year’

hot Malaysia. The problem was realized and solved in 2000 by Energy Engineer, Gregers

Reimann, a Danish postgraduate student and son of the previous Danish ambassador to Malaysia, Mr. Lasse Reimann. The

efficient housing. The transfer of computer

Ambassador and his wife Karin, a medical

simulation technology from Denmark to Malaysia through four-month visits to UPM by Danish postgraduate students has

researcher at UPM, helped open the doors

proved very successful and beneficial to

This was compiled from 21 years

both countries. This joint effort is greatly accelerating

for Gregers to create, for the first time, a Malaysian ‘Weather Year’ (Reimann 2000).

of hourly meteorological data collected at the Kuala Lumpur weather station. The

software created over 30 years from original

massive amount of raw data including hourly air temperatures, rainfalls, wind speeds and directions, direct radiations and cloud covers were all crunched down to give the best statistical estimate of the climate for a

research findings by the Danish Building

typical Malaysian year. For this fine project,

our social objective of designing thermally

comfortable housing for tropical countries, without the expense and high electricity bills for air-conditioning. The computer simulation

Research Institute has been perfected for designing thermally comfortable houses and commercial buildings in cold Denmark. However, the software is not much use for

Gregers was awarded the highest student assessment ever recorded by the Technical University of Denmark. The Malaysian

weather year married to the Danish software 53

thermal comfort

Figure 10.1 The website for Bsim, the Danish indoor climate software.

BSim (which stands for Building Simulation)

(Figure 10.3)

gave remarkably accurate predictions of the indoor climate when compared with our data on UPM experimental houses and single and double storey terrace houses, which had been laboriously compiled over the years by our temperature data logging technique.

developing country, we were able to predict the indoor environment of a house accurately

This successful validation was

to answer by classical experiments. For

carried out at UPM by three other Danish postgraduate students, Kaspar Lynge

instance, what happens to the indoor temperature if we change a white roof to a

Jensen, Kenneth Andersen and Tryggvi

red roof? The experiment looks deceptively

Nielsen, who were all co-supervised by Gregers.

It was a great moment for us all when the results came out of the computers 54

. For the first time ever in a

throughout the year. Now we will be able to answer all the ‘what if’ questions at the early

design stage of a house, before actually building it. These questions are easy to ask but exceedingly difficult and expensive

simple. Just build two identical houses, one with a white roof and the other with a red roof and temperature data-log both houses during the same two-week period.

For the first time

ever in a developing nation, we were able to predict the indoor environment of a

house accurately throughout the year.

10. computer simulation of houses

Figure 10.2 Gregers Reimann, a post-graduate student from the Technical University of Denmark, created the Malaysian Weather Year. He won the highest award ever given by his university for this fine piece of work.

However, in practice, identical houses do not exist. No two houses are exactly alike. They may be similar,

like sisters, but they are not identical twins. Neither can two houses occupy Accuracy of the data-

logging was +0.20C.

the same piece of ground. However, this is a legitimate requirement since the sun, the shade or the wind is different even for side-by-side houses. The social

use of the test house and the control house may also be quite different; e.g. in regard to opening windows and doors for instance, different cooking times, use of different electrical goods which generate heat and so on. These

social effects can be controlled in

unoccupied experimental houses. However, the whole point is to determine the thermal performance of the test and control houses under real life family conditions. The accuracy of our temperature

data logging technique is also limited to +0.2 0C. We have too many confounding variables and cannot prove which variable is causing the observed change in thermal performance, unless the change is large, in the region of 1 0C. The

beauty of the computer simulation is that we are comparing the altered house with itself on the same piece of land, at the same time under identical conditions of 55

thermal comfort

VALIDATION OF BSIM 2002 30.5 SIMULATED TEMPERATURE

Temperature ºC

29.5 28.5

ACTUAL TEMPERATURE

27.5 LIVING ROOM, UPM THERMAL COMFORT HOUSE MARCH HEATWAVE

26.5 25.5 7am

12pm

5pm

10pm

3am

Hour

climate and family occupation. At last we

have absolute control of the variables. In computer simulation the test and the control houses are physically identical, the outdoor environment affecting both houses is identical, the social use of both houses is identical. Indeed, all that we are looking at is the variable of interest, which in this example was the effect of a white versus a red roof. Using computer simulation we can simultaneously change as many features of the house as we like and determine the combined effects on thermal performance. 56

Share our excitement. We have developed a brand new Malaysian architectural tool. Now the fun begins! With computer simulation we can accomplish in a few months and without laying a brick what would take us perhaps five years and a RM20 million research grant to do using our

previous, build-first-test-later, classical scientific approach.

Figure 10.3 Validation of BSim 2002 Success! The Malaysian version of Bsim software agrees with our actual temperature experiments.

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Chapter 11

Scientific Architecture

W

e can now use the Malaysian version of the Danish software as a powerful building design tool. This will help make houses passively cooler in the humid tropical climate. Its usefulness to architects and engineers is illustrated in the following case study involving computer simulations of our UPM experimental house assuming normal family occupation. Together with our Danish postgraduate students we simulated a series of ‘what if’ design changes. (1) Concrete Tiles

Explanation:

What if we change the normal concrete tiles to highly insulated Cool Roof; how will the indoor temperature change during a heat wave? Result: The indoor temperature is reduced by 3.50C (Figure 11.1.a)

In a normal house the concrete tiles exposed to bright sunlight get hot (up to 500C) and the heat is transmitted into the house. Changing the concrete tiles to a highly insulated ‘Cool Roof’ completely blocks solar heat gain, making the inside of the house much cooler.

(2) Roof Colour

Explanation:

What if we change the Cool Roof colour from red to white; how much cooler will the living room become? Result: The peak afternoon temperature is reduced by 0.30C (Figure 11.1.b)

The answer lies in simple physics; dark colours absorb heat whereas white reflects

heat. An experiment showed that the surface temperature of a white metal roof in bright sunlight was 420C compared with 490C for a red metal roof, a 70C difference. 57

thermal comfort

SIMULATE CHANGE FROM CONCRETE TILES

(a)

31

35 Concrete Tiles

30

3.5ºC

31

Insulated Red Metal Roof

29

Temperature ºC

Temperature ºC

33

7am

5pm Hour

10pm

(c)

Red Roof

29 28

31

3 Air changes / hour

White Roof

29 28

0.5 Air changes / hour

31 30

12pm

5pm Hour

10pm

3am

(d)

No Ventilation

29 28 Night Time Ventilation

27

1ºC

SIMULATE HIGHER THERMAL MASS

25 7am

3am

(e)

Lightweight wall

12pm

5pm Hour

30

28 27

12pm

5pm Hour

10pm

3am

26 7am

3am

(f)

Normal windows 0.1ºC Double glazed windows

29

Concrete wall

10pm

SIMULATE DOUBLE GLAZED WINDOWS

0.3ºC

27 26 7am

10pm

26

29 28

5pm Hour

SIMULATE MECHANICAL VENTILATION

Temperature ºC

26 7am

12pm

30

0.4ºC

27

Temperature ºC

0.3ºC

26 7am

3am

SIMULATE LOWER NATURAL VENTILATION

30 Temperature ºC

12pm

Temperature ºC

31

Living Room UPM Thermal Comfort House March Heatwave 12pm

5pm Hour

10pm

Figure 11.1 BSim Tests and Results Computer simulation can be used to design cool houses for Malaysia before they are built.

