Thermal Comfort

Honeycomb Housing
REHDA
Seminar 5 August 2004
New Housing Technology

Thermal Comfort Housing

by Mohd Peter Davis
Universiti Putra Malaysia
and
Honeycomb Housing
by Mazlin Ghazali
Arkitek M.Ghazali
 Bluescope Steel
(BHP)
5 years collaboration with
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Development of ‘Cool Roof’
Highly insulated metal roofing system

Main sponsor of UPM Book

“Thermal comfort Honeycomb housing”
 Country Heights
Interested in adopting
Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Townships
with UPM’s Wildlife Technology

5 meetings
with
Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew
 Adopted by
Universiti Putra Malaysia
The Vice Chancellor of UPM will formally
propose Federal Government commission
a commercial
Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Township
as National Showcase of
Malaysian Housing Technology
MoU with SK BROTHERS 23 JUNE 2004
 Sabah & Sarawak
Datuk Abdol Mulok

Interested in marketing
Thermal Comfort Honeycomb Housing
Technology
in
East Malaysia
Consumer Survey June 2004
of 116 potential house buyers
Home Ownership Campaign, Kuala Lumpur

72% AGREE
“ My house is too hot ”
Consumer Survey June 2004
90% AGREE
ONLY 1% DISAGREE
“ I would like a thermal
comfort house
without air-cons ”
Consumer Survey June 2004

79% AGREE
Only 1% DISAGREE
“ I would like a house
in a
Honeycomb Township ”
Consumer Survey June 2004
92% AGREE
3% DISAGREE
“ I will buy a thermal comfort house
in a honeycomb township
if the price is the same
as equivalent houses
now on the market ”
CONCLUSION: our
new
Housing Technology
is
capturing the imagination
of the Malaysian
Housing Industry and
Consumers
Terrace House Township
Honeycomb Township
 HONEYCOMB
HOUSING
A new Malaysian invention
(patent pending)
by
Mazlin Ghazali
Principal, Arkitek M.Ghazali
Three Hexagonal
Neighbourhoods
One Hexagonal Neighbourhood
 Mathematical Proof
Terrace Honeycomb
% of site 18’ 6 x house
Road area 46% 37%
Saleable land 43% 52%
Houses per acre 15.2 16.5
Private gardens 6% 12%
Public green 10% 10%
Potential tree shade 15% 46%
 Thermal Comfort Housing
With UPM Cool House technology
Houses & apartments
will remain acceptably cool
even on hottest days of year
WITHOUT air-conditioning
 2 million
Overheated Concrete Houses
8 years temperature data logging
experiments at UPM
CONCLUSION
10 million Malaysians would suffer
2 to 3 times less thermal discomfort
if they lived under trees!
 Random Household
Surveys
supervised by Dr Nurizan, UPM

50% to 75% of respondents answer

“My house is too hot on about
half the days of the year”
 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
A Malaysian Community Health Problem
 Research finding at UPM
When resting under ceiling fan
inside a house
0
33 C is HUMAN MISERY
(Body can not lose heat)
BUT
0
30 C is HUMAN COMFORT
 UPM Design Aim
for passively cool housing

Daytime 0
30 C
0
Night time 28 C
Maximum indoor temperature

With aid of ceiling fan

Provides acceptable thermal comfort
 0
ON A VERY HOT DAY
Temperature C (1 June 2001, Serdang, Selangor)
50 Single-storey terrace houses
48 0C ROOF SPACE TEMPERATURES

45
NORMAL ROOF

40
COOL ROOF
35 0C
35

0
30 C upper thermal comfort level
30

25
7 AM 11 AM 3 PM 7 PM 11 PM 3 AM
Time
 Consumer Reaction
UPM Cool Roof

“The temperature in my
house is now cool at all
times without air-cons”
UPM Cool Roof
2 year tested

100% Leak proof

Burglar proof
i
I
S
 A hard lesson learnt
Good inventions
Technically Successful &
Welcomed by the Public
can be
Commercially Non-viable
 Upgrading our Indoor
Environment technology
with
Danish computer simulation
software (BSim)

