Nila Keumala

Energy audit and prospective energy conservation - Studies at residential college buildings in a tropical region

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the efficiency of electricity use and potential of electricity reduction at 12 residential colleges located at University of Malaya Campus, Kuala Lumpur.Design/methodology/approach – The work presented applies an energy audit when energy consumption data were collected and analysed for a five‐year period. The total savings of electricity used at residential colleges were identified through the difference between average total energy use in a year (kWh) and minimum electricity usage.Findings – The study finds that residential colleges with special features of building layout and arrangement performed better with regard to electricity consumption due to the prior groups superior utilisation of day lighting and natural ventilation. The floor area of the rooms, volume, density, enclosure and facade design, including window design, window area, and window‐to‐wall ratio also influenced the total electricity usage of the residential college buildings. Also, thro...

Satisfaction and perception of residents towards bioclimatic design strategies: Residential college buildings

Successful implementation of bioclimatic design strategies not only reduces energy use, but more importantly increases the resident’s satisfaction. A post-occupancy evaluation, a form of survey method, was used in assessing the satisfaction and perception of residents in two residential colleges, at the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur. Both Case Study A (CS-A) and Case Study B (CS-B) represent the uppermost and moderate implementation of bioclimatic design strategies. The results showed that 414 questionnaires were retrieved fully filled by occupants at CS-A while 155 respondents from CS-B returned their questionnaire. The questionnaire was based on a 5-point Likert scale. Respondents were asked to rate the levels of satisfaction and perception with various aspects of the building, including the immediate environment. A detailed survey on thermal comfort had also been done by adopting the predicted mean vote index. As initial findings, the implementations of bioclimatic design strategies at the selected residential colleges were able to provide comfort for the residents.

Integrated management structure for cultural heritage in Palestine

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated management structure for the identification and evaluation of Palestine’s heritage, although the unending Israeli occupation poses a huge, multi-faceted constraint. Necessarily, the approach chosen considers aptly the local culture, values, dynamics and context, assimilating the significance of a broader range of different, diverse historical and cultural resources with a variety of meanings, tangible and otherwise, across various sections of the population. Design/methodology/approach – A multi-technique strategy emphasized the combination of between-technique triangulation in the implementation to enhance and improve substantially the related internal legitimacy of the investigation. A thorough exploration was executed via field investigation survey, meetings with the local communities and conservation questionnaires. Equally useful was the second method employed to gain valuable information on the transformation of conservation activities ...

Kuala Lumpur City Centre Integrated Urban Development Zone: A New Art of Urban Living

Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capital and premier city in Malaysia has a total land area of 243.7 km2 located within the suburbs of Klang Valley with a total population of 1,556,200 in 2005. Thus, its density reached 6386 persons per km2. Planning wise, Kuala Lumpur is divided into six strategic zones under the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan (2004–2020). The mega city is connected with the surrounding areas by highways such as KESAS, Federal Highway, NPE, ELITE, roads, and railways (Light Rail Transits and KTM Komuter).

Assessment on acoustical performance of green office buildings in Malaysia

Green building rating system outlines many requirements to be considered in order for a building to be certified as one. However, the rating tools failed at truly addressing the acoustical aspect which in turn deteriorates the acoustical quality in green buildings. As preliminary stage of this study, the objective is to assess the acoustical performance of three green office buildings in Malaysia in comparison to selected standard acceptability criteria. Four spaces containing meeting rooms and open-plan offices were selected from each green building as subjects. Assessments were limited to selected acoustical parameters of background noise level, noise criteria, reverberation time and speech transmission index. The background noise levels were found to be within acceptable criteria range despite some meeting rooms that exceeded the maximum recommended level. However, noise criteria ratings found most of the spaces to be below the acceptable noise criteria. Reverberation times data varied from satisfactory 0.7 s to unacceptable 1.5 s. Nonetheless, the background noise, noise criteria and reverberation time data collected were found to be unbiased by the volume of the space. Speech transmission indexes were found to be ample within good and fair speech intelligibility range while still maintaining its normal tendency of decreasing with distance.

Low-Energy Earth–Air Heat Exchanger Cooling System for Buildings in Hot and Humid Malaysia

This chapter presents an extended exploration of the performance of low-energy earth–air heat exchanger (EAHE) cooling in hot and humid Malaysia from the published work of Sanusi (2013). The increasing demand of air-conditioning for cooling purposes motivates this investigation in search for better cooling alternatives. The passive technology, where soil underground was used as a heat sink to produce cooler air, has yet to be investigated further in hot and humid countries. This work, the passive technology, is tested by carrying out two interconnected field investigations: soil temperature measurement and the earth pipe cooling experiment for 1 year. In 1 year, soil temperature distribution at 1 m depth fluctuates, influenced by the different seasons in a year. However, the soil at 1 m depth is cooler than deeper soil during the wet season. Therefore, for investigating the EAHE cooling performance for 1 year, the pipe was buried at 1 m depth at the same test site. A significant temperature drop was found in the 1-m-depth-buried pipe: up to 6.3 and 8.6 °C, respective to the seasons of the year. Thermal comfort of air temperature at the buried pipe outlet was analyzed with Khedari thermal comfort chart, and the result has shown that the buried pipe outlet air temperatures are within the range of thermal comfort conditions for hot/humid countries. This study has showed a potential of earth pipe cooling technology in providing low-energy cooling in buildings in Malaysia.

A case study to assess the near-glazed workplace thermal performance

Passive solar control solutions have been widely used in buildings in tropic countries like Malaysia. It is assumed that these solutions may notably control the heat-gain of buildings. However, there is a lack of empirical studies that assess the extent of green-glazed techniques to sufficiently control solar heat-gain. The current study uses a case study approach to examine the thermal indoor performance, particularly the near-glazed workplace area. The performance of the ST Diamond Building (in Putra Jaya, Malaysia) has been examined in terms of: outdoor/indoor dry bulb temperature; glass surface temperature; heat flux through glazing; outdoor/indoor air movement; lux and; solar radiation. The results of the field analysis indicated that ST Diamond Building’s green-glazed solutions are efficient to control solar heat gain, which in turn will lead to reduce energy consumption for controlling solar heat loads.