58

(b)

27

27 25

SIMULATE CHANGE IN ROOF COLOUR

3am

11 . s c i e n t i f i c a r c h i t e c t u r e

Without proper insulation a metal roof of any colour will make the house dramatically hotter and uninhabitable on hot afternoons. However, the insulation in Cool Roof greatly moderates this temperature difference and the living room is then only 0.30C hotter with a red roof. In practice; this means that the consumer is not restricted to a white Cool Roof but can choose any colour and pay only a small temperature penalty. (3) Natural Ventilation

Explanation:

What if we reduce the natural ventilation from 3 to only 0.5 air-changes per hour by closing doors and windows and other openings? Result: The peak daytime temperature is reduced by 0.40C whilst the night-time temperature is increased by 0.50C (Figure

Contrary to popular belief, natural ventilation during the day increases the indoor temperature. The reason is elementary. The outdoor air is hotter, reaching 350C on a hot afternoon. Why bring hot air into the house? Blocking natural ventilation reduces the indoor temperature during the day. However, blocking the cool natural ventilation at night (outside air temperature 250C) prevents the house from cooling down.

11.1.c).

(4) Mechanical Ventilation

Explanation:

What if we mechanically ventilate the house

Night-time mechanical ventilation at a high rate is very effective in cooling down a house at night. The reason again is very simple; the outdoor night air can be 5 to 100C cooler than the inside of the house. The coolness of the night gets stored in the concrete structure of the house and helps to keep the house cooler the following day. Natural

at night only at the rate of 28 air-changes

per hour? Result: The night-time temperature in the living room is reduced by 1.00C and the peak daytime temperature is also reduced by 0.20C (Figure 11.1.d).

ventilation is insufficient for night cooling and

only provides about 3 air changes per hour. UPM’s mechanical ventilation system is very efficient and provides about 28 air changes per

hour for 1 cent for electricity per room per hour. 59

thermal comfort

This ventilation system can be as simple as an exhaust fan sucking the cool night air into the living room and each bedroom. You must provide vents (holes) in each room so that the hot air can escape, eventually to the outdoors. The tricky bit with ventilation is to keep the rain out. This requires ingenuity.

60

(5) Concrete Walls

Explanation:

What if we replace the lightweight gypsum walls in the UPM experimental house with concrete walls? Result: The daytime temperature is reduced by 0.30C (Figure 11.1.e).

Concrete walls have high thermal mass which takes a long time to heat up and cool down. Inside the house there is a three hour lag period before the outdoor temperature is reached. A wooden kampong house has low thermal mass and thus responds much more quickly to the outdoor environment, reaching ambient temperature within half an hour. Therefore, a wooden house cools down beautifully at night, whilst a concrete house is cooler than a wooden house during the day.

(6) Double Glazed Windows

Explanation:

What if we double glaze the windows; does it cool the house? Result: The daytime temperature is reduced by only 0.10C (Figure 11.1.f).

Normal glass windows readily transmit outdoor heat or cold into the house. Double glazed windows (two sheets of glass separated by a layer of air or inert gas) act as see-through insulation and are very effective when the difference between indoor and outdoor temperature is more than 200C. However, in Malaysia this difference is only 50C, even on a hot afternoon. Therefore, normal houses with ordinary-sized windows do not justify the high expense of double glazing.

11 . s c i e n t i f i c a r c h i t e c t u r e

(7) Combining the Cooling Features

Explanation:

What if we combine all of the above six features. Will the cooling effect be increased? Result: The combined effect makes the improved house 5.6 0C cooler than the normally constructed house with concrete tiles (Figure 11.2).

Adding up all the six individual cooling features should only make the house 4.80C cooler during the day. So the whole system is greater than the sum of its parts. This is because the various cooling features interact; for instance the night-time ventilation combined with concrete stores more coolness than lightweight walls.

Conclusion

The Malaysian version of the Danish computer simulation of the indoor environment, recently developed at Universiti Putra Malaysia, is a very powerful tool for assisting architects to scientifically design thermally comfortable and energy efficient houses. Architects working

alongside scientists and engineers at the drawing board stage can now accurately test and fine tune the thermal performance of house designs during any time of the year. These

high technology procedures replace the problematic and expensive process of building experimental houses and tediously live testing their thermal performance against control houses under different climatic conditions.

COMBINING THE 6 COOL DESIGN FEATURES 36 33.6ºC

Temperature ºC

34

UPM Experimental House

32 30ºC

30

24 7am

Future Improvement 28ºC

28

Upper Thermal Comfort Level

LIVING ROOM TEMPERATURE

26 Figure 11.2 Sensible design using computer simulation dramatically improves the indoor climate.

Concrete Tiled House

12pm

5pm Hour

10pm

3am

61

thermal comfort

Instead of the current Malaysian practice, perceptively characterized

by journalists as ‘build first, think later’, computer simulation allows us to build houses the other way round. Welcome, professionals in the Malaysian building industry to the discipline of ‘scientific architecture’… think first build later!

Design Principles for Cool Malaysian Houses

We have been successful at UPM, using the Malaysian version of the Danish BSim software, in determining the design principles for energy efficient, thermal comfort housing for the Malaysian humid tropics. These design principles, in order of importance, are briefly

summarized:1. Highly Insulated Roof Up to 80% of the heat gain in a

house comes through the roof. The reason is simple; the sun is the source of solar radiation. Malaysia being almost on the equator has the sun overhead most of the day. The Cool Roof we invented at UPM consists of a white metal roof, a small air space, aluminium foil and ‘Roxul’- a brand of Rockwool insulation. These elements were optimized by computer simulation to completely block solar

heat gain, which was the aim of the design. Experiments on renovated terrace houses proved the theory was correct. On a hot day, Cool Roof reduced the temperature in the attic (where the water tank lives) from 48 0C to 35 0C, the outdoor ambient air temperature. In the future other ways may be found to do it, but the design principle remains the same: the heat gain through the roof must be completely blocked.

