SOLUTION OF HOT WEATHER INDONESIA WITH PASSIVE COOLING ALTERNATIVE

Indonesia’s hot weather has hit some areas in Indonesia in recent days. Temperatures during the day can reach until 35- 38.0°C that far exceeding the maximum comfortable temperature in Indonesia which ranges from 22- 26°C.

Lecturer in the Architecture Program Study at Universitas ‘Aisyiyah (UNISA) Yogyakarta, Indah Pujiyanti, S.T., M.Sc said that this extreme heat condition certainly causes our discomfort when doing activities outdoors and indoors. We may be able to use an air conditioner in lower temperature inside the room, but this will be impact on electrical energy used which is quite large and can actually be one of the causes of global warming effects. Therefore, there are actually several alternatives from passive cooling techniques that we can actually apply to minimize the utilization of air conditioning. At least we can apply it in the design of our respective homes.

Alternative Solution

Indah explained that passive cooling techniques are natural cooling methods with architectural design engineering. Some passive cooling techniques that we can apply to reduce indoor temperatures include ventilative cooling techniques, named a cross ventilation system in buildings. cross ventilation does not only provide ventilation that is open on two sides but by placing ventilation holes on two sides with different heights this is attempted to remove heat from the higher ventilation side.

The next passive cooling alternative is the air cavity on the roof of the building, namely by using a high pyramid / gable roof and avoiding the use of flat roofs, because basically the heat will move to the top of the building so that the heat is not at the effective height of the space for activities.

In addition to ventilative cooling and utilization of air cavities, there is also an evaporative cooling technique, which is by providing water elements around our building so that the incoming solar heat can be reduced by water and the temperature entering the room will be lower than the outdoor temperature.

The last passive cooling technique that we can attempt is by greening, which is increasing the green area and trees around the house then solar radiation entering the room can be reduced and the shadow from the tree canopy can provide shade in some parts of the house. By applying the right passive cooling techniques in buildings, it hope that we can still carry out activities comfortably in the midst of Indonesia’s extreme hot weather that has occurred in recent days and the most important thing is that the consume of electrical energy in buildings can be minimized as much as possible.