Combined with 21 years of

Malaysian climatic data
 VALIDATION OF BSIM2002

30.5

29.5 SIMULATED TEMPERATURE

TEM PERATURE 0 C

28.5
ACTUAL TEMPERATURE
MARCH 1999
27.5
LIVING ROOM
26.5 UPM THERMAL COMFORT HOUSE
MARCH HEATWAVE
25.5
7 AM 12PM 5 PM 10PM 3AM
Hour
 Cool House design Principles
based on UPM Research
All these elements must be COMBINED
1. Design must keep out sun & rain
2. Small roof area
3. Keep Roof Space below 300C
4. Concrete walls for thermal mass- not
lightweight walls
5. Sun protected walls (eaves, verandas)
6. Almost zero daytime ventilation
7. High night ventilation (28 air changes/hr)
 HOTTEST DAY OF YEAR (8 March)
MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE

OUTDOORS
35.60C
39.40C 29.60C
34.20C 29.80C

32.80C 30.80C
NORMAL UPM COOL
BUNGALOW BUNGALOW
 MASTER BEDROOM Hottest day (8 March)
35

34

33

32 0 NORMAL BUNGALOW
4.7 C
Temperature C
0

31

30

29 0
2.6 C
28

27
UPM COOL BUNGALOW
26

25
7AM 10AM 1PM 4PM 7PM 10PM 1AM 4AM
Time
 Electricity Savings
(computer simulations)
Thermal Comfort ‘Quarter-detached’ house
No air-con required
Night Ventilation RM 16 per month
Terrace house
Whole house air-con RM 244 per month
Electricity saved: RM 228 per month
RM 2736 per year
Electricity Saved over 30 years RM82,000
 VENTILATION STRATEGY
(Aiming to achieve zero thermal discomfort)

MECHANICAL VENTILATION
AIR CHANGES per hour
None 7 14 28 56

DAY Ventilation 23 units* 35 42 50 57

24hr Ventilation 23 19 18 21 23
NIGHT Ventilation 23 9 4 1 0

*Units of Thermal Discomfort in UPM ‘Cool Bungalow’

 SIMULATED PERFORMANCE- HOTTEST DAY OF YEAR

NORMAL COOL
OUTDOORS
APARTMENTS APARTMENTS
24.10C MIN COOL ROOF

35.60C MAX
MIN MAX MIN MAX
27.90C 32.70C 25.50C 29.80C WALL
SHADING

28.10C 32.70C 25.50C 29.20C

UPM NIGHT
TECHNOLOGY
28.10C 32.70C 25.50C 29.20C VENTILATION

28.00C 32.70C 25.50C 29.30C

27.80C 32.00C 25.60C 29.40C
30C reduction in max temperature
100% reduction in thermal discomfort
 HOTTEST DAY OF YEAR (8 March)
MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE

OUTDOORS
35.60C
39.40C 29.60C
34.20C 29.80C

32.80C 30.80C
NORMAL UPM COOL
BUNGALOW BUNGALOW
 DOUBLE STOREY 21/2 STOREY
TERRACE HOUSE THERMAL COMFORT HOUSE

RM50 x 1500sf = RM75,000 RM50 x 1150sf = RM57,500

CONCLUSION
THERMAL COMFORT 21/2 storey
SAME COST psf as hot TERRACE HOUSE
 Summary of
Cool House Technology
Solves hot house problem
• without air-conditioning
• at no extra building cost
• commercial designs from
Arkitek M. Ghazali
• Ready for adoption by Developers
 Malaysia’s Successful
Urbanisation
In 2 generations a rural British Colony
of 8 million
transformed into Nation of 23 million
with modern towns and cities
With vastly improved :-
• Incomes & Housing
• Health & Nutrition
• Education
 However…
Serious mistakes have been made

1. Urban houses TOO HOT

2. KL world’s worse URBAN HEAT ISLAND

3. Houses too expensive for 80% families

4. Urban Public Transport extremely poor
 Problem: ‘Heat Island Effect’
Many cities are getting hotter
by 0.10C to 0.60C per decade
• Baltimore USA 0.10C per decade
• Shanghai China 0.1
• Oakland USA 0.2
• Tokyo Japan 0.3
• Los Angeles USA 0.4
• Kuala Lumpur 0.6
Conclusion: KL holds the world record !
How do we cool down the
urban outdoor environment?