2. Night Time Mechanical Ventilation

At night time the outside air slowly cools down, usually to around 25 0C. When introduced into the house by mechanical ventilation, the cool air cools us down and also the concrete structure of the house. A ventilation rate of 1 per hour means all the air in a 62

room is replaced by outdoor air in one hour. A ventilation rate of 2 means all the air is replaced every 30 minutes and so on. The higher the ventilation rate the cooler the room becomes until the walls, floors and furnitures reach the same temperature as the

80% of heat gain in a house comes through the roof.

11 . s c i e n t i f i c a r c h i t e c t u r e

outdoor air. However, this would require massive fans and create gale-force-wind inside the room! Computer simulation demonstrates the most practical and cost effective solution. The most cost

Most cost effective ventilation rate is between 14 to 28 air changes per hour.

3.

Minimize natural ventilation during the day and maximize mechanical ventilation at night.

effective is a ventilation rate between 14 to 28 air changes per hour. The design

aim is to change the air in the whole house every 2 to 4 minutes throughout the night, between 6pm and 7am.

Low Natural Ventilation

Outside air naturally enters the house through open doors and windows and when these are closed some outside air still enters through gaps around the door and window frames. Louver windows are quite leaky. Older houses often have ventilation bricks in the walls below the ceiling. However, contrary to popular belief, daytime ventilation is undesirable and heats up the house. The best strategy is to seal off most of the natural ventilation to reduce the daytime ventilation rate from the usual 3 or more air changes per hour to the minimum value 0.5, which is required to keep the air in a room sufficiently fresh for human breathing. Cooking creates both heat

in the kitchen and smells throughout the house. Both can be overcome by switching on an exhaust fan in the fume hood over the stove. At night time the mechanical ventilation system flushes the house

continuously, which removes not only heat stored in the walls, floor and household objects, but also the industrial pollutants in manufactured materials, especially the solvents used in furniture making. American studies have shown that the indoor air can be 10 times more polluted than the outdoor air. The design principle is therefore, to minimize natural ventilation during the day and to maximize mechanical ventilation at night.

4. Wall Shading

If you are unlucky your bedroom faces the afternoon sun and you will notice that the wall heats up and stays hot for most of the night, often making the bedroom too hot for sleeping. The heat is also coming through your roof and heating up the internal walls and the bedroom floor. So you are being

cooked from all directions, like a barbecued chicken. Shading the walls from direct sunlight is very effective in reducing some of this heat buildup. A 5foot (1.5m) awning will protect a single storey wall from around 95% of the

direct sunlight. This is the secret of the 5-foot walkways in front of old Chinese 63

thermal comfort

shop houses. The sun still hits the east and west walls, but only in the early morning or late afternoon when there is less heat in the sun. Together with bamboo shop blinds lowered during these times, the sun is completely prevented from reaching the walls of old shop houses. The method for shading the walls which I like most, uses verandas. These were borrowed by British colonial architecture from India and customized in the other territories throughout their empire. I borrowed the Australian ‘Queenslander’ 8-foot wrap-around

veranda concept when I designed my own bungalow in Bandar Baru Bangi,

to great effect. However, this was an expensive solution, since it doubled the footprint of the house. In any particular building, our computer simulation will give not only the optimum but also the most cost effective overhang to shade the walls. We have designed 5-storey low-medium cost apartments with minimal wrap-around veranda on each floor to save costs ; they still give a good

cooling effect inside the apartments. Wall shading, no matter how it is achieved, is an essential element for designing passive thermal comfort houses and apartments in Malaysia. Look around you. It is a simple principle ignored in most cases.

Minimal wrap-around veranda give good cooling effect.

5. High Thermal Mass Walls and Floor The concrete walls, floors and roof

tiles turn two million urban houses into sweat boxes on hot days in Malaysia and they remain hot for most of the night. Concrete has high thermal mass, meaning that it can store a lot of heat, far more than low thermal mass materials, such as the wood used to construct kampong houses. For this reason the textbooks on tropical housing recommend low thermal mass materials. We followed their advice in building 35 experimental thermal comfort houses on the UPM campus by using commercially available 64

lightweight ‘BT Drywall’ or lightweight insulated ‘Rapidwall’. However, we now know through computer simulation that a concrete house can be considerably cooler if every design measure is taken to prevent solar heat gain through the roof and walls and provided the house is mechanically ventilated at night. Concrete stores heat, but it just as effectively stores coolness. The design principle is that high thermal mass, suitably protected from solar heat gain, now works in our favour to keep the house or apartment cool.

Concrete stores heat but it just as effectively stores coolness.

11 . s c i e n t i f i c a r c h i t e c t u r e 6.

Orientation

Keeping the sun and the rain out are the top objectives of designing for Malaysian architects. We do not disagree. The rain spoils the carpets and furniture whilst the sun coming through the windows dramatically heats up the house. However, we put orientation to the sun at almost the

bottom of our design list. In practice, the architect must make use of whatever land is provided by the developer or individual land owner and he has little say about orientation. We have come to the view that a house designed to be built in any orientation to the sun is the answer to this problem.

Water has four times more thermal mass than concrete. Can we make even cooler houses with water filled walls and floors? Yes, why not? The temperature of heavy rain is quite cool, 23 C (a fact much appreciated by 0

trees in Malaysia). Let us learn from nature by collecting the rainwater from the roof and circulating the cool water through the hollow walls and floor. To achieve a cool rainwater house, all we need are a few bright hydraulic engineers… and a good plumber.

Houses and apartments can be built in any orientation to the sun by minimizing the heating effect.

Unlike straight rows of terrace houses, our ‘Honeycomb’ houses are built round a circle. For economic reasons and ease of construction we need standard house designs. Therefore, we need to test and modify the house design by computer simulation against all orientations to the sun. We cannot completely overcome the effect of orientation but we can minimize it. For instance in the UPM thermal comfort bungalow we prevented nearly all the sun from entering the house by designing a

roof with a large overhang and with awnings above the ground floor walls. The front master bedroom heats up by an extra 0.4 0C if the bedroom’s French windows face the morning or afternoon sun. This modest overheating can be minimized by drawing the curtains, or planting tall trees, to prevent the sun from entering the bedroom. The principle is therefore to design houses and apartments, which can be built in any orientation to the sun by minimizing the heating effect. 65

thermal comfort

7.

Double Glazing

This is the least important design element for Malaysian houses. Double glazing does have a cooling effect of around 0.1 0C in our computer simulation case study. This is almost negligible and does not warrant its high cost, and the even higher cost of energy-saving windows filled with

inert gas. These products are for much colder or much hotter climates where the year round maximum and minimum temperature range can be 400C rather than Malaysia’s modest 100C. However, there will be occasions in Malaysia when computer

simulation will show double glazing to be beneficial in saving air-con electricity consumption, such as in office buildings and luxury bungalows

with feature windows facing the view and the sun. The design principle concerning double glazing and other products on the market, such as wind turbines,

Cooling effect by double glazing is almost negligible in our tropical climate.

heat-reflecting paint and clay tiles is that they must be justified at the early

design stage by computer simulation. All of these examples have some effects on thermal comfort but is the benefit cost effective?

