Please share your tips and tricks to cool / ventilate the house.

Main objective i want to explore for new house:
#1 Passively reduce indoor temperature of the house. Cooler house = saving money on Aircon
#2 Avoid opening door / windows - This might sound like contradicting to asking for tips to ventilate the house. But I wanna explore what are the options to ensure fresh air and ventilation in a closed environment vs the easiest, cheapest way of just opening windows and let the air in. Reason for wanting a closed environment is that on a ideal scenario, I can purify the air and ensure the whole house breath in good quality clean air. In between these 2 options, i want to find the most practical and cost effective way.

For ventilation:
- How effective is the roof ventilation? you know those small spinning mushroom on the roof, does it work? how much typically with installation? recommended?
- Anybody have experience with smartmi fresh air system? (link here) - Wondering why is this kinda solution not popular in Malaysia? What i like is it will pump in fresh air from outside, and filter it, but is it good for all year hot climate like malaysia? Will I end up pumping hot air into the house?
- How about ERV? Example like Aireguard ERV (Link here), how practical is it to install in malaysia house? cost wise anybody have experience how much including installation?

For cooling:
- Tinting of windows and glassdoor -> helpful? what to look out for?
- Is plant helpful?


What other cooling / ventilating tips you can share?

Sikh turban installation on roof.

Close all your windows and pasang dehumidifier set to 60%

Air cond in dry mode or cooling mode is already a dehumidifier. Dry mode consumes less power vs cooling mode.

Read up on stack effect and cross ventilation. Both principles is a must in our climate..a traditional kampung house and to some extent modern condo illustrates both principles in action very well. The only thing the condo don't have is large roof overhang to shade from direct sunlight against the walls and there is no verandah all round to shade the inner rooms from the blistering sun..The traditional Malay kampung house shading principle (as well as building on stilts for flood prone zones) is borrowed and preserved by colonial architects and builders in Queensland, Australia in the latter half of the 19th century well until after WW2. They call that kind of architecture The Queenslander.

Ventilation is only one part of the equation. Choice of building material matters as well. AAC is best vs the prevalent masonry bricks which suits temperate climate better which over here is making homes into ovens.

Also choice of floor materials matter too..for posterity of those planning to renovate, use ceramic or glazed tiles sparingly unless you're prepared to run AC 24/7. Those should be in the kitchen, backyard and bathroom and toilets. Ceramic and glazed tiles are best in climate that have low humidity as they repel moisture.

Best choice of flooring, concrete (can cover with a transparent lacquer layer), terrazo, broken marble and marble slab/tile. These sequester moisture bringing humidity down by as much as 15% esp with marble. Thus they are the correct climate response material for our climate.

If you want to go to the extreme, go Venetian on the walls too to enhance the humidity absorption effect. Some back the wall using marble slabs in the wardrobe area to keep the mould at bay. In Japan, Inax manufacture a special range of tiles called the Ecocarat that serves this purpose.




This post has been edited by halcyon27: Apr 25 2020, 08:10 AM

I need help!! My aircon not cold in one room, even after turning it on for a couple of hours. It really takes very long for it to cool down the entire room. Anybody has any advice?

Try to get the fault error Codes using your Remote .
it will tell you the fault alarms detected.

Interesting. People say that they could stand hot weather if they aren't humid like those in middle east.