By Sreejita Talukdar, Content Writer, Homes

Block the Heat Leveraging Stylish, Sustainable, & Budget-friendly Solutions

After a long tiring and sweaty strenuous day, when we get back to our home, we promptly switch on the air-conditioner. Because we feel air-conditioner is the one which can beat this scorching heat of summer days. With the increasing level of pollution, the characteristics of climate are also gradually changing and day-by-day it is deteriorating. If we have to stay healthy we need to cope with these ever changing climatic conditions. Global warming is one of the prime reasons of this vivaciously increasing temperature which is making the summer days even worse for tropical countries on Earth.

To knock down the effect of record breaking heat wave, embrace the use of plant kingdom differently in every corner of the urban society

Natural Ventilation: This is a natural process of movement of air through the buildings without using any mechanical devices like fans. By changing the direction of windows, wind vanes, this process of natural ventilation can be used.

Chimney Effect: Chimneys use stack effect which occurs when the temperature of outer space is colder than inside of the building. Chimneys uses heat of the sun to cool down the room’s temperature, by heating a column of air through solar heat gain, and when the warm air rises, the cool air enters the chimney and comes into the room. This process is called thermosiphons, or thermosyphons. The chimneys are blended in various methods like evaporative cooling or geothermal cooling.

Windcatchers: The use of such construction is rampant in Middle East and North Africa for decades. The wind-catcher is fixed on the roof of a building and it has a couple of openings on the top through which air comes in. The air from outside can enter through the tower and goes out through the openings at the bottom. This strategy can reduce the temperature of a building upto 10 degree celcius.

Evaporating Cooling System: This system has been used since ages in the Persian and Egyptian architecture where the evaporation of water is used to absorb heat and decrease air temperature. Methods like, roof pond, water curtains, direct water flow in wind-catchers using underground water are using evaporation cooling system for pulling down the temperature.

Set up your Terrace Garden

Roofs are the areas which are exposed to sun all day long and generate a lot of heat. If we use a protection layer over it, it will not come under the direct sunlight. Terrace garden has scientifically proven to reduce extreme level of thermal effect in urban environment. The layer of mud on which we plant trees will work as insulator which will not let the heat to go further inside.

Once the layer of mud is heated up, it radiates that heat outward leaving the surface cooler. When the rooftop garden predominately grows well, the temperature drops at once and the level of oxygen gradually starts increasing. The rooftop garden can bring down the temperature by an average 0.4 degree celsius to 0.2 degree celsius. According to the report of World Economic Forum, terrace garden can alleviate extreme heat by 10 degree Celsius.

Kapil Dev who has a terrace garden with nearly 400 plants above his office building, said, “You definitely notice a change in temperature immediately.”

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