Cooltek House in Malaysia

Abstract

Currently, there is a distinct lack of innovative approaches to designing and building houses in Malaysia that could overcome the harsh climatic conditions to achieve thermal comfort. At the same time, demand for residential air-conditioning units has skyrocketed due to the lifestyle expectations of home buyers, the low prices of the units and the very low national residential electricity tariff. Most existing and new houses are not designed to be air-conditioned properly due to poor building material selections and endemic construction practices. These houses are not sealed and are thermally inefficient. Besides looking back to the indigenous passive solar design strategies, new design paradigms have to be explored and promoted for the benefit of all. One innovative approach that has been well-developed and proven successful is the Cooltek concept which was first used at a private bungalow in Melaka, Malaysia. The overarching principle of this concept is to reverse the role of the building envelope of colder climates from keeping the heat inside the building to keeping the heat out of the building which could provide a more conducive indoor environment for air-conditioning in order to reduce the indoor temperature and the relative humidity with minimal use of electricity. This paper describes the Cooltek concept and a case study in detail and how the concept works.