1.0 INTRODUCTION

In recent years, Malaysia has been moving towards greener mindset. Nowadays, there is more

sense of environmental awareness than before in this country though it is still at a low level

compared to countries like Denmark, Germany, or Japan. There has been progress over the

years and recently hype is green buildings.

Though there are a lot more about power generation and transport which are believed to be

the major emitters of greenhouse gases, the buildings are actually the single largest

contributor to global warming – they account for 33% of global carbon dioxide emissions,

according to the World Green Building Council. In Malaysia, commercial and residential

buildings use up 48% of the electricity generated – which is why green architecture is so

important. In Malaysia, commercial and residential buildings use up 48% of the electricity

generated which is why green architecture is so important. A low energy house or low energy

building is any type of house that from design technologies and the building utilities use less

energy, from any source compared the traditional or average building.

Inspired by green building rating tools such as UK’s BREEAM, USA’s LEED, Japan’s

CASBEE, Australia’s GREENSTAR, and Singapore’s GREEN MARK, to name a few,

Malaysia introduced its very own Green Building Index (GBI) in early 2009. GBI was jointly

developed by the Malaysian Institutes of Architects (PAM) and the Association of Consulting

Engineer Malaysia (ACEM). Green rating tools by its nature and role is very dependent upon

location and environment and thus climate. Malaysia’s Green Building Index or GBI will be

the only rating tool for the tropical zones other than Singapore Government’s GREEN

MARK. So in other words, Malaysia’s GBI is customized to suit local conditions – our

climate, current state of development, and existing resources. Buildings are awarded GBI

Malaysia ratings – Platinum, Gold, Silver or Certified – depending on six key criteria

(generally based on the LEED certification of USA):

1. Energy Efficiency

2. Indoor Environmental Quality

3. Sustainable Site Planning and Management

4. Materials and Resources

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5. Water Efficiency

6. Innovation

The Malaysian government is also very supportive of the development of green buildings in

the country. In fact, recently it has been decided that all new government buildings must

incorporate the features of GBI. Aside from that, in the recent tabling of Malaysia’s Budget

2010, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced tax exemption for building

owners who obtain the GBI certificate. In addition, buyers of buildings with GBI certificates

will also be exempted from stamp duty starting from October 24 2009 until December 31

2014 – a good five years. A RM1.5 billion fund will also be set up to provide assistance to

companies dealing with green technology. With such political will, Malaysia is set to

progress much more significantly than ever before in the development of green buildings. It’s

about time anyway.

2.0 LOW ENERGY OFFICE BUILDING (LEO BUILDING)

The LEO building is one of the green building in Malaysia is aimed to achieve the low

consumption of energy. The first LEO building in Malaysia is stated to be at the Putrajaya

where here is located the Head Quarters of the Ministry of Energy, Green Technology and

Water. This LEO building is launched officially by Minister of Energy, Water and

Telecommunication of Malaysia, Y.B Dato’ Seri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik on 25 June 2005. The

LEO building won first place in the “Energy Efficient Building Best Practices Competition

2006” at the ASEAN level under the “New and Existing Building” category. The award was

presented at a special ceremony organised on 27 July 2006 in conjunction with the 24th

ASEAN Energy Ministers meeting in Vientiane, Lao PDR. The Deputy Minister of Energy,

Water and Communications received the award on behalf of the Malaysian. This building

have feature like 20,000 m2 gross floor area and would have an energy savings of RM

600,000.

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Figure 2.1: LEO or low energy building that is located at the Putrajaya, Malaysia.

2.1 FUNCTION

LEO building is said to be the first Government building in Malaysia to incorporate a wide

range of EE (energy efficiency) features and technologies exemplifies the Government‘s

commitment and serious efforts in achieving sustainable development through energy

efficiency and conservation. This building is constructed and builds with the aim to be a

showcase building for energy efficiency and low environmental impact design. The main

target is to minimize the energy consumption and also include the running cost but without

sacrificing occupants comfort on that buildings. This building can give to a greener way of

life and works. Other than that, this building also expected to achieve energy savings of more

than 50% compare to the traditional building or common building in Malaysia. Although it is

said the construction cost will be higher about 10% higher than the ordinary office building,

the energy saving is expected of more than RM600, 000 per year, the predicted return on

investment is less than 10 years.

Furthermore by reducing the energy consumption about 1,700 tones of CO2 emission, it can

be avoided annually and indirectly contributing to reduce the global warming effect and

protecting the environment. A typical new office building in Malaysia and ASEAN region

will have a Energy Index of 200-300 kWh/m2 year but for the LEO building it is targeted to

set on 100 kWh/m2 year. This analysis show that the target will decrease in order to use less

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energy. This LEO building also will acts as a catalyst for others to design and build energy

efficient buildings in the future. This LEO building has it own EE that includes daylighting,

EE office equipment, ventilation, control and sensor, orientation, insulation and energy

management. To achieve the goal of 100 kWh/m2 the building must occupied certain

characteristics which is the top and around of the building should be green environment.

Other than that, the building orientation also must be optimized where the windows facing

north and south where solar heats is less than. The building also must be insulated well in

facade and roof. The LEO building also has the energy efficient cooling system where the air

volume for each building zone is controlled individually according to the demand. The

building is using less electricity and has an implementation of an Energy Management

System.

2.2 SHADING

Malaysia has hot climate and high humid temperature. The common temperature is between

24˚C to 35˚C. This is the main point to the modern energy efficient design. In the office

working areas, a controlled and conducive environment is essential for the occupant comfort

and for the productive input. The windows are oriented to the north and the south in the LEO

building. This orientation will give less direct sunshine and only shallow out shading to shade

off the sun. The east and also west orientation will receives more suns and as the results the

sun is more difficult to shade off due to the low sun angles for the radiation in the morning an

also afternoon. In the exterior aspects, two types of window facade are used. The punch holes

window facades in the lower floors and the curtain wall windows with exterior shading in the

upper floors.

