'heat Proof' Walls

[Tse 0]

Hi,

My HDB unit is facing the afternoon sun. When its night time, the wall give out the heat absorbed in the day time, making the room very warm.

Any idea what can be done to 'heat proof' the walls?

I am thinking of covering the wall with wood. Just the portion under the windows.

Any brilliant ideas?

Thanks in advance.

TC

[beany0811 1]

our place faces afternoon sun too... we have solar films for the windows, but of course, can still feel the heat.

saving grace is the place is rather windy.

if there are any ideas on reducing the heat, would like to hear it too

[Kalidor 0]

same problem here. anyone with a solution???

[saggydog 0]

same problem here. anyone with a solution???

some of my thoughts ..... something must be a very good conductor of heat to draw away heat , plant ,heat sink, water feature on the wall etc ....

[daze 0]

Does solar film really reduce the heat? I asked for a quotation and it cost more then $1500 for 2 bedrooms and the living area

[saggydog 0]

Does solar film really reduce the heat? I asked for a quotation and it cost more then $1500 for 2 bedrooms and the living area

It does help, where you got the quotation from ?

[beany0811 1]

It does help, where you got the quotation from ?

solar film does help... in reducing the direct heat fm windows.

the heat conduction fm the wall will still be present though

[Boo 0]

solar film does help... in reducing the direct heat fm windows.

the heat conduction fm the wall will still be present though

double wall with vacuum in between.

[Kalidor 0]

can try the double wall thingy, but that means, u lose floor space leh....

I read that there's some kind of glass called low E glass that can cut away the heat plus double glazing is supposed to be very effective lah... anyone got experience with this??

[leechaorui 2]

You can do a few things to reduce the heat such as:

a. air-con the place

b. install a ventilator to extract out the hot air

c. install double glazed windows

Other options include making the wall thicker such that heat finds it harder to penetrate into the wall to the room.

[SolutionProvider 0]

To heat proof the wall, the solution is build a insulation wall and the thickness is

abt 50 mm thk if u dont mind.

Pms me if u r interested.

Thanks!

[SolutionProvider 0]

If you hv a false ceiling, make an opening at a corner.

Hot air rise, cold air sink.

[boohoo 1]

afternoon sun or evening sun is hotter?

[bepgof 20]

Read all the alternatives suggested, the most practical and simple are:

1. Curtain to block sunlight from entering room, instead of solar firm.

2. Ceiling fan, best with KDK for lasting.

Theoretically, the most effective way is to prevent sunlight from reaching the wall. In practice, here are some examples , aluminium clad(cvommercial buildings), planting, Hugh water fall, double-layer glass (sound & heat isolated). Question is which is most cost-effective in long run?

Wood wall next to brick is not a good solution. Heat transfers from brick to wood, SLOWLY.

[maksimsg 0]

to thermal insulate your home, there are two phases we need to understand:

1, during the direct afternoon sunshine;

2, after the sunsets

in phase 1, energy is absorbed in the wall, transmitted through your window to the room, heat up your furniatures etc.

in phase 2, the energy absorbed by the wall and furniture will be released to the surrounding, your flat will be pretty much like an oven.

afternoon sun is horrible mostly because of the phase 2 problem, because your flat will be still hot even the sun sets.

as mentioned by some fellows above, solar film is a good solution to prevent heat going through the window to heat up your furnitures. A good grade solar film could reject UV, and infra lights (it is the infra range of light carries majority of the heat but it does not give you the feeling of brightness), but allow visible light to pass through, so your room will still be bright, but less heat is transmitted and received by your room. this is basically to reduce the effect during phase 1.

to tackle phase 2 problem, we need high thermal insulation materials (low thermal conductivity). someone mentioned thick wall to insulate heat, which is correct. because the outer surface of your flat (outer surface of the glass and wall) will be very hot after direct sunshine for hours. when the sun sets, the heat will be released to the surrounding, which is inevitable. however as long as the heat is not released to your room, it will be fine to you. so the whole idea is to prevent the heat of the outer surface of the flat from going into your room. the solution is to increase the resistance of the wall and the window. however there are other ways to increase the thermal resistance as well: double glazed window has a vacuum or inert gas filled between two glasses. vacuum is a very bad thermal conductor, which means even your thickness of the glass is not significantly increased, the thermal conductivity will be greatly reduced due to the vacuum in between.

as for the wall, of course we do not want to increase the thickness to much to insulate the heat. the feasible solution is to use high density polymers such as high density polyurethanes, which has a very low thermal conductivity. meanint that you need a very thin layer of such material, whose thermal insulation effect is equivalent to a thick wall.

or you can use those thermal insulation paintings as well. they have a lot of ceramic microspheres dispersed in the painting. the microspheres have low thermal conductivity, so a thin painting layer will be as good as a thicker wall too.

I bought a flat similar to yours (afternoon sun), so I was looking for feasible solutions recently.

as for the solar film, 3M is a good choice, you can find discussion in this forum. cost wise around 16 dollars psf.

as for the wall, if you want to go with the painting, you can google insuladd for more information. but as far as i know, they do not have a distributor in singapore yet, I have contacted a local painting provider, who would like to give it a try.

if you want to use polymer board, I do not know any place we can buy such boards in singapore so far.

hope it helps

Edited January 21, 2010 by maksimsg