Walking the ‘green push’ talk

I AM truly pleased to read “PM: Expand R&D on renewable energy” ( The Star, March 21). Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak also called on research bodies and institutes of higher education to collaborate with business and the Government to expand research development in the field of green energy, and to commercialise their findings.

I am happy we are now walking the talk on green matters. I say let there be a more sustainable future for our children and our children’s children.

The widespread promotion of energy efficiency (EE), renewable energy (RE) and Green Buildings augurs well for the future.

A recent news article quotes data from the Energy Commission’s Demand Side Management Unit showing the attractive savings that can be achieved from adopting the EE models of consumer products like lamps (CFL instead of incandescent), refrigerators (5-Star rated instead of 3-Star or lower), airconditioners, fans and television sets.

The data shows that the savings can be 25% and above for these appliances, and the higher cost of the EE models can be recovered quickly from the savings in electricity cost.

Savings of 25% and over are nothing to sniff at. With sufficient awareness, I am sure consumers will be happy to adopt these EE practices, even if these are only for their own energy cost savings.

By doing so they will also help the nation save on subsidies for electricity generation from natural gas, help to preserve the environment as well as play their part in helping Malaysia achieve the goal of reducing its carbon intensity by 40% as declared by our Prime Minister in December 2009.

The energy saving information from the Energy Commission shows the highest savings (in monetary terms) are in air-conditioning. As air-conditioning needs to remove the heat from the surroundings, it makes sense to reduce the heat entering the spaces in the first place.

Insulation, especially for roofs of low-rise buildings, is one of the cheapest ways to do this, as was shown at a mineral wool insulation manufacturers’ booth at the IGEM at the KL Convention Centre recently.

It was shown that use of adequate insulation may even eliminate the need to use airconditioning by making the indoor environment comfortable with just fans.

I wonder why our houses are not built with the necessary insulation to remove the need for air-conditioning, which has become a necessity and no longer a luxury due to climate change.

This is especially useful in low-rise houses for the low-income who cannot afford airconditioning and are forced to suffer heat stress. Such insulation will also help the more wealthy population reduce energy use for airconditioning.

I also learnt that in Scandinavian countries, building regulations require roof insulation of 250mm to 300mm (10 inches to 12 inches), but for the local climate a thickness of about 50mm to 100mm (2 inches to 4 inches) may be sufficient.

One may ask why this kind of requirement is not applied in Malaysia? Are our building standards so low that they do not provide for conducive living conditions in our houses?

I would implore the government agencies concerned to make sure that the necessary regulations are in place to ensure that housing as well as other commercial and industrial buildings are mandated to install adequate roof insulation to make the buildings energyefficient from their initial design and construction so as to save energy over their life time.

It would be interesting to enquire how many local corporate conglomerates involved in housing and other building development who profess their support for the shift towards a “Green and Sustainable Culture” are able to declare that they employ such EE design philosophy in all their developments in Malaysia. BULBIR SINGH, Seremban.