The wall of the LEO building consist of 200mm aerated concrete and also exterior surface

have light colours in order to reduce the solar heating on the walls. The concrete wall has an

insulation value which is 2.5 times better compared to the traditional building which is made

by brick wall.

The roof of the building is insulated with 100mm insulation compared to the normal which is

25mm. The roof surface is also protected by a second canopy roof. In the roof also, the green

landscaping that will provides shading and will improves the aesthetics of the roof areas.

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On the top of atrium, there is a solar chimney. The air in the gazed cavity is heated by the sun

and after that the rising hot air will pulls out the air from atrium and the fresh air will entered

at the bottom of the atrium.

The local temperature in the outside of the building can be reduced by using the cooling

effect of trees, greenery and also water areas. In the big city with high ‘heat island’ effect, the

feature will help to create optimal comfortable, local micro-climatic conditions for buildings

and people.

Figure 2.2: the punch hole windows in LEO buildings.

2.3 COMFORT & INDOOR AIR QUALITY

In a tropical climate, a person will be increasingly uncomfortable with increased air

temperature, humidity and radiant temperature. The recommended indoor temperature is

range on 23˚C to 26˚C with the recommended relative humidity is 60%-70%. Buildings

therefore have to be tight, and the fresh air intake has to be controlled for optimum quality of

the indoor air. In the LEO Building, intake of outside air is controlled according to CO2 level

of the indoor air, and thereby controlled according to the occupancy level. The more people

in the building, the more fresh air intake required.

It is noted that low temperature and low humidity is uncomfortable, unhealthy and expensive.

Office air temperatures lower than 22˚C to 23˚C means that people will have to dress up with

warmer clothes, and the cooling load of the building increases. In the LEO Building, the

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quality of the indoor air is further improved by the use of electronic air cleaners, instead of

normal fibre filter to clean the incoming air from particle pollutants.

2.4 DAYLIGHT

Natural light is the preferred light source for human beings. In Malaysia, daylight is plentiful

during the normal office hours throughout the year. Therefore daylight can be an important

light source to help reduce energy use for artificial lighting to provide adequate building

design. The challenge in the daylight design is on how to design window and shading which

lets daylight in, prevent the sunlight to enter the building, and reduces glare problems from

the windows. In the LEO building, these criteria are achieved through a combination of

exterior shading and glazing which in turn allows 65% of the light through and allowed only

51% of the heat through. The atrium allows daylight. This will improve the energy savings

and also the user comfortness.

A daylight responsive control system on lighting system is combined with a motion detector

which automatically shuts off lighting and reduces the cooling once an office is unoccupied.

This is in order to controll the artificial lighting. The artificial lighting will automatically

shuts off when daylight is sufficient to satisfy the lighting need. In the future the advanced

glazing will become available. Glazing that filters the sunlight such that the visible light has

preference and solar heat is avoided. This glazing reflects will reflect the invisible infrared

and ultraviolet and also heat away from the building.

Figure 2.3: The daylight entering the atrium spaces.

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2.5 OFFICE APPLIANCES

Office equipments such as computers, printers, and a copy machine are responsible for the

increased electricity consumption and thereby responsible for additional increase in cooling

load. To reduce this, LEO building has made an emphasis to reduce the electricity

consumption for the equipment.

Simulation with the Energy-10 computer tool confirms the significance of the office

equipment and the overall energy consumption. From this the energy consumption will be

reduced from 25 to 10 kWh/m2/year. The main energy consuming for office is said to be the

personal computer with its screen (computer with PC) with 150W. The LCD screen

computers is said to be more efficient in reducing energy with 80W but more better if use the

portable laptops computers with energy use of 30W only. This is because the laptops have its

own energy efficient on the on the maximum battery life.

2.6 ENERGY MANAGEMENT

For the low consumption of energy such as LEO building, a comprehensive energy

management system (EMS) is one of the prerequisite matters. The energy management

system will monitor on a continuous basis of the energy consumption of the building. From

this system, the action can be taken if the abnormal high energy used is detected. This EMS

need installation of a metering system in order to measure the energy used. In the LEO

building, the system will be placed at each floor and section to detection of uses of energy on

cooling, lighting and plugging. The temperature on the various parts also will be monitored.

2.7 BENEFITS

Generally, the low energy buildings have it own benefits such as low energy bills. The

owners or the occupants of this building can keep their cost under control and become less

vulnerable to future fluctuations of energy prices. Other than that, this LEO building will

have an excellent indoor climate. The use of the mechanical ventilations flows will help to

eliminate air pollutants away and will provide fresh air indoor. LEO building also have a

pleasant warmth. Especially on the overseas country that have experience four seasons,

during the winter and also summer, the large fluctuations in temperature are not practically

non exist. Lastly the LEO building will have a better acoustical and visual comfort. The

bioclimatic design and performing insulation of the glazed and also opaque walls will protect

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the buildings occupants from the outside noise pollutions and will brings more natural light

into the premises instead of using the artificial light.

