Hi Paskal,

Thanks for sharing your journey.

I think building on stilts is another idea given the reasons below:
a. coastline - wind or storm surge will bring in the water esp if there's a river nearby.
b. Ventilation - easily allows for wind to come in.

The car park area could be either heightened with an elevated bay or their structure augmented with storm doors if build at ground level.

Building materials like AAC help slow down heat build up on from the exterior. Natural lighting via clerestory windows as shown in some of your sketches and as some mentioned taking advantage of prevailing winds to naturally ventilate the house.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Jun 10 2014, 09:03 PM

Yes, we've been using the wrong material in this land all this while. AAC is the way to go provided its obtained from the right source.

Roof leakage is expected where wind infiltration is expected. Monier cool roof Alu membrane foil is suppose to form a second skin functioning as radiant barrier and moisture barrier. One area you might want to investigate is Miami-Dade County rules on such aspects and see if you could improvise a solution therefrom for your installation.

There's also solar air conditioning solution that can be leveraged. It's the in thing now. Uses Microsolar collector.

Since Solar water heater has proportional heat losses the longer the runs, smaller volume collectors per outlet could help alleviate that esp for a large property.

Also, since thermal heat recovery is a relatively unexplored area, a R410A heat pump placed near the compressors (concentrate the compressors as close as possible without causing them to overheat one another and induce a heat stack so that the hot air rises) could in effect harvest waste heat and give out drier air (less humid). For ocassions where padi field burning or haze may bring in dust, pass the air through a rotating drum filter first commonly use in Scandanavian countries and Germany. The dust is captured in water. The waste can be periodically drained through an irrigation filter and a ball cock replenish the water from an readily available source - condensate that drains from all the AC. UV could keep the storage tank sterile as possible so that we do not unwittingly let it be a place where legionnella bacteria to breed. After which pass the filtered and drier air through Airegard ERV or Fresh Air Vent Systems to all the rooms.

Just to elaborate on the above concept, since we have abundant heat rejection through AC and also from from re-radiation of heat accumulated throughout the day, one aspect of economic use is to re-harvest the heat for useful purposes. If efficient enough, even solar AC could run through the night for some hours after sun down so long as the heat gain at the collectors is efficient enough to drive the compressor. Even if not, heat could be used to convert into heated water through a thermal recovery appliance. This requires a rethink functionally as to where to place the compressors. One idea visualized is an enclosed 4'x4' or 6'x6' or 8'x8' chiminey column of sorts with the thermal heat recovery unit at the top and the compressors staggered in height below it. Taking into account of the heat stack and aiding the thermal convection process is some form of mechanical ventilation that draws this air into a small room where the rotating drum filter resides with its water replenished via AC condensate and the dust collected constant and regularly drained at a predetermined rate. The cleaner air from the drum filter is passed through to the next chamber that houses the R410a heat pump which could act as a backup either for pre-heat to or post-heat downmix from the solar thermal water heater. after that the drier air could be cleaned again with another rotating drum filter and the air revitalized with an air cleaner before letting it through Airegard series to all the rooms. This way the air is cleaned twice and also dried twice and used twice.

One advantage is that the AC compressors would be somewhere in the interior open air space much like the old open roof in single storey houses. To address the noise due to the number of compressors accumulated there, surround it with brick (where the compressors anchors will be mounted), rock wool (to dampen sound transmission) and AAC (to minimse heat gain accumulated from the rock wool) into the interior to dampen the droning sound. A door access into that area could be thick door with rubber seals (Raven) all round.

Anything is possible. Happy tinkering.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Aug 24 2014, 08:44 PM

No worries. See here and here. Both are locally sourced. The first one IMO manufactures one of the world's most efficient solar thermal water heater which I own (M60VTHE). They have updated their model specification I think as shown here.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Aug 25 2014, 01:29 PM

I have not tried the solar AC but it takes the thermosyphon design from Microsolar. That part is the secret sauce to really hot water because of the solar heat gain from ambient to 95-100 depending upon sunny conditions.

