HDB Energy Saving: West facing Apartment? Beat the Heat!

In sunny Singapore, the west facing apartments will always face the brunt of the setting sun. Our HDB apartment happen to be one of those.

HDB Flats in Sunny Singapore

In our experience, the late afternoon sun approximately 4pm to 5pm has the biggest influence on the residents' thermal comfort. The discomfort and inconvenience is 2 tiered.

Firstly, the indoor ambient temperature 4-5pm can sometimes can be unbearable and be as high as 35 Deg Celcius. 

Secondly, at about 5-8pm, the wet facing wall would have absorbed sufficient radiation from the sun and starts to emit heat into the room. This is also known as a "hot wall" effect. Air-conditioning cost will increase to cool the "hot wall" down.

What can we do about this?

Creative Passive Solutions:

1.  If you are lucky to have the laundry drying area facing the west, dry your laundry on the west facing side. Although I was told by many seniors citizens that it is better to dry wet clothes in the morning sun. I wonder why this is so... Please share if you happen to know.

HDB Laundry scene

2.  Beat the 4-5pm heat by going to the National Library to enjoy free air conditioning.

National Library of Singapore, Courtesy of nlb

3.  Chill out in a swimming pool 4-5pm for less than 2 dollars at the neighborhood SSC swimming pool.

Chilll out at the Swimming Pool, courtesy of SDSC

4.  Stay on the rooms on the east side.

Now that you have loosened up..... here is the real stuff.

Active Solutions:

1.  On the west facing wall, close all windows, day curtains, curtains to provide maximum insulation against radiation penetration. This was the first thing we did, unfortunately, our curtains were not thick enough to black out the evening sun. The indoor temperature was could be as high as 33 Deg Celcius. Looks like we need to spend some moola to get some comfort. 

2.  Convince HDB to use "cool paint" to repel radiation. 

There are products available in the market to help improve our lives. Can we use it? Are developers looking into this or they are just considering mass production? Check our solacoat, a water based acrylic coating with membrane additive which helps to reflect solar rays. This option is a long shot.... I can't do it alone.

3.  Hang blinds on the west facing windows.

I would have pushed for this if we are allowed to hand the blinds outside the window pane. The blind gets in the way of the curtains which also serves a value aesthetically. 

4.  Apply Solar films on the west facing windows.

High reflective solar films was initially my favorite choice. Until I learnt that HDB has a 20% cap on the reflectance for solar films that can be applied on HDBs. If so, what is the point of applying the solar film??

An associate who applied the solar films on her windows advised us against the solar film as she claims that the film will deteriorate after 2-5 years, turning the window into an unsightly bubble pop. In turn, it was a nightmare to remove the "melted" film which has bonded tightly to the window pane under extreme temperatures.

5.  Apply Black-out curtains on west facing windows.

Surprisingly, these are not common in Singapore, given the all year round summer. This was our eventual solution. The details are coming up in the next posting!

Feedback of Water Cabinet Baron W303- 4 years

Initially, we provided a feedback after several weeks of usage and are not sure if we should be providing a 4-year feedback as it seemed like a pretty "unhygienic" topic to dig into so much detail. Since we have done the dirty job, we might as well save the readers the trouble of the same journey.

After 4 years of use, we observed the following:

1. The Baron W303 was the most economical designer bowl we could find in 2009. It added to the hotel-like toilet look we were after.

2. As a designer toilet bowl, the seat came with a "Slow fall" or silent falling function, which started to show that it is wearing out after approximately 2 years. At 4 years the cover was behaving like any normal cover, ie when released, you can hear the contact sound. Ironically, this made life easier as the new cover took more than 20 seconds to "fall slowly".

2. In addition, the toilet seat was less child friendly when compared to a standard oval shaped bowl, specifically:
a. The built-in resistance for the "fall slowly" cover poses a slight challenge for our 3 year old boy learning to pass urine on his own.
b. Baron W303 had a non-standard seat shape and curvature that was not compatible to some child-potty seats.

3. The dual flushing power was decent so far. There was no significant loss of flushing power over the period of use.

4. Seat cover surface started to deteriorate after 4 years of use by 2 adults. However, we have to admit that it is still functioning well except with a slight loss of contact comfort. Baron's original seat replacement was not commonly available and the cheapest quote was SGD40 before GST. In contrast, a conventional oval shaped seat-cover is readily available island wide for SGD 10 to SGD 26. See posting replacing the Baron W303 seat cover.

In conclusion for the above feedback, while the Baron W303 provided high aesthetic value at a decent price, the maintenance cost expectation should be kept at that of a designer bowl. Recommended for the Master Bedrooms but not for common toilets with heavy wear/tear and toddler use.

Also see:
Feedback on Baron W303 after 2 weeks of use

Concerned about maintenance cost: also see:
Advantages of installing ceiling fan
Lighting concept cost savings
Compare LED vs energy saving lighting

Improved Toilet Layout- Feedback Dec 2012

Generally, visitors complimented on the spacious feel of our MBR toilet. However, their perception, like any photo viewer would have limited depth in the functionality of the layout.

After using the "new concept" toilet layout, this article is targeted to provide a genuine user feedback for renovators to make an informed decision. The following are some of the highlights.