Figure 11.3 Three postgraduate students (Tryggvi in blue, Kenneth in black and Kasper in white came from freezing Denmark to help Mohd Peter & Nor Azian (centre) design cool houses for hot Malaysia. This team perfected ‘Cool House Technology’ using computer simulation and the Malaysian Weather Year developed earlier by Gregers Reimann. The experimental house in the background incorporated the older technology such as lowpitched roof, louver windows and wind turbines.

66

11 . s c i e n t i f i c a r c h i t e c t u r e

Computer simulation is a powerful tool but needs to be intelligently applied by architects and engineers.

Computer simulation is a powerful tool that has revealed the general principles for designing energy-efficient thermal comfort dwellings for Malaysia, but it needs to be intelligently applied by architects and engineers. The same general approach can be used for other climates, especially developing countries where the actual raw climatic data have not been collected. We have plugged the Danish BSim program into climatic data generated by Swiss software for Shanghai,

Beijing and Bahrain, and optimized Malaysian quarter-detached houses to these quite different climates. We are, therefore, on the road to formulating the design principles for energy-efficient thermal comfort for other developing countries. Postgraduate students from these countries can study with us in Malaysia and go back home a few years later with detailed plans for implementing national housing programmes, customized to their country’s climate and culture.

Science and technology have this great power to improve the general welfare of billions of people.

67

T H E R M A L

C O M F O R T

H O N E Y C O M B

H O U S I N G

Chapter 12 Ventilation Strategy for Malaysian Houses

W

hen Malaysians feel hot during the day inside their modern houses they follow the traditional kampong culture by opening windows and doors to the outdoor breeze. At night time windows and doors are closed to keep out burglars and, hopefully, mosquitoes. This natural cross-flow ventilation strategy was adopted

Sensible ventilation strategy for kampong houses is quite wrong for modern Malaysian homes.

throughout South-East Asia long before the electricity era and is quite sensible for wooden kampong houses with their extensive openings above the windows

However, this perfectly sensible ventilation strategy for kampong houses

is quite the wrong strategy for modern Malaysian houses, and only makes them hotter. A careful study of the daily outdoor temperature cycle reveals why (Figure 12.1).

Opening windows during the day allows hotter outdoor air to enter the house and heat up the concrete walls and floor. Closing windows at night prevents the cool outdoor

air from cooling down the structure of the house.

and in the roof space. The brilliant feature of kampong architecture is that it keeps out the sun and the rain without restricting the

which I have applied for the last 14 years in

free flow of outdoor air. Before electricity

in Bangi is the exact opposite:-

and ceiling fans were invented, the breeze

t




Keep doors and windows closed all day

coming into the house acted as a natural

long to prevent natural ventilation

fan providing the only relief in the hot and

humid climate. This is the primary reason why kampong houses are built on stilts; air movement is stronger 10 feet off the ground and is less obstructed by vegetation.

The correct ventilation strategy

my own thermal comfort concrete bungalow

t


Open

as many windows and doors as possible all night long to encourage natural ventilation. (We protect open doors and

windows from burglars with grills and motion alarms).

69

thermal comfort

DAILY TEMPERATURE CYCLE

34

Temperature ºC

32

OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE 30 Units of Thermal Discomfort

30 28

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The principle is simple; wait for the outdoor air to cool down before inviting it into

your house. No matter how much we explain the elementary theory that it is impossible to cool down a house with hot air, Malaysians still want to open all the doors and windows during the day and close them at night. Of

70

10pm

2am

What to do? When all else fails adopt the scientist’s motto: prove it by doing an experiment! We spent two months at the computer doing just that. The problem in Malaysia is that we cannot design for natural ventilation due to

the unpredictable direction of the wind and its

course the outdoor breeze, if any, gives a

very low average speed throughout the year

temporary relief from heat stress but at the expense of heating up the house structure. The solution to daytime heat is to close the windows and sit under a fan to let the indoor air at about 300C cool your body, rather than using the outdoor breeze at about 330C

(less than 1 mile per hour). Instead of relying

coming through the window.But old habits

our UPM thermal comfort bungalows.

on natural ‘cross ventilation’ as advocated by many Malaysian architects (without any evidence that it works!) we tested three

mechanical ventilation strategies. We used computer simulation at the design stage of

die hard. Malaysians, and in particular

The aim of the experiment was

architects, still believe that designing houses

to determine the ventilation conditions for

with openings and allowing daytime cross

achieving thermal comfort (i.e. zero units of

flow ventilation is the best way to cool a

thermal discomfort for 24 hours) on the hottest

house naturally. Rational argument is not enough.

day of the year. Three ventilation strategies

were tested by computer simulation.

It is impossible to cool down a house with hot air.

12. ventilation strategy for malaysian houses

1.

Daytime ventilation (7am to 6pm) was the very worst possible strategy. The more the house was ventilated during the day, the more uncomfortable it became, until at 56 air changes per hour it became almost the same as living outdoors. Instead of protecting us from the hot environment, we had made our thermal comfort

bungalow uninhabitable on hot afternoons. With the flick of a switch, the daytime ventilation system transformed our thermal comfort bungalow into a hot and unlivable kampong house. Architects, and other stubborn believers in daytime cross-flow ventilation, please take note! 2.

The second strategy, 24-hour mechanical ventilation, was better than daytime ventilation but overall had no beneficial effect. Running the electric ventilation fans

3.

continuously, night and day, is therefore a waste of money. The third strategy, night time mechanical ventilation (6pm to 7am), was outstandingly successful. The more we ventilated with cool night air the cooler the house became throughout the whole 24 hours.

With these experiments we have scientifically proved what we have always insisted

to disbelieving architects and consultants: t





Ventilating with hot outdoor daytime air (either naturally or mechanically) only makes the house hotter t




To make the house cooler simply ventilate with cool night air.

‘Elementary!’ Sherlock Holmes might have said.

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We have spent the last 50 years excluding Cool Night Air from our modern Malaysian homes. It is time we welcomed it back. 71

THERMAL COMFORT HONEYCOMB HOUSING

Chapter 13

How We Invented ‘COOL ROOF’

Identifying the Problem

The attic air temperature reaches 490C compared to outside air temperature of 350C!