The first [correction] link show the solar AC installed in the Port Klang North port. Keyword is UP TO. I think we have to take this with a dose of reality as how often that kind of savings is acheived actually depends upon how frequently sunny the location is. For your place, how many annual wet days per year? Compared that to Port Klang

Also compare that with this.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Aug 28 2014, 12:56 PM

True, plus 3 storey height limit. However, it's compensated by thickness to achieve the equivalent strength or have strategic load bearing borne by masonry bricks at critical points with AAC covering in front with an air gap as thermal break so as to prevent direct heat transfer over these.

Nice and good posting.

Yes, louvres has great flexibility in air circulation. One thing to note though is that air blowing through the house is aided by a negative pressure differential between the inside and outside. It's hard for the wind to blow in if:
1. if it's not directed at the house
2. the inside of the house is hotter than the outside (positive higher pressure differential) - can be mitigated with extractor fans to induce flow.

One thing about Queensland is that architects in that state has taken various innovation in our climate to adapt over there. Some homes built over there reminds me of those we see here. One prime distinction is that they are built on stilts to minimise ground heat intrusion because air is a poor conductor and not for them but relevant in your site is to prevent the black swan event of flooding. Those innovation added is such that the architecture is called the 'Queenslander'. Actually would be good to see if there are any relevant points there to integrate back to your design approach.

2085 - wah I don't know if I live that long.

would it be sound practice if the slabs were perforated with a 6" drainage hole for maintenance purposes (tangki wash) as well as emergency drainage in the unlikely remote event that the tanks do burst.

Although not related to rain harvesting but more to plumbing, would separation of pipes for toilet and shower/basin taps be practical such that the latter two can be on pump if needed but the toilet one without it.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Nov 6 2014, 02:11 PM

Talking about sediment filter, there's one spin down type from Hyflux Singapore called Automatic Sediment Filter ASF35. It's programmable to do a 30sec flush between 1-30days. Default is 7 and can be disabled not to flush ie manual. It runs off a heavy duty 9v battery or from a 240VAC-12VDC power supply. Not cheap about 800SGD. Discount if bought from their online shop.

Other brands would be Rusco or Honeywell.

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Nov 8 2014, 05:07 PM

Aiks, my bad. Didn't read your requirement properly. This is to pre-filter rain water before tangki right? If you're concerned about purity in the first place, membrane is technically correct but not economically viable since there's 3 tanks. Anything else would encourage lots of undesirable stuff like what ozak mentioned. If for plants and washing car should be ok. Toilet flushing maybe need a little rethinking like a chlorine mixing tank or ozone like some in Oz. Problem is that sometimes run-off from roof carries with it organic substances like bird poo and dead leaf unless these can be screened off. Rain water will dilute these and the phosphorus is what encourages algae growth. Those gutter leaf screen made from stainless steel that helps maintain the gutter free from these but bio sludge can still develop over time.

One time, I did fancy thinking up if it were possible to do what's now popular in ME, Western countries, US, Australia and New Zealand. There's a growing movement called natural swimming pool (NSP) pioneered by an Austrian guy in 1985. They discovered biochemically that to preclude strong growth of algae, phosphorus has to be removed. Over here, hmmm no. Besides the usual suspects Cryptosporidium, Giardia spp, Legionella bacterium to the uncommon Leptospirosis (found in rat's urine) there's also the rare but enviromentally plausible brain eating bug (Naegleria Fowlerii), flesh eating bacteria (necrotizing fascitis) to contend with not to mention unwanted myriad hosts of helminth.
Read it up under waterborne diseases. Think disinfection for toilet use should be considered. UV in the WC cistern perhaps?

This post has been edited by halcyon27: Nov 10 2014, 12:07 AM

No comments on the earlier part which I think is sound since that's disinfection. But on this part I want to clarify. Rain water is indeed clean but the roof may not necessarily be. It will pick up stuff along the way which hopefully the first flush will clear. But microbially, that's not always so clearcut as the sludges in the drain pipes if it remains will always have unwanted contaminants. Typically in any home's roof top, if you see a lot of birds perched on the roof frequently chances are there might be guano deposits which means very high urea and phosphorus content which basically is a potent algae starter mix. Every time it rains, these things gets flushed down and depending upon the thickness and hardness of their encrustation. Maybe less of a chance if roof is very hot. But just observe it on your current place esp the neighbour's roof and gauge to what extent there are these things and possibly others (dead leaves, etc).