Being an equatorial country, the weather here in Malaysia is damn hot, especially when there is no raining for some times. The temperature in our house can easily gone up to more than 30 degree Celsius during daytime, and remains there for many hours at night before cooling off. Even since I moved to my linked house, I had been wondering what would be the best solution to lower down the temperature in the house, so that I could save on electricity bills by using the air-cons lesser. Since the heat comes from the sun, I focused on solutions on top of the ceiling. In the HOMEDEC Expo, I found vendor selling reflective sheets to be laid down on top of the ceiling, and also insulating material to be laid down in the same manner. But the cost is a bit high. In addition, the developer of my house already laid a layer of aluminium sheet underneath the roof tiles of my house, but I could still feel the heat. Therefore, I doubted on the effectiveness of those methods. I continued searching... 2 years ago, I found another vendor showcased their product with a mobile booth in South City selling turbine ventilators to be installed on roof top. I've seen those ventilators before, and convinced by its features and price. The temperature in my house always stays below 30 degree Celsius after the installation. It works!
- 2x aluminium wind turbine 16" in diameter turning 24x7 on free floating system
- 8x air vents installed on ceiling
And the total cost of ownership is RM1,196 inclusive installation and 10 years warranty. (If your house land area is small, you could install only 1 turbine with 4 air vents at half the cost. Each turbine is effective to cover area of 500 square feets.)
So, what are its features that have convinced me?
- It is designed to turn at the slightest air movement, expelling warm air and ventilating the whole house continuously 24x7x365.
- It keeps the house cool by natural air movement, operates dynamically and does not use any electricity.
- Even in a windless day, hot air rises from the house will work to turn the turbines.
- It is designed to deflect water, making the system leak-proof to rain water.
- It has high speed limiting mechanism to prevent the turbine throat from blown away by strong wind.
- It is totally maintenance free. Its teflon impregnated bearing does not need to be oiled and working soundlessly all the time.
The brand of my turbine ventilators is Denko, distributed by Taika Enterprise. The vendor's booth is mobile in several hybermarkets. Sometimes I saw them in Tesco too.