O

n a hot afternoon in Malaysia, the outdoor air temperature rarely exceeds a rather modest 350C (compared with extreme temperatures of 450C or even 500C in hot dry climates such as Australia and the Arab countries). However, on a hot afternoon the air inside the roof space (the attic) of a Malaysian terrace house reaches extreme temperatures. In a temperature datalogging experiment the attic air temperature reached 490C just under the peak of the roof and gradually decreased to 310C in the downstairs living room (Figure 13.1). This 180C temperature gradient inside the house causes great problems for the occupants. As we have said, humans are only thermally comfortable in a much lower air temperature range of 240C -280C. The use of ceiling fans makes us feel 20C cooler. Thus an indoor air temperature of 300C is the practical upper thermal comfort level when resting under

a ceiling fan. The ground floor in a terrace

house on a hot afternoon is a bit warm at 310C, but just about tolerable under a ceiling fan. However, the bedrooms at 330C are very uncomfortable and the ceiling fan provides hardly any relief. The roof space above the ceiling is dangerously hot and could cause death from heat stroke. On hot days therefore, only the ground floor of a double storey house is fit for human habitation. This

is rather unjust since house buyers paid for the whole house but can only use around 42% of its volume with any reasonable degree of thermal comfort. Single storey terraces are even worse; they are a social disaster. On hot days there is no cool place anywhere in the house. An estimated 7 million longsuffering Malaysians, nearly 30% of the total population, live in overheated terrace houses. 73

thermal comfort

The radiation from the sun is the original source of the heat, but the bad physical design of modern houses is the real reason for these social problems. The sun heats up the concrete roof tiles (to 490C in this example) which in turn heats up the air in the roof space to the same extreme — temperature way above the 35 C maximum outdoor temperature. This hot air cannot escape since architects have increasingly 0

turned the roof space into a sealed, almost air-tight compartment. They have unwittingly created a furnace in the roof. The heat has to go somewhere and is transferred through the ceiling and into the concrete walls and floor. The house becomes an oven and remains hot throughout the day and for most of the night. The bad architectural design has turned modern houses into human sweat boxes.

Hot air cannot escape the attic, thus turning the house into an oven.

Kampong Houses Are Different When we measure the temperature in kampong roofs the situation is altogether different. The roof space in kampong houses hardly heats up at all; the air temperature is only 10C to 20C hotter than the outside air. This is proof that the grossly overheated roof of modern houses is man-made. It is the modern architects who should be held responsible, not the climate. Sorry Architects, but that’s the harsh truth! The kampong roof is a brilliant design. The high pitch and the generous ventilation openings at the gable ends and eaves, allow the hot air to escape. This design prevents a temperature build-up whilst almost completely keeping out the rain. However, kampong roofs are rather luxurious and expensive and often become homes for rats, birds and other wildlife. Malaysian architects for very sound reasons have, over the last two generations, done the following:74

t





lowered

the roof pitch of urban houses (to save materials and money). t





e xtended the party wall beyond the roof in terrace houses (to prevent fire

spreading via the roof to the whole row of houses). t





R
emoved all the natural ventilation spaces (to keep out birds and rain). However, the unintended effect of these quite sensible changes is a completely sealed roof space that reaches the same high temperature as the sun exposed concrete tiles. This excessive heat in the roof space generates the experimentally observed temperature gradient in modern houses …and misery for millions. It is worth reflecting on this sad situation, since this could prevent similar mistakes in other developing counties as they modernize their societies and urbanize their rural populations. For 50 years Malaysian architects have been flying

Kampong houses are only about 10C20C hotter than the outside air.

13. how we invented ‘cool roof’

OUTSIDE AIR TEMPERATURE 35ºC SOLAR RADIATION

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blind, preoccupied with the economics and aesthetics of housing. The long-suffering consumer has been ignored. Computer simulation of the indoor environment at the design stage is the answer. This is good news for computer-savvy young architects. Develop your skills, the architectural firms

Computer simulation is the ideal tool and can be the basis for new building legislation.

18ºC TEMPERATURE GRADIENT

need them! Architects need to work side by side with scientists using analytical tools to measure the consequences of their designs before they are built. Architects can become the champions of a new Malaysian culture: Think first, build later! Computer simulation is the ideal tool and can be the basis for new building legislation. However, bureaucratic

enforcement of new laws can be agonizingly slow. A more human approach is needed. Insulating the roof space above the ceiling became popular in western countries over 40 years ago to keep houses cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It was very effective. Roof insulation material includes glass wool, rockwool and polystyrene. It is not the insulation material itself, but the air it traps which provides the insulation effect. A cheap way of insulating roofs, common in Australia, uses fluffed-up old newspaper (treated with boric acid to make it fireproof)

which is pumped from a tanker on the street and into the roof by simply removing a few tiles. Considering that Malaysia has 2 75

thermal comfort

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Developing the Solution million overheated houses this would be an attractive strategy for solving the problem and would cost less than RM 500 per house. A Malaysian company imported 30 bags of the lightweight material and we lined up the co-operative owner of a terrace house for a temperature data-logging experiment. However, just before doing the experiment we suddenly stopped. We noticed a water stain on the ceiling and realized a leaking roof would be a disaster. The insulation would become water logged and possibly cause the ceiling to collapse. A little later the results of a large random consumer housing survey, conducted by our groups of UPM final year

76

students, started coming in. All groups revealed the same three defects of terrace houses (as mentioned earlier):t





Number 1 defect - The kitchen is too small. t






Number 2 defect - The house is too hot on about half the days of the year t




Number 3 defect - The roof leaks The very high incidence of leaking roofs was a surprise. The reason is a peculiarity of the Malaysian climate. Strong winds often accompany heavy rain. Sooner or later the rain, driven by a gale-force wind, will be coming in the right direction to find the gaps in the concrete roof tiles.

Houses leak more as they get older. The

Random consumer surveys highlighted roof leakages as one of three most common house defect.

13. how we invented ‘cool roof’

roof timbers dry out and the roof sags a little, causing the gap in the roof tiles to open still further. House owners and roofing contractors know that fixing a leaking roof

is a never-ending job. In view of these results we had to abandon newspaper insulation. The only cheap solution to overheated houses was

defeated by Malaysia’s special climate. What bad luck it was for millions of heat stressed Malaysians! So it was back to the drawing board, back to the laboratory…

Perhaps to get the ball rolling, and in the best traditions of science and innovation, architects should take responsibility for their new designs and actually live in the houses they create for a three month trial, with their families. This could work wonders in creating both a new generation of scientific architects and a good atmosphere for introducing practical

legislation for comfortable homes…with encouragement and support from a grateful public.