2.8 SUMMARY

The LEO building is one of the best ways to reduce the consumption on energy by cutting the

source that use more energy in office especially. Malaysia is said to be the highest energy

consumer. This is also good in order to achieve the greener way of life. Malaysia also has

sign to be one of the member in Kyoto Protocol. By developing green building such as LEO

building, the principle in National Energy Policy can be achieved in the environmental

objective that to minimize the negative impact of energy production, transportation,

conversion, utilization and consumption on the environment. This building can achieve

energy savings of more than 50% compare to the traditional building or common building in

Malaysia. Energy Index of normal building is 200-300 kWh/m2 year but for the LEO building

it is targeted to set on 100 kWh/m2 year. This decreased show that the lower consumption of

energy.

Each floor has its own air handling unit (AHU) and it is sub-divided into smaller zones,

where the provision of chilled air is controlled with a Variable Air Volume (VAV) damper.

The VAV damper controls the chilled air volume to the zone according to the temperature set

point instead of using normal air conditioning that will use power required to run air

conditioning consumes fossil fuel, depleting reserves, and again, adding to global warming.

Artificially changing the temperature from ambient levels confuses the body's regulating

mechanisms, designed to synchronize our bodies with seasonal variations and lowers

resistance to infection - infections we are more likely to get as a result of breathing recycled

air.

Every advantage will have other side on the disadvantages. One of the disadvantages is to

build and prepared building like LEO building needed very large cost because the satisfaction

of this building is in the higher ranking. But this high cost level will benefit in the future that

the energy can be saved more. People will say that the building will make waste in the

construction cost because the impact of this building is not seen today yet.

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3.0 GREEN ENERGY OFFICE BUILDING (GEO BUILDING)

Green building is a building designed with green technology that is low-carbon technologies

and environmentally friendly nature. In an effort towards greening the earth, the government

has taken several initiatives such as come out with buildings that apply green technologies.

One of the building that applied green technologies is Pusat Tenaga Malaysia (Malaysia

Energy Center), previously known as ZEO (Zero Energy Office) Building. It is a combination

of two projects which are Super Energy Efficient Building Design (Super Low Energy with

BEI 35-40 kWh/m2/year) and Malaysian Integrated Photo-Voltaic, MBIPV (with Solar PV 92

kWpeak installation), hence resulting PTM Zero Energy Office, ZEO with BEI target 0

kWh/m2/year (demonstrate 10-15 years Energy Efficient building technology). Or in other

meaning the amount of energy used by the building is counter balanced by the amount of

energy generated by its own renewable energy power generation system which contributes ti

its name ZEO –Zero Energy Office.

It is officially Malaysia’s first Green Building Index (GBI) Certified Building. Now it is

known as Green Energy Office Building recognized in short GEO building. It is also

Malaysia’s first completed green-rated office building.

Since its completion in October 2007, a staff of 60 has occupied the three-level ZEO building

in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor. The RM 20 million projects by the Energy, Water and

Communications Ministry, was co-ordinate by Danish consultancy IEN.

Figure 3.1: GEO Building

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Fashioned after the Low Energy Office (LEO) building initiated by the Ministry of Energy,

Water and Communications (MEWC) in Putrajaya, the PTM’s ZEO building has placed

Malaysia on the regional map as the first completely self-sustainable building in Southeast

Asia. Spread over a 5-acre site in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, the building located 40

kilometers south of the city centre of Kuala Lumpur, operates on the dynamics of both

passive and active techniques and on-site renewable energy generation, as exemplified in the

solar BIPV system.

The business of sustainability is big news, by any standards. The PTM’s ZEO building serves

as a pilot project that provides a platform for proof of concept in driving forward the goals of

the Malaysian building industry (developers, consultants, architects, local professionals and

academia at large) in the subject of sustainable building design. This is great news as most

building in Malaysia are energy inefficient – most of them record higher Building Energy

Index (BEI) beyond the benchmark for Energy Efficient Buildings (EEB) set at 135 kWh per

square meter per year (the kWh per square meter of the BEI is derived based on dividing the

total kWh or electricity used per year by the building area based on meter square

calculations).

3.1 BIPV SYSTEM

Pre-programmed into the building’s DNA are energy efficient features and the BIPV system

– they make up the backbone of this self-sufficient, fully sustainable landmark. As such,

PTM’s ZEO building does not use fossil fuels, driving home the point that an office building

need not consume electricity derived from this source. Instead, all electricity needed by the

building is being generated by its own solar building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) systems.

BIPV are photovoltaic materials that are used to replace conventional building materials in

parts of the building envelope such as roof, skylights or facade.

Four BIPV systems were incorporated into the building as part of the building element during

the design stage of the building. In all, four different solar BIPV systems utilizing four

different technologies have been installed into PTM’s ZEO as follows:

SYSTEM BIPV AREA TARGET INSTALLED EXPECTED

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MODULES CAPACITY

(kWp)

CAPACITY

(kWp)

kWh (based

on 1200

kWh/kW/year

A Polycrystalline Main roof 44.5 47.28 53 400

B Amorphous

silicon

Second main

roof

5.88 6.08 7 056

C Glass-glass semi

transparent

Atrium 10.0 11.64 12 000

D Integrated

monocrystalline

Car park 25.0 27 30 000

Total 85.38 92 102 456

Table 3.1: Summary details of BIPV used in GEO.

The solar BIPV systems are all linked up to grid-connected inverters that convert the

produced direct current (DC) electricity into alternating current (AC) electricity. For purposes

of verifying the electricity production, electricity generation is recorded through the meter. In

this case, no battery is installed as the generated solar electricity is directly consumed and the

net surplus sold to Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) on a net meter basis. Besides that, the

electricity generated from the PV is sold to the national utility (Tenaga Nasional Berhad,

TNB) at the same purchased tariff of RM0.323 sen/kWh.

