Friday, July 13, 2012

FIRST GREEN BUILDING: Art Gallery saves big on power


The Green Building Index (GBI) is Malaysia’s industry recognised green rating tool for buildings to promote sustainability in the built environment and raise awareness about environmental issues and our responsibility to the future generations.


Sabah Art Gallery Conservation Centre in Kota Kinabalu. Photo by Oliver Majaham/Insight Sabah


Sabah’s first Green Building is the Art Gallery Conservation Centre located in Jalan Penampang which can save as much as RM400,000 ($125,000) a year in energy. The followings are the brief details of the environmentally-friendly building:


Building and energy
Building                    : Sabah Art Gallery Conservation Centre
Build-type                 : 4-story
Cost to build             : RM16 million ($5million)
Location                   : Jalan Penampang, Kota Kinabalu
Power supply            : Solar + utility, SESB
Energy saved            : up to 1MWh
Energy consumption  : RM107,000 per year. Compared to RM480,000/year without the green setup
Accreditation            : GBI certificate in 2012


How is energy saved
It is designed to use natural light and solar panels for lighting and air-conditioning. Energy saving lights switch off by themself when there are no visitors at the art gallery. While the main power supply (SESB) is triggered on days when natural light is lacking or solar panels are unable to cope with the power requirement.

Water usage
Water saved               : 330,000 litre/year, or equivalent to 32% of the building water need
Saving                        : RM297.00 at RM0.90/m3 water tariff
Water consumption    : 226 litre/day average per person
Equivalent                  : water saved is enough for 1,460 people per day.

Currently, Malaysians use an average of 226 litres of water per person daily, which is way above the rest of our ASEAN neighbours. Singaporeans use 154 litres (and intend to lower it to 147 litres by 2020) while the Thais manage with 90 litres.


Carbon dioxide emission
Emission               : reduced by 780 tonnes/year
Equivalent to         : CO2 emitted by 390 people/year
Benchmark           : 1.8 trillion tonnes of CO2 release will raise the temperature by 1oC



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The original article from the Government portal, Insight Sabah:
"First green building in Sabah helps fight global warming" - Nurhafizah Yusof & Oliver Majaham

Sabah’s first green building is helping to stop the world from getting warmer. The 16m-ringgit ($5m) Sabah Art Gallery Conservation Centre can save the government as much as 400,000 ringgit a year in electricity, 297 ringgit in water and cut carbon dioxide emission down by 780 tonnes that will help keep average global warming below 2oC to prevent an environmental disaster.


Natural lighting from the sky. Photo by Oliver Majaham/Insight Sabah


“This building can save up to one megawatt of electricity per year,” said Masidi Manjun, minister of tourism, culture and environment, as he received the Green Building Index certificate from Boon Che Wee, chairman of the GBI accreditation panel on June 29.

The four-storey building at Jalan Penampang is designed to reduce power consumption by using natural light and solar panels for lighting and air-conditioning. Energy saving lights switch off by themself when there are no visitors at the art gallery. And the main power supply is triggered on days when natural light is lacking or solar panels are unable to power lights and air-conditioners.

Thus electricity consumption will be greatly reduced to 900 kilowatt-hours a day, according to Jennifer Linggi, the curator of the gallery. Power cost will thus be a relatively low 107,000 ringgit a year against about 480,000 ringgit if the building were to run on supply solely from Sabah Electricity Sendirian Berhad, the state’s power company.

The art gallery will also save about 330,000 litres of water a year by harvesting rainwater to flush toilets, clean the building and water the garden. This represents a saving of 32% of the water need of the building. That is enough water for about 1,500 people. But 330,000 litres cost only 297 ringgit because water at 90 sen per 1,000 litres is comparatively cheap.

But making the building environmentally friendly will reduce carbon dioxide emission, blamed for global warming, by 780 tonnes a year. That is the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by 390 people every year.

The figure may not seem significant considering that it takes 1.8 trillion tonnes of carbon dioxide to raise atmospheric temperature by one degree Celsius. But then there are thousands of buildings, many of them many times bigger than the art gallery in Sabah. And taking all the millions of buildings in the world, carbon reduction of the Sabah art gallery is indeed a significant step in the fight against global warming.

Buildings use up 40% of energy, 12% of water and send 40% of waste to landfill. And they thus are responsible for much of global warming and pollution.

For more readings, go to Insight Sabah website http://insightsabah.gov.my/article/read/1852

3 comments:

Aki said...

wow.. besar juga pula daily consumption daily kita ni kan?? I mean malaysian.. he he he.. memang banyak la jimat kalau buat green bulding ni.. Tia lama lagi, JKR Pusat punya green building siap da.. Yang itu lagi la pakai yang latest punya tech.. Sampai semua air termasuk hujan.. :).. Thanks for the info bro.. :p..

Eh bro, We're conducting a gath nanti hujung tahun.. Join ba bos.. kurang kami ni lelaki.. :)..

Bawa ja family kalau mau.. :).. Bulih ah bos.. bulih rujuk sini : http://akiborneo.blogspot.com/2012/07/tab-gathering-2012.html

Err, soalan ko pasal tu sketch up 8 tu kan, ya, sa baru juga blajar tu bos.. yang itu sa buat tu kalau continuous mau 7-8 jam juga siap.. He he he..

Anonymous said...

doesnt this building reminds u of Sinaging? The Sabahan traditional basket...

de engineur said...

@Aki - drawing & design rumah ko mantap, buli jual tu!

@Lena Astray - it does look like it. Perhaps I shud visit this Energy efficient building and take pics myself & do up some write up.