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77

thermal comfort

UPM COOL ROOF

White Metal Roof

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ROOF SPACE TEMPERATURES ON A VERY HOT DAY (1 June 2001, Serdang, Selangor) Single-storey terrace house 50

48ºC

Temperature ºC

45

Normal Roof

40

Cool Roof 35ºC

35

30ºC UPPER THERMAL COMFORT LEVEL

30 25 7am

78

11am

3pm

7pm Time

11pm

3am

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13. how we invented ‘cool roof’

Linking up with Industry

Metal roofs, correctly installed according to manufacturer’s instructions, are 100% leak proof. Unfortunately, metal roofs are very noisy in heavy rain and also heat up the attic. Placing insulation materials underneath the metal roof, rather than on top of the ceiling, would prevent the attic getting hot and solve the temperature gradient problem. This was our thinking behind Cool Roof. At this time a new ‘Lysaght®’ metal roofing product ‘Clean Colorbond®’

In bright Malaysian sunlight, a red concrete tile roof stores 30 times more heat than a white metal roof.

from Bluescope Steel (Malaysia) became commercially available, which successfully repelled the dirt and prevented tropical staining in 5-year trials in Singapore. For the first time a white roof became a practical

possibility. Every physics student knows that white surfaces reflect solar heat whist dark

colours absorb heat. A white roof had been installed earlier in KL and looked spectacular for a month or two, but then began to look awful due to unsightly dirt and stains. The brave pioneer, a bungalow owner, had to completely change his near white clay tiles for a darker colour. Would Bluescope Steel sponsor a white metal roof (and donate their expertise and a roofing contractor) for UPM

experiments to cool down terrace houses? Yes they would for mutual benefit. They

eventually went on to sponsor this book.

This was a welcome change…a Malaysian company interested in opening up a possible new market rather than merely hunting for immediate profits. We tested small metal

samples coated in different Clean Colorbond colours in bright sunlight with a temperature gun (see page 65). We obtained good results. A white metal roof had a surface temperature of 420C; over a range of darker colours the temperature increased gradually to 530C for a black roof. Other factors than colour are involved: metal roofing has half the specific heat and weighs ten times less than

concrete tiles. In bright Malaysian sunlight a red concrete tile roof therefore stores 30 times more heat than a white metal roof. No wonder the roof space heats up in 2 million modern houses. Roof Insulation

A white metal roof still needs considerable insulation and other components, such as aluminium foil with an air space, to completely block solar heat gain in the attic. Insulation for houses needs to be fireproof, shrink-proof and must

not give off any toxic gases. This limits the choice to either rockwool or glass wool. Both have the same insulation value. How to design an economical cool roof for the Malaysian climate? 79

thermal comfort

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Consumer Reaction UPM Cool Roof

100% Leak proof

‘The temperature in my house is now cool at all times without air-cons.’

Buglar proof

To find out directly by experimenting on houses is almost impossible, but the problem was solved elegantly using ‘Therm’ computer simulation (freely available on the internet) and the temperature data on the white metal roof surface. Our theoretical roof design was put to the test and was fully validated in two detailed roof renovation experiments with existing terrace houses, using neighbouring houses as controls. We first made sure the that thermal performances of the test house and the control house were similar by conducting two-week temperature data-logging experiments. In both experiments we removed and discarded the concrete tiles and replaced them with UPM ‘Cool Roof’. The white roof is very striking and looks just like concrete tiles. The roof renovation 80

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of the double storey terrace house in Subang Jaya, owned by Dr and Mrs Lam (Figure 13.10) used glass wool insulation, kindly supplied by Poly Glass Fibre (M) Bhd. In the second experiment we used a new form of rockwool donated by Roxul Asia Sdn Bhd. to renovate the roof of a single storey terrace in Sri Serdang. The results were very convincing. UPM ‘Cool Roof’ reduced the thermal discomfort by 80% in the double storey terrace house and by 70% in the single storey terrace, without using airconditioning. The owners of the houses are very happy with their cooler houses and of course the free renovation. Indeed, almost everyone we talk to wants to volunteer their house for the next experiment!

‘Therm’ Computer Simulation

13. how we invented ‘cool roof’

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‘A National Plan for Renovating Two Million Overheated Houses’

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We have proposed ‘A National Plan For Renovating Two Million Overheated Houses’ ( B u i l d i n g a n d Investment, April 2002). Every urban house could be renovated with Cool Roof over a 10-year period for a total cost of RM 22 billion. Admittedly, this is a lot of money. However, to achieve the same cooling effect, whole house airconditioning would cost 10 times more. This is when the colossal electricity cost over a 30-year period is taken into account. The electricity saved could be put to much better use by industries to help create national wealth. ‘Cool Roof’, despite its economic and social merits and proven performance, cannot get off the ground commercially. A fair contractor ’s price is around RM 12 per square foot or RM 10,000 to

Cool Roof

67 db

52 db

renovate a terrace house. Seemingly, everyone wants Cool Roof, but there is a general feeling that the Government should encourage house owners to be energy-efficient with a ringgit for ringgit subsidy. This is a common practice in other countries. For a new terrace house the Cool Roof materials add around RM 5000 to the building cost and therefore the selling price. Developers welcome the new technology, but they are reluctant to spend another ringgit on materials. They correctly point out that terrace houses are already too expensive. It seems that everyone wants ‘Cool Roof’ but nobody wants to pay for it. This is often the fate of new inventions...good but too expensive.

81

thermal comfort

UNITS OF THERMAL DISCOMFORT (per 24 hours)

Concrete Tile Roof

76 13

5

Lysaght COOL ROOF

10

13

2

23

1

0

4

5

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82

T H E R M A L

C O M F O R T

H O N E Y C O M B

H O U S I N G

Chapter 14

Designing Thermally Comfortable Housing

I

t became clear to us that Cool Roof was not commercially viable as a stand alone product. It needed to be incorporated into new house designs, but at no extra cost. Our computer simulation studies showed that to make a passively cool house we also needed to incorporate

our night time ventilation system and wall shading devices. Similarly, we wanted

to achieve this at no extra cost. How do we pay for all this expensive Cool House technology? We needed to recover the costs somehow by designing more economical houses.

‘Quarter-detached’ Houses My co-author Mazlin Ghazali (of the firm Arkitek M. Ghazali) had long been

interested in designing and building cluster houses (four houses under one roof) as

Cool House Technology

a possible alternative to terrace houses. Together we perfected this design and incorporated our Cool House technology.

impossible! Cool Roof only blocks solar heat gain in the attic; it cannot make the attic cooler than outside. After repeating

the simulations several times, our Danish students finally rebelled and said that there

was nothing wrong with their conclusions. Together we worked out the reasons.