Looking at the example of a total BIPV capacity of 92 kWp, the anticipated target for annual

electricity generated from solar BIPV systems stands at 102 MWh. To date, the BIPV

systems have produced about 103 MWh/year average, based on actual output over three

months. Buildings that are not energy efficient would need more than 92 kWp as compared to

PTM’s ZEO.

Besides that, an additional feature is added to System A and System B where it will act as

cooling tower at night. The chiller runs only at night and the cooling is stored in the concrete

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floor slabs by running cold water pipes embedded in the slabs. At night, the water normally

sent to the cooling tower is trickled over two solar photovoltaic roofs and collected again for

another cycle. These measures keep the water bill to only RM50 a month.

Although various problems cropped up that affected the chiller efficiency, the system meant

that no cooling tower was needed, the solar panels replaced the normal roof, the running

water cleans the solar panels while the roof also traps rainwater. Reimann said they are still

working on improving the system so that the building will achieve zero-energy usage, as

initially intended.

Figure 3.2: 92 kWp BIPV installed in the GEO Building.

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Figure 3.3: Cooling Tower system of System A and System B

BIPV systems installed complement the energy efficiency concepts of the whole building.

Since the migration of the office in October 2007, PTM has been receiving an average of 80

to 90 visitors per month from educational background, professional and private sectors.

Under the MBIPV project itself, PTM through its BIPV systems has been receiving wide

publicity from local and international media. As a showcase project, it is expected that the

BIPV systems serve as a good reference case for spinning of BIPV projects in Malaysia.

3.2 RADIANT COOLING (UNDERFLOOR COOLING)

The temperature people feel is an average (effective temperature) of the air in a room and the

radiant temperature from the surrounding surfaces. If the floor temperature is 18oC and the

room temperature is 26 oC people will feel it as 22-24 oC. Therefore, with floor cooling the

room temperature can be increased compared to air-conditioning system.

The floors of the building take on a cooling effect role, thanks to the insertion of embedded

Cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) pipes in this building within the concrete floor slabs.

During the day, the stored cooling effect (water) is released from the floor slabs to the rooms

above and below them, directly contributing to the cooling effect of the building that is also

supplemented minimally by air-cooling systems. And ambient cooling and evaporation

during the night cools the water for use the following days. Radiant floor take advantage of

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effective temperature. The radiant-floor system take advantages of the phenomenon that the

sun’s rays coming in through the skylight only warm up the surfaces they hit not the air. The

heat never really enters the space. With this cooling system, the sunlight hits the floor. And

heat is taken away by circulating water in the embedded PEX pipes in the floor. Since the

slab never warms up, the solar energy never becomes a load in the space. Radiant cooling

takes advantage of the fact that it is more efficient to remove heat from water than to remove

it from air. The energy required to pump air is more than the horsepower to pump water to

remove the same quantity of heat.

ZEO achieves 75% of its cooling requirements by radiant cooling. While the remaining 25%

of its cooling requirement is achieved by conventional air-conditioners, powered by

electricity generated by its own the BIPV system.

Figure 3.4: Underfloor cooling: application concept.

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Figure 3.5: Close in view of the PEX pipes installation in floor slab.

3.3 LIGHTING SYSTEM

A typical Malaysian building would have been all walled up, and the dark interiors lit with

multiple artificial lights but not so the ZEO building. It is 100% daylit during daytime. It

appears to embrace the sun and this is just one of the many tricks employed in the building to

conserve energy. This building applied good orientation for daylighting by having majority of

its windows and doors faced towards North and South.

Figure 3.6: ZEO Building orientation

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The windows have been integrated with mirror lightshelves which functioned as daylight

facade. Besides, the building itself has Step-in design which provide self-shading. The roof

also transparent and thus allows light coming into the rooms on top of the building.

Figure 3.7: Step-in design (self-shading) in the GEO Building.

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Figure 3.8: Typical section

Figure 3.9: Lighting design.

The implementation of high performance Double Glazing Windows with Integrated Blinds

also complements the call for energy efficiency. Glass used in double glazing window for 17

thermal insulation is known as Low E, or low-emissivity glass. It has a transparent metallic

coating that works in two ways to economize heating energy. The dual action coating reflects

cool air back into the room, whilst allowing light from the sun to pass through. Besides, its

ability is also to harness high visible light at low infra-red (IR) and ultra-violet (UV)

transmittance. As for the integrated blinds, the lower surface is painted with white and the

upper surface is the layer of reflective aluminium.

While the Reflective Mirrors or mirror lightshelf helps enable diffuse sunlight to be thrown

deeper into the building thus increases the brightness inside the building. The result is the

effective harnessing of natural daylight minus, to a great degree, unnecessary heat radiation

into the building. Thus, the usage of air conditioner will be minimized in the building.

Moreover, the noise from outside will be reduced at the same time too.

Figure 3.10: Double Glazing Windows (Vision Windows).

3.4 INDOOR ENVIRONMENT

Careful thought has also gone into the preservation of air quality achieved via the process of

dehumidification. Given the fact that dehumidification of air quality in buildings consumes a

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great amount of electricity, a desiccant heat wheel that operates by replacing incoming hot

and humid fresh air with cooler and drier exhaust air is used to counteract this effect.

Inside the building, energy efficient lighting fixtures are used. The LED tasklight which

consume 6.2 W power and suspended T5 tube (2x) up/down lighter c/w DALI ballast.

Another energy efficient is the office equipment where PC with CRT monitor with ~120-180

W power consumption are not used by the workers. Instead, they use PC with LCD monitor

with ~70-90 W power consumption. Besides that, netbook or laptop with only ~15-35 W

power consumption also encouraged. 80% of the PC used in the ZEO building is laptop.

Rainwater is use for condenser side cooling system and irrigation. The use of piped water is

only 1/3 of the total amount of water used for ZEO building.