1. Shared Shower-sink concept
PLUS: This concept created a spacious feel be removing the conventional glass shower wall.
MINUS: The only concern on this the constantly wet floor. Earlier blogs covered the solution for this by buying an anti-slip mat. See the link here

2. Vanity Top with Sink

PLUS: There has been no complains about the generous table space from the vanity top. We still try to keep it uncluttered by storing as much as possible in the wall mounted storage shelf. Maintenance is extremely easy  using a small water wiper.
MINUS: Cannot think of any at this moment.

3. Full Wall mounted Storage Cabinet

Wall mounted Storage Cabinet in Toilet

PLUS: Fantastic Storage Space! We use it to store spare toiletries, make-up, toilet paper etc. In addition, replenishment is immediate in the toilet.

MINUS: We observed that lipsticks grows moldy faster when stored in the cabinet as compared to those outside the bedroom, probably due to higher humidity in our naturally ventilated toilet.








4. White Colour
PLUS: Adds perceived space to the toilet when coupled with white light.
MINUS: little observed yet, However, we expect the white wall and floor tiles to become yellow in time to come.

5. Cove Light under the storage cabinet.
PLUS: The cove light is a good lighting option when we wake up to use the toilet late in the night. The cove light provided sufficient indirect brightness to move around without demanding the pupils to make drastic adjustments to the main lighting.
MINUS: If any, it would be the cost of an additional lighting point and bulb.

If you like to read about the concept of the Toilet Layout, please click here.

Also see
Improved Toilet Layout- Cost of Renovation
Wet Floor Toilet Design
Feedback of Water Cabinet Baron W303- 4 years

Does the Refrigerator need a Plinth?

Do you need to create a plinth for the refrigerator? That was one of the "minor" points my ID was trying to play down and convince me to avoid the plinth. His argument was that without the plinth, it was easier to roll out the fridge to clean up the dust behind.

As the end-user, my concern was to address the case when the kitchen floor gets flooded from the washing machine malfunction, it would damage the fridge's electrical circuits. Read about front load washing machines having this risk here. "But that is a 1:1000 chance of happening", he argued back.  I figured he was trying to find the easy way out, as without the plinth, the tiler will have a much easier time. Click here to read the reasoning. Anyway, to cut the long story short, I won the debate, which I now am glad having doing so. To protect the washing machine from the flood, we have also placed the rubber blocks to raise it above the floor.

Fridge on a plinth, adjacent to stacked drier on Washing machine which is on blocks.

Washing Machine on blocks

After moving for 2 and a half years, the "1:1000" incident happened... the kitchen floor was flooded when the water discharge tube from the washing machine was accidentally pulled out of the house outlet pipe.

The fridge on the plinth and washing machine on blocks were safe from the flooding. The only thing to handle was cleaning up the flood. Snapped some photos while moving the washing machine and drier out to clean up the wet floor. All these effort to prevent permanent damage to the fridge and washing machine.... I'd say it is worth it.

1. Shifted out the drier and washing machine
2.  Create a temporary extension plinth to roll out the fridge (using newspapers and plywood shelf board)

Note the concrete tiled plinth on the left. Fridge has a white wheel and black adjustable leg. 

3. Roll out the fridge to access the kitchen outlet.

 4. Clean up the kitchen outlet

Kitchen water outlet was located under the fridge. All the flood water was discharged through this outlet. Also note the back of the fridge (on the right) has a lot of electrical works, vulnerable to flooding.

In conclusion, while making design decisions for your renovation, do consider some worst case situations, especially if they can cause some form of permanent damage to your assets.

Also see kitchen layout

Wet Floor Toilet Design

Its been 2 years since our renovation has been completed. If you have been following on our choice of "Improved Toilet Layout", we chose to have a common standing area for the sink and bath zones. Thus our toilet does not have a Dry or Wet floor area.

The floor is always wet. Unfortunately, we have also not picked a floor tile that was sufficiently rough. As the result, the floor is slightly slippery when wet. "The solution was simple", I thought. Just get a floor mat!

My first mat choice was a perforated foam mat, supposedly made in Germany. It seemed to have a lot of friction when I tried it at the hardware shop, which obviously did not have a wet floor. But after the first trial, where I simulated a "slip" under wet conditions, it proved to be still slippery. No Go.

My second attempt was a mat made from hard plastic strips. it worked! Paid about S$40 from Homefix for a standard size.

Why it worked: I supposed the reduced contact area from the black strips allowed water to trickle through. In addition, the reduced contact area created a larger friction force against the black strips and the wet toilet floor. To verify this, a control test was done by pushing the mat on the wet floor with my hands, it slipped. I tried the "slip", that is with my body weight on the mat, which passed with flying colours. You may be interested to know that for the foam mat, the results were the exact opposite. There you go Physic fans!

After the toilet wash, we would stand it up in the corner of the toilet to allow the water to dry off completely to prevent floor staining. From the following photos, you can see the black strips that provides good friction against the wet floor.

Also see Improved Toilet Layout- Costing of Renovation
Also see Improved Toilet Layout- Feedback
Also see Improved Toilet Layout