As we simulated the effects of these

changes on the indoor temperature we became puzzled by the computer results. The attic temperature was too cool and was below outdoor temperature. This was 83

thermal comfort

SIMULATED THERMAL PERFORMANCE of QUARTER-D HOUSES1 Designed by Mazlin Ghazali and Mohd Peter Davis, UPM 4 Houses under 1 Cool Roof UPM Cool Roof (Red) Large eaves for shading

26.1ºC

30.9ºC

25.6ºC

30.1ºC

March Heatwave Outdoors 33.6ºC Maximum 24.1ºC Minimum

Figure 14.1 Computer simulated performance of Quarter-D houses during the hottest month of the year.

Double glazed windows Pergola shading

26.1ºC

30.1ºC

NIGHT Minimum Temperature2

Day Maximum Temperature2

Night time mechanical ventilation 30 air changes/hour

CONCLUSION Thermal Comfort (i.e. below 30ºC with ceiling fans) can be achieved all year round in Malaysia without air-conditioning.

Footnote 1. Using Malaysian Version BSIM 2002 2. Mean maximum and minimum temperatures during hottest month of the year (March) 3. Occupied by family of 5

2 1/2 Storey Thermal Comfort House

Double Storey Terrace House

350 sf 750 sf

575 sf

750 sf

84

Figure 14.2 Conclusion : Thermal Comfort 21/2 storey house costs the same per square foot as hot double storey terrace house.

575 sf

1500 sf

Liveable Area

1500 sf

RM 50 x 1500 sf = RM 75 000

Building Cost

RM 50 x 1150 sf = RM 57 500

EXTRA COSTS FOR ATTIC RM Cool Roof / Awning 5 500 Attic Ceiling Attic Floor Floor Finish Gable Wall Gable Window Staircase 2 000 House Ventilation Sub total

1 840 2 300 2 870 600 600 2 000 17 710

TOTAL CONSTRUCTION COST RM 75 210

14. designing thermally comfortable housing

We could turn attics into bedrooms.

Figure 14.3 Model of ‘QuarterDetached’ house (4 corner lot houses under one roof ).

Our Quarter-D houses are a very compact block with a small common roof compared to the large amount of concrete (Figure 14.1). The concrete was acting as a heat sink, cooling down the attic air temperature. We reasoned that replacing the lightweight ceiling with a concrete ceiling would further cool down the attic and the rest of the house. It did exactly as we expected and made the attic 1.20C cooler. The normally uninhabitable attic was cool enough for human occupation at any time of the day

Overall, our quantity surveyor found that the cost per square foot of habitable area for our cool house was the same as for a normal hot house. The Cool House technology was now free of charge. This gave great scope to Arkitek M. Ghazali. Architects could now make 11/2

The Cool House Technology is now free of charge.

and 21/2 storey houses with attic bedrooms and smaller footprints, liberating land for extra garden. To save costs the houses could be offered with a bare attic and easily renovated without building approval to meet the needs of a growing family. At last teenagers could

have their own private space, away from the madding crowd, up in the roof! (Figure 14.3).

or night (Figure 14.1). We could do the unthinkable and turn Malaysian attics into bedrooms. All we had to do was provide a

bathroom, wall partitions, an attic window and a staircase. The cost of the attic bedrooms per square foot was much lower than the rest of the house. We were getting extra habitable space for minimal cost by making use of the useless roof space. This cost saving completely covered the extra cost of materials for the Cool House technology, as shown in Figure 14.2.

Now we have an attractive alternative to overheated terrace houses. We have created brand new Cool Quarter-detached houses for the medium-cost housing market. They will stay cool without air-cons but cost no more than equivalent terrace houses. Developers are showing keen interest in building them. For the first time in Malaysia,

we have introduced a ‘Liveable Attic’... great news for teenagers who want some privacy! 85

thermal comfort

HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR (MARCH) MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE OUTDOORS

39.4ºC

35.6ºC

29.6ºC

34.2ºC

29.8ºC

32.8ºC

30.8ºC

NORMAL BUNGALOW

UPM COOL BUNGALOW

Figure 14.4 Expected performance of a UPM Cool bungalow on the hottest day of the year compared to the same bungalow without UPM Cool House technology.

HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR (MARCH) UNITS OF THERMAL DISCOMFORT OUTDOORS

58 UNITS 48 UNITS

86

45 UNITS

1 UNIT 1 UNIT

25 UNITS

3 UNITS

NORMAL BUNGALOW

UPM COOL BUNGALOW

Figure 14.5 The aim of the design is to reduce thermal discomfort to zero units per 24 hours.

14. designing thermally comfortable housing

Figure 14.6 On the hottest day of the year the master bedroom of the UPM Cool Bungalow is expected to be 4.70C cooler (daytime) and 2.60C cooler (night-time) than in a conventional bungalow.

Temperature ºC

35 34

MASTER BEDROOM DURING HOTTEST DAY (MARCH)

33 32 31

Normal Bungalow 4.7ºC

30 29 28 27 26 25 7am

31

2.6ºC UPM Cool Bungalow 10am

1pm

4pm

7pm Time

10pm

1am

4am

MASTER BEDROOM DURING COOLEST DAY (NOVEMBER)

30

Normal Bungalow

Temperature ºC

29

Figure 14.7 Even during the coolest month the UPM Bungalow will be much cooler.

3ºC

28 27

1.6ºC

26

UPM Cool Bungalow

25 24 7am

10am

1pm

4pm

7pm Time

10pm

1am

4am

87

thermal comfort

Thermal Comfort Bungalows

/2 storey bungalows are under construction on Four Thermal Comfort

21

the UPM Campus. The design has been

optimized with computer simulation, giving excellent results. The attic will be the coolest instead of the hottest part of the house and it provides 700 sf of extra liveable space, but the thermal comfort bungalow costs no more per square foot of liveable area than a normal overheated bungalow. When the construction of the bungalows is completed, they will be tested using our temperature data logging technique during heat waves and cooler times of the year. The critical test will be the comparison with the above results from our computer simulation studies. We have adopted 28 air-changes

per hour at night time for our new designs of thermal comfort houses, although 14 air-changes per hour is almost enough. This rate of night ventilation combined with our other Cool House features makes the house thermally comfortable without airconditioning, even on the hottest day of the year. To be useful, our scientific findings need to be taken out of the University,

adopted by architects and developers and finally written into the Malaysian Building Code. Based on our experiments and

people’s desire for energy efficiency, we recommend a minimum night time mechanical ventilation rate of 14 air-changes per hour for residential houses in Malaysia. The extra electricity bill is only 50 cents

Minimum night time mechanical ventilation rate of 14air changes per hour is needed.

Figure 14.8 UPM Thermal Comfort Bungalows nearing completion.

88

14. designing thermally comfortable housing

per night to run a whole house ventilation system. Every home should have one.