Sensors are widely integrated in the building, some of them are daylight sensor where the

brightness sensor (ranges from 1-20000 lux) can send switching telegrams to EIB actuators

when the brightness exceeds or falls below a specified threshold. Then the light will be

automatically on. The occupancy sensors consist of physical sensors or movement detector

and thermal movement detection.

3.5 SUMMARY

A standard building consumes between 200 and 300 kWh/sqm annually and it is equivalent to

150-200 kg/sqm per year. But a well-designed building like GEO only consumes 35

kWh/sqm/year! The building sector is still the single polluting sector in the world. According

to IEA, the sector not only consumes 40% of energy, it also releases 30% of greenhouse

gases and produces 25%-40% of solid waste. Thus now it is time to design building so that

they do not give further construction on earth.

According to Poul Erik Kristenen, Managing Director of IEN Consultants Sdn. Bhd.

Malaysian buildings are known to be ‘leaky’. With hot and humid air leaking into the

building, additional energy is needed to dehumidify buildings. While Malaysia neither is nor

used to building ‘air-tight’ buildings, what seems to be lacking is the awareness of a better

usage of materials in different conditions.

He says Malaysian building do not need Low E glazing for its window as it is designed for

cold climate countries. He added that what we need here is specifically selected solar glazing

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or the solar control glazing that still allows light in but keeps the UV and Infrared rays out,

which will save on the cooling load.

4.0 DIAMOND BUILDING

Figure 4.1: Diamond Building in Putrajaya towers over (from left) Gregers Reimann of IEN

Consultants, architect Nafisah Radin and Energy Commision head of promotion and

communication Md Yuha Ismail –Photo by Mohd Sahar, The Star.

It looked like an upside-down pyramid with top buried in the ground and greenish glass

window. This building is the Energy Commission headquarters which built with green

concept. Officially launched by deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in May

2011, the building is home to the Energy Commission of Malaysia.

IEN Consultants Sdn Bhd’s third green building project in Putrajaya, the first two being the

Green Energy Office (GEO) Building, currently the most energy-efficient office building is

South-east Asia, and the Low Energy Office (LEO) Building. It is completed on December

2009 with construction cost of RM 60 million, and the client is Senandung Budi SDN BHD.

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The Diamond Building in Precinct 2, Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia, an

energy efficient and sustainable seven-storey building on a 5000 square meter site is the first

building to be awarded the Malaysian Green Building Index (GBI) Platinum award and the

Singapore Building & Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark for Buildings (Overseas)

Platinum award.

At the start of the project, the consulting team went on a series of study trips, which included

trips to Singapore in 2005 to study the green buildings there. In Thailand, they were

impressed with the work of architect Dr Soontom Boonyatikam, who eventually became the

principal architect for the Diamond Building.

4.1 LIGHTING SYSTEM

Figure 4.2: The atrium of the Diamond Building, designed to optimize daylight utilization.

The atrium was designed to optimise daylight utilisation with reflector panels and an

automatic roller-blind system that responds to the intensity as well as the angle of the

sunlight. The sensors detect how much light is to be allowed and activate the blinds

appropriately. The air in the atrium was cool, despite the bright sunlight from the skylight.

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Figure 4.3: Daylight utilization

Figure 4.4: Control of daylight and glare

“It’s all natural light,” said architect Nafisah Radin, whose firm NR Architect was involved in

the design of the building. The light comes from the roof through a light trough.

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The offices and worktables are all placed near the glass windows either looking towards the

outside of the building or into the atrium. This is to make best use of available daylight. But

somewhere on the seventh floor is the lounge area, located in an area where there are no

windows. Yet, the colourful area with its sofas and paintings on the wall are brightly

illuminated. On the other hand, the public areas such as the corridors are located in the centre

where there is the least amount of light. In addition, each workstation is also provided with a

task light, which promotes lower energy consumption compared to a traditional office. Staffs

are advised not to put too many items on window sills, so as not to affect daylight

performance. Everything is designed so that the amount of light is always at a comfortable

level, and computer screens do not fade out in the glare.

One of the major design targets for the Diamond Building was to make it highly daylit.

During the day, daylight is deflected onto the ceiling by the facade mirror light shelf system

which ensures a good daylight distribution of up to 5 m from the facade. 

Two sides of the building face north and south. While the sun’s path is from east to west, it

will sometimes tilt to the north or to the south. The tilt angle is about 25°, so the building’s

facade is also tilted at 25°.

“The north and south facades are self-shading,” said Reimann. “Of course you will still have

the morning sun and afternoon sun in the east and west. But the time of exposure to direct

sunlight would also be lessened because of the inclination.” The solar exposure on the east

and west sides is reduced by about 40%, thus there is only diffused sunlight which is softer.

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Figure 4.5: A building shape defined by sun.

The windows that face the atrium gradually increase in size from the upper floors down to the

lower floors where there is less sunlight. Reflective panels (which resemble half a Christmas

tree) on the fourth and fifth floors, tilted at 10 degrees, help to reflect light across to the first

and second floors.

The interiors are also naturally lit through the use of mirror light shelves. Installed above the

windows, these deflect daylight onto the white ceiling to illuminate the entire room. And yes,

there is a reason why everything is painted white.

Even on an overcast day, lights are not needed as the automatic blinds will be fully open.

“When the blinds are fully closed (during bright sunshine), they still let 30% of the light

through, so daylight can be used throughout the day.” Reimann said it is only during a heavy

rainstorm, when it gets really dark, that lights have to be turned on. “The electric lights are

off 50% of the time. This building’s energy consumption is only about one-third that of a

normal building,” said Reimann.

