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A living laboratory for energy efficiency

Nature-friendly library: Designed by green architect Ken Yeang, Singapore’s National Library applies shading and green cells in the form of patch of gardens on a height

The Jakarta Post
Tue, November 17, 2009

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A living laboratory for energy efficiency

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span class="inline inline-right">Nature-friendly library: Designed by green architect Ken Yeang, Singapore’s National Library applies shading and green cells in the form of patch of gardens on a height.

Changes start at home, they say. And Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Academy lives up to that adage with its recently opened Zero Energy Building.

At first glance, the 15-year-old retrofitted building looks just like any other. But, upon closer inspection, a monitor on its first floor tells an entirely different story.

As of Oct. 30, some twelve days after the building reopened, the energy meter showed  the cumulative energy consumed by the tower, around 6,300 kilowatt per hour (kWh), was covered by its cumulative energy production of 7,700 kWh.

That’s right, energy produced by the various new features in the building.

“We named the building Zero Energy because we wanted it to reflect our objective of at least matching our annual cumulative energy consumption with our yearly energy production. It would be even better off if we could produce more [energy than consume],” BCA senior development officer Tan Li Sirh said.

With that ambitious but not impossible objective, BCA invested S$11 million to fit solar panels, a green façade and other features to help reduce energy use and increase energy generation.

Using passive design principles, the 4,500-square-meter building features shading devices, “living” walls and mirror ducts, reducing its electricity needs by 5 percent.

Initially a workshop with a less than ideal East-West orientation, shading becomes an important feature for people working in the building, especially shading that does more than just reflect light.

In the building, solar panel shades and glass walls coated with more than just double glaze ensure appropriate shading.

In separate rooms, different machines are measuring the glare, solar control and visibility of different types of glass, such as photovoltaic-embedded or electro-chromic glass, as well as windows embedded with adjustable blinds.

Meanwhile, greenery has literally been added to parts of the building’s walls.

In tropical countries, where thermal comfort is created through energy-sucking air conditioning systems, cutting down on energy consumption through innovative cooling systems is as important as shading UV lights.

With the help of a displacement cooling system, cool air comes from the floor, is then mixed with warm air in the space, and then rises towards the ceiling where it is eventually extracted.

“This approach requires less energy than a conventional air-conditioning system,” Li Sirh said.

Lighting-wise, the building comes with daylight collectors.

Light pipes set on top of the roof collect sunrays. Then, through mirror reflection in the ducts, harvested daylight is thrown to the rooms below. A similar system is also used through horizontal mirror ducts attached to the sides of the building.

It is hoped that all the above features combined will reduce energy consumption by 45 percent in the long run.

“Currently, we still have a positive balance. Our excess energy production is directly distributed to nearby buildings as we don’t have storage for that,” Li Sirh said.

“We’ll hopefully see more results in the long term and keep on adding improvements after a year or so.”

— JP/ Anissa S. Febrina

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