Low-medium Cost Apartments

and perfected in housing projects over the last 10 years. Six thousand apartments

As we saw in Chapter 3, many

have been built to these designs, notably for teacher housing, as student accommodation

(probably most) Malaysian families have

at a UTM branch campus in Nilai, and for the

been priced out of the terrace house market in the towns and are forced to buy ‘pigeonhole’ flats as the only affordable housing available. No wonder families rush back

Pigeon-hole Flats

structurally efficient architecture developed

to their kampongs, to the space, trees and the community at every opportunity. Surely

Malaysia, aspiring to be a developed nation by 2020, can do better than pigeon-hole flats!

Mazlin Ghazali has built a successful practice designing low to medium cost apartments using space efficient and

Selangor State University, currently under

construction. We have modified a successful design using Cool House technology and computer simulations, economically optimizing the indoor temperatures of an apartment block (Figure 14.10). The results are striking, a 30C reduction of the maximum temperature and 100% reduction in thermal discomfort. Only ceiling fans are required for thermal comfort even on the hottest day of the year.

Figure 14.9 Pigeon-hole Flats

89

thermal comfort

SIMULATED PERFORMANCE HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR NORMAL APARTMENTS MIN

MAX

COOL APARTMENTS

OUTDOORS

24.1ºC MIN 35.6ºC MAX

MIN

MAX

27.9ºC

32.7ºC

25.5ºC

29.8ºC

28.1ºC

32.7ºC

25.5ºC

29.2ºC

25.5ºC

29.2ºC

UPM

28.1ºC

32.7ºC

28.0ºC

32.7ºC

25.5ºC

29.3ºC

27.8ºC

32.0ºC

25.6ºC

29.4ºC

TECHNOLOGY

Cool Roof Wall Shading

Night Ventilation

3ºC reduction in maximum temperature 100ºC reduction in Thermal Discomfort

Our thermal comfort apartments, suitable for the low-medium income groups, have been designed to overcome the many social problems of low-cost apartments, long

bedrooms for boys and girls.

identified by UPM’s housing sociologists. Our

By choosing appropriate building materials,

economical 5-storey hexagonal design has

our computer simulations have shown that our standard houses and apartment blocks can be customized to any climate on earth, thereby minimizing energy consumption for heating or cooling. Indeed, the energy savings over the lifetime of the building can equal the original construction cost, neatly achieving an important element of ‘sustainable’ development.

six 3-bedroom triangular apartments on each floor with wrap-around garden verandas and

a central 800 sf social area for parents and children. There is a lift, especially for young families, the handicapped and the over 50s. The design aim is to provide a modern, high density, healthy lifestyle and encourage social interaction amongst three generations. There is good privacy for each family and separate 90

Figure 14.10 UPM Cool House technology applied to flats and apartments looks highly promising.

With only minor modifications, the

housing designs for Malaysia can also serve the needs of many other developing countries.

Energy savings over the lifetime of the building can equal the original construction costs.

14. designing thermally comfortable housing

Figure14.11 Energy Efficient House According to Our Computer Simulations This Thermal Comfort cluster house (see Figure 14.1) will stay cool without airconditioning, saving RM228 per month on electricity compared to an existing terrace house. The electricity savings over 30 years pay for the house!

Electricity Savings (Computer Simulations)

Thermal Comfort Quarter-detached House

No air-con required Electricity Cost -Night Ventilation RM 16 per month Electricity Saved - RM 228 per month - RM 2736 per year

Terrace House Whole house air-conditioned Electricity Cost - RM 244 per month

Saving RM 82 080 in 30 years!

The Bottom Line Despite the fact that scientists are underpaid (and while we’re at it, overworked!),

Research and Development is expensive and risky. The torturous path from invention to profit puts off even large companies, which,

with their accountants’ mentality, regard R&D as a ‘Black Hole’ where millions can be pumped in, but nothing comes out. So

Malaysian companies have grown up relying heavily on imported technology and have not developed a research culture. This is where the Government steps in by funding long term R&D through the universities and research institutions. Only the Government can tolerate the high cost and the uncertain payback. What Malaysian company would have been willing to invest the RM 10 million it has cost in real terms (salaries, buildings, services, support staff, etc.) to fund this

Thermal Comfort Technology over the last 17 years? It has only been in the last year or

two that the potential ‘return on investment’ has became visible to the accountants. The prospect of an energy efficient

house with a cool attic but costing no more than existing houses delights the home buyer. It is now up to architects, developers and builders to follow our design principles and start building new thermally comfortable housing and renovating the existing two million overheated urban houses. These companies will make a lot of money by adopting this technology which, although novel, cannot be patented since it is an application of existing insulation and ventilation technology. Seemingly, the Government (meaning you the taxpayer!) is

now providing free technology for companies to get rich. The Government, however, is not quite the sucker it seems. Consider the Government’s potential return on its RM 10 million investment. 91

thermal comfort

This Government funded Cool House technology developed at Universiti Putra Malaysia can make a house 15 times more energy efficient than houses now on the market. The technology cost you, the taxpayer, an estimated RM 10 million over the last 17 years. If fully implemented this R&D could potentially save Malaysia RM 200 BILLION in electricity over the next 30 years!

This potential RM 200 billion return for a RM 10 million investment (a 20 thousand fold increase!) illustrates the

‘magic’ wealth creating ability of R&D. It benefits the whole society and pays for the more fundamental scientific research, which

may take 25 to 100 years to mature. We need about 10% of our school children to take up science, engineering and technology as a profession to generate the wealth and infrastructure needed for the country’s future children and grandchildren. This is the path of human progress that Malaysia and other developing countries must willingly follow. The fainthearted suggest that our Thermal Comfort Technology will send Tenaga Nasional, the national electricity

company bankrupt. We argue that the electricity saved in energy-efficient houses

and apartments can be put to better use to meet the growing demand for electricity by commerce and industry, creating wealth and better paid jobs… and good income for the Government from personal and company taxes. Many people suppose that our technology is bad news for Malaysia’s aircon manufacturers. We don’t think so. In 92

fact, we recommend a 1 1/2 to 2 HP air-con

in the living room of every Thermal Comfort House, to provide just the right temperature, even on the hottest days of the year. We are not against air-cons. They are the greatest invention ever for the tropics; every home needs one. We are against the air-con electricity bill. Energy efficient housing makes air-conditioning accessible to the whole population. Consider this analogy: A new energy efficient car comes on the market capable

of getting you around for just RM 20 per month in petrol, compared to the RM 300 (15 times more) for the petrol guzzling car

you are now driving. Imagine how this could boost car sales. Cool House Technology is clearly no threat to the air conditioning industry. Malaysia is already the world’s largest producer of super efficient air-cons, which

are designed to cool down air. However, they are being piled into existing houses (I have counted 9 air-cons in a new corner lot terrace house!) in a hopelessly inefficient

attempt to cool down its concrete structure. Prevent the concrete from heating up and

a single air-con can do a marvellous job.