You can still find window blinds in the building even though there is no harsh light. This is

because daylight changes, and the blinds are needed for those periods when the light is

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glaring. In the future, task lights or table lamps will be distributed to everyone. That will

ensure lights are only switched on for individual needs.

“When you are more than 50 years old, your eyes need 30% more light,” said Reimann.

“Right now, that person would switch on the light and everyone else also gets the light. That

is of course a waste of energy. Once we distribute the task lights, only that person would

switch on his or her task light.”

The design of the building calls for a large void in its middle to allow daylight to filter in.

Some might see that as space wastage but not Reimann. “Well, many buildings have central

atriums, so I don’t think you can consider it wasted space. Just think of shopping malls. They

also have atriums even though in principle, it could have been expensive rental space. But

buildings (or shopping malls) with a very deep floor plate lose their attractiveness, hence, the

common use of a central atrium.

In Denmark it is illegal to build work spaces without a certain amount of daylight. This

means that most Malaysian buildings would be illegal in Denmark and would not get their

building permit. I know that Malaysia does not yet have such a regulation, but perhaps it will

be coming. People simply feel much better when they are in visual contact with the outside.”

Reimann says: “For the lighting system, we saved almost 80% of energy, half from the use of

energy- efficient lighting fixtures and half from use of daylighting.

4.2 WATER EFFICIENCY

The Diamond Building also adopted the Floor Slab Cooling (FSC) technology, the second

building to do so in Malaysia after the GEO Building. Reimann explains that the technology

makes the building structure function as a thermal storage system by embedding flexible 22

mm PERT pipes in the reinforced concrete slabs during construction. Forty per cent of the

cooling comes from chilled water slabs.

He says: “At night, 18°C cold water is circulated in the slabs to cool them down to about

21°C. During the daytime, the system is shut off, and the floor slab passively absorbs heat

gains from people, computers and solar gains.” 

He pointed out that the advantages of the floor slab cooling system include reducing cooling

transport energy by 64%; shifting much of the cooling to the slabs so that the air handling

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unit (AHU) system can be down-sized by about 30%; and shifting 30-40% of the cooling to

night time so that the building can enjoy lower off-peak energy rates.

The Diamond Building has another unique feature to boast of, the first-of-its-kind heat

recovery shower system, which was installed for the convenience of those who opt to cycle to

work. The system provides hot showers that are heated to about 38°C by solar heating.

In this case, the copper pipe of the incoming cold water, which is about 27-28°C, is coiled

around the pipe of the outgoing hot water, which allows the latter to transfer about 30-40% of

its heat to the incoming pipe. This reduces the energy demand of the heater.

Reimann says: “In the big scheme of things, this system does not make such a big impact as

the energy consumption for heaters is very little. However, it is a fun installation and we

installed it in such a way that people can see how it works. Hopefully, the system will inspire

more people to give more thought to heat recovery systems.”

The Diamond Building also has in place a grey water system. Instead of going to the sewer,

all water from the sinks and floor traps (grey water) is piped separately through a sand filter

to a collection tank from where it is re-used for the irrigation of a mini-wetland.  Besides,

rainwater is harvested for toilets and gardens. Thus saving 70% to 80% on water usage.

This system helps recycle about 2,000-3,000 litres of water every week day. Together with

the use of water-efficient fittings and rainwater harvesting, the building has successfully

reduced its water consumption by an amount that is equivalent to the use of 12 households. 

4.3 VENTILATION

Unlike traditional office buildings which often consume a lot of energy to ventilate the

basement car park, the Diamond Building basement car park features a sunken courtyard that

helps promote natural ventilation. Energy- efficient equipment and motors are installed in the

car park, as well as carbon monoxide (CO) sensors, which only activates the ventilation

system when CO exceeds certain limits. 

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4.4 ENERGY EFFICIENCY

According to associate director and energy consultant of IEN Consultants Gregers Reimann,

a normal building in Malaysia consumes about 210 kWh/m² year. In comparison, the

Diamond Building consumes just under one third of that, or 65 kWh/m² year (excluding the

energy generated by solar photovoltaics).

He says: “The building was designed to have an energy index of 85 kWh/m²/year, so, right

now, it is actually more efficient than what it was designed for. However, we need to keep in

mind that the building is not yet fully occupied. Even so, the energy index should still be

within the design target with full occupancy.” 

Says Reimann, the shape of the building came about after a study of the solar path for the site

was conducted. He says: “We found that a 25° tilt angle of the facades ensures that the north

and south facades are fully self-shaded during the hottest mid-day hours. As for the east and

the west facades, the tilting facade helps to reduce the solar impact by 41%.”

Thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, currently the most efficient type in Malaysia, that

were installed on the roof of the Diamond Building provide about 1,400 kWh/kWp per year

or 10% of the building’s energy needs. This has helped cut its energy bill by about RM40,000

every year. 

With the implementation of the feed-in tariff, this savings is estimated to be about three to

four times higher. This also translates into a savings of 63 tonnes of CO² which, together with

the 1,350 tonnes of CO² savings from energy efficiency, is equivalent to taking 700 cars off

the road, assuming that each car travels a distance of 12,000 km per year. 

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Figure 4.6: Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV)

4.5 SUMMARY

According to IEN Consultants Sdn Bhd, the Diamond Building has 57% electricity savings

(CO² emission savings correspond to taking 324 cars off the road), 71.4 kWp solar PV plant

(CO² emission savings correspond to taking 30 cars off the road), Water-efficient fittings,

rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling (water saved corresponds to consumption of 12

households), Conducive working environment (50% daylighting, good air quality and passive

slab cooling), Additional savings come from the 35% savings on the district cooling

consumption for the building.