Voluntary time spent outdoors by

Urban Malaysians
Almost zero between 11am and 4pm
BUT
with SHADE and WIND
The outdoor heat can be tolerated
 UPM’s Wildlife Technology
for Honeycomb Townships
creating micro-habitats for wildlife
• All houses facing small parks
• Tree lined roads
• Hedgerows instead of fences
• Extra bird food from residents
Increase BIRD POPULATION 100 fold

Township transformed into

‘natural’ tropical bird sanctuary
 Desert Townships
RM700 million
Government of Bahrain wants Malaysia
to build Townships for foreign workers

S.K. Brothers Realty has

opened up Arab countries
for mass housing projects
 Desert Township
Air-con requirements (258 houses)
1.8 million kWhr
electricity per year
Thermal comfort Honeycomb
Township
5.3 million kWhr
electricity per year
Malaysian Terrace House Township
 Greening the deserts with
Desalinated Water
The SAVED ELECTRICITY can produce
0.9 million cubic meters water per year
Sufficient for
• All domestic water use
• All park & garden water for
high biomass township
• Irrigated agriculture for food production
 Industrialised
Building Systems
• UPM October 1996
Landmark seminar and exhibition

• Now enthusiastically adopted by CIDB

• Training of Malaysian Building Workers

Major Problems
facing
Malaysian Housing
Industry
80% of families cannot safely
afford to buy houses
Can only afford
FLATS & APARTMENTS

UPM Study Based on:-

Historical Housing Affordability Rules
Monthly repayments
“ Maximum 25% of family income ”
 Worldwide Housing Bubble

House prices have been increasing

much faster than earnings
The bubble is about to burst
House prices will drop sharply
Can Malaysian Housing Industry survive?
World Economic Collapse!
Warning by American economist and
USA Democratic Presidential Candidate
Lyndon LaRouche
“ The collapse of the entire world
economy is now unavoidable”
Boston July 26 2004
Website: www.larouchepub.com
 Half of Malaysians
are under 23 years old
United Nations expects
60% increase in population
by 2050
Conclusion:
Very healthy housing market
for next 2 generations
 THAILAND
Perlis 121
257

Kedah Population Density – Year 2000

Penang 175 KEL Persons per km2
1274 Perak 87 TER

98 69
KL Pahang Sabah
5676 36 35
Selangor
526 N.S
129
Johor Sarawak
385 144 17
MALAKA

SINGAPORE Population Density

6428 MALAYSIA 71
INDONESIA 228
PHILIPPINES 282
 Housing Master Plan
for Malaysia
Proposals from UPM:-
1. Quality home ownership for
every Malaysian family
2. High-technology Housing Industry
1 worker to build 5 houses/year
3. Environment-friendly Townships
& Cities
4. Nation-wide public transport
 Proposal from UPM
Minimum Housing Standards
• 1000 sf for apartments
• 1500sf for family house
• 3 bedrooms
• Lifetime of house,100 years
• Thermally comfortable without air-con
• Sufficient gardens to prevent heat island
 AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Challenge
Can Housing Industry supply HOUSES
at Apartment prices??

Example
1500 sf, 21/2 storey, 4 bedrooms
HOUSE & LAND TOTAL RM120,000
 Home Ownership for
EVERY Malaysian Family
1500 sf Thermal comfort
Honeycomb House RM 120,000
DEPOSIT (House Saving Fund) --RM10,000
Govt 4% HOUSING LOAN RM110,000
Repayments RM600 per month (30years)
Requires RM2400 per month
Gross Family Income
 Can Malaysia recreate
The ‘Australian Dream’
of the 1960’s ?

Where every family could afford

to buy quality house
in a good suburb
“ Why rent when you can buy? ”
End of first part

Thankyou