Amazingly, all these green features combine to create an energy savings of almost RM1

million every year in the building’s operational cost. Reimann says: “The green cost of the

Diamond Building is only about 6% (including PV) with a payback period of about 3.5 years. 28

There is a common perception that going green is expensive, but the real fact is that not going

green can be even more expensive. It just makes perfect economic sense to go green.” 

But even with all these energy-saving and green features, one thing is still needed to ensure

optimum performance – people’s habits and attitudes. Malaysians in general seem averse to

any sunlight and would pull down the blinds in a second.

Md Yuha Ismail, head of promotion and communication in the Energy Commission, said the

staff had been prepared for their new experience even before they moved to the building in

June last year.

“We had a series of talks and we even brought them to this building just to have them

experience it beforehand. Even now, we encourage them to not use the lifts but the stairs

instead. It is an ongoing process. And it’s been good, because we achieved an energy index of

65kWh/m2 per year, when our initial target was 85.” Said Md Yuha There are regular talks

on sustainability by experts for the staff.

5.0 G TOWER HOTEL

Aside from government building, the awareness to go green arouse among other business too.

One of them is the establishment of G Tower, the first green hotel in Malaysia. It was built on

March 28, 2010. G Tower Hotel is proving a force to be reckoned with by winning big at the

Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards (HAPA) 2010 – 2012 and Malaysia Interior Design

Awards (MIDA) 2010. Formerly known as The G City Club Hotel, it is now re-branded as

the G Tower Hotel. The re-branding exercise follows after the hotel’s recognition across

various industry awards. G Tower’s New Working Concept is a pioneer in the real estate

industry, changing the way buildings are being designed, constructed and operated in

Malaysia by harnessing the latest technologies and innovation to build Green and Smart. G

Tower was built in order to save the energy, water and the environment. Through the

adoption of the latest Green Building Technologies to achieve a more sustainable, low-energy

and healthy environment, G Tower boasts a 25% energy reduction compared with other

buildings of similar size and location.

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Figure 5.1: G Tower Jalan Tun Razak

G Tower is located just 30 metres from the Ampang Park Light Rail Transit (LRT) subway

which is 400 meters from the KLCC Park perimeter and only 45 minutes by road to KL

international Airport. It is also close to the foreign diplomatic community of Jalan Ampang

and the U-Thant enclave. Strategically located at the crossroads of Jalan Tun Razak and Jalan

Ampang, the G Tower has strong environmental-friendly credentials due to its placement

within Malaysia’s first internationally green-related building G Tower. The green credentials

are further complimented by full MSC Malaysia Cyber centre status certification,

highlighting rooms and services that feature a fully converged data and information network.

The building is a 30-storey twin tower owned by Goldis Berhad and was built at an estimated

cost of RM 470 million. This boutique hotel is a mixed-use development containing a 180-

room 5-star hotel that employs contemporary minimalist concept that provides guests more

space to work, a 100000 ft2 of general office space, another 400000 ft2 spread amongst 112

CEO duplex suites and numerous meeting rooms. Additionally, there is a private club, lobby

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bar or café, rooftop bar, other food & beverage outlets and a wellness floor with gym, yoga,

spa and pool facilities.

5.1 CONCEPT

The tower recently received the Green Mark Gold Award given out by the Building and

Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore and GBI Certified Award. Located at the

crossroads of two major thoroughfares in downtown Kuala Lumpur, G Tower was a huge

green walls and refreshing rooftop gardens. The building was designed from the start,

properly oriented to the sun, has more water features, overlay green walls, koi pond and green

walls system to help cooling effects. All these things assist greatly during design and

construction of the building.

The 180 room hotel provides superb business facilities and is specifically designed for

corporate and business executives. The entire building is equipped floor-to-floor with fibre

optic and CAT6 cables to ensure superior high-speed broadband internet access. Wi-Fi is

available everywhere. Each room comes equipped with high-speed broadband on demand to

every room, Wi-Fi hotspots, IP telephony, IT Concierge, business secretarial services and of

course, access to The Club, an exclusive private club on the penthouse floor of GTower.

All rooms in GTower Hotel come loaded with state-of-the-art technology and gadgets such as

iPod docks, IP televisions, complimentary broadband as well as IP telephony. Necessary

comforts for the busy executive to recharge and get inspired are close at hand, such as

executive writing desks, LCD flat screen television in the bathroom, premium toiletries, rain

shower, designer furniture and slumber beds.

Other than that, all four function rooms which are located on the Mezzanine floor of GTower

benefit from natural sunlight and fully-integrated audio visual equipment such as start of the

art audio visual equipment, high-speed internet access and 46” LCD televisions.

5.2 ENERGY EFFICIENCY

The building is designed to maximize energy. Energy efficient building systems will cut

carbon dioxide emissions by at least 60%. The IT infrastructure alone is expected to produce

30% energy savings. 3Com’s Intelligent Building Solutions (3CiBS) products was installed.

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It was the products which combines state of the art hardware and software that optimize

network capacity while reducing power consumption and carbon emissions.

The building use double glazed glass panel with a layer of vacuum trapped in between that

cuts down on heat transmission via neither conduction nor radiation. It was allowing for

maximum entry of natural light while minimizing the amount of not only heat transmission

but also noise pollution. For parts which receive direct heat from the sun, less glass is used.

Furthermore, this will cuts down electricity and air-conditioner usage.

The building also used efficient lighting system with motion sensor in toilets and staircases.

Light will automatically switch on when sensors are activated by movements in these areas

and thus control and minimize the usage of electricity.

Light fixtures in the hotel utilize low energy LED lighting, energy savings PLC and T5

lighting providing ambient lux level, whilst minimizing energy consumption. Green food for

thought, a LED light bulb can reduce energy consumption by 80-90% and last around

100,000 hours. It can reduce the cooling load by 5.4%.

There were also efficient elevators and escalators. They will have dual mode system in which

escalators will operate on a slower speed when not in use.

5.3 WATER EFFICIENCY

Another green initiative was a system to harvest rainwater which is then used to irrigate

plants and vertical greens found throughout the entire building. Thus this extensive

landscaping with sky gardens and green walls was help to cool the building and improve air

quality because green walls play an essential role as natural purifiers, absorbing carbon

dioxide and releasing oxygen in return to help maintain air quality.

The rooms are all fitted with water efficiency fittings remotely connected to the building’s

sophisticated building managing system which monitors water usage as conservation is vital.

These efficient fittings such as faucets, toilets, and shower also used to monitor leakage. All

sanitary and tap fittings are green rated for water efficiency. Reducing the usage of water,

without affecting comfort levels.

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5.4 SITE & PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The building was direct link to LRT station (mass transit train). This was monitoring and

reduction of construction waste. Other than that, the building’s material used was the

recycled material. Some of them are wine bottles that are embedded into the bar, extensive

use of cengal wood which was part of the outdoor decking at our corporative office on the

floors, the glass on the floor is bullet proof and all outdoor decking comprises of eco-wood is

fabricated from rice husk and does not use wood.

Figure 5.2: Cengal wood floor with bullet-proof glass

Figure 5.3: Outdoor decking comprises of eco-wood is fabricated from rice husk and does not

use wood.

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The building uses extensive green planting such as green walls, green roofs and trees in order

to reduce toxicity and improve indoor environment. The carpets and the external timber

decking use green certified materials that are recyclable. While the interior décor features

some old furniture that’s refurbished and reused. Some parts of the building also used old

recycled timber strips like these for its walls and flooring which give a different rustic feel to

a modern state of the art building. Even the paint that has gone onto the room walls feature is

low volatile organic compound, reducing toxicity and improving on indoor environmental

quality. Hotel amenities and paper used are made from green or recycled materials.

Figure 5.4: Rooftop bar in G Tower

5.5 ENERGY, WATER & WASTE INNOVATIONS

Hotel operations often use a vast quantity of chemical cleanser agents. At G Tower Hotel,

they used sourced green friendly cleaning agents that are good not only for the environment

but also for the guests as well. The infinity pool, with the KL skyline as a backdrop is a

showcase eco friendly pool. Even the swimming pool in this green mark certified building

uses salt instead of chemicals like chlorine to keep the water clean. Besides, this eco-friendly

pool which reduces the use of chemicals for cleaning also ensures good water quality and less

impact on the environment.

Another unique hidden feature is that the pool is heated by waste energy from the air-

conditioning system. Besides, waste heat recovered from G Tower’s air-conditioning units

also was used to generate hot water for the rooms.

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Figure 5.5: G Tower Hotel Infinity Pool

Indoor environment quality is closely monitored through carbon monoxide monitoring

system at basement car parks, carbon dioxide sensors, refrigerant leak detection system and

other means. Once it exceeds a certain level, the system will pump fresh air into the basement

car parks. It will also have a system to monitor the carbon dioxide inside the building.

5.5 SUMMARY

G tower is Malaysia’s very first certified green building. It gives a lot of benefits on saving

the energy used. It was built in order to achieve a better sustainable, low energy built

environment by improving energy and water efficiency, indoor environmental quality, green

planting, lowering heat transmission and using environmentally-friendly material throughout

the building. Other than that, the building has been designed to achieve a Grade A rating,

which is defined according to location, connectivity and hardware.

To build the green building such as G Tower is not costly. Malaysia, however, still faces

hurdles when it comes to changing the mindset of old school developers to switch to

sustainable building methods as some concerns that going green is expensive. However,

according to the Architects that Property report South East Asia, the increasing is minimal. A

building with combinations of active and passive design as well as green technologies will

only add a small amount to the building cost that is between 1 to 5 per cent compared to a

conventional building. G Tower building used green technology in it concept. Those that are

costly only apply to existing buildings that are incorporating green design later on.

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6.0 CONCLUSION

Indeed, green buildings contribute a lot in preserving and conserving the earth as they

represent design and construction that are sensitive to environment now and in the future.

However, it is not a practice in Malaysia because of the many challenges these programmes

face. From the research conducted the main hurdles identified are lack of awareness,

education and information on the benefits of the construction on green buildings.

The findings also show that the main obstacle in adoption of green building in the country is

to create a paradigm shift in environmental issue for Malaysians, especially those in

construction industry such as architect, engineer and developers. They are concerning more

on the cost in development. Although cost is an issue, developers today need to change their

mindset and should not look for the cheapest answer but instead aim for the best long-term

solution. They should know that building with green concept has higher commercial value

compared the conventional building. The diagram below shows the comparison of energy

consumption by conventional building and green building discussed before.

Figure 5.1: Comparison of energy consumption by green and conventional building.36

The standard energy efficient index for a building is between 150-220 kWh/m2/year. All of

the three government buildings consume much lesser than that especially GEO Building.

Hopefully in the future more green buildings will be built in Malaysia so that we can return

this borrowed earth for next generation in the best shape.

6.0 REFERENCES

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Azah Ahmad (2008). Showcase Project: 92 kWp BIPV System Installation at Pusat Tenaga

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Pusat Tenaga Malaysia (2008). KTAK Low Energy Office (LEO) Building & PTM-Zero

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