THE EFFECT OF GREEN ROOF TECHNOLOGY AND

CONVENTIONAL ZINC ROOF TO DIFFERENT BUILDING

MATERIALS IN TROPICAL CLIMATE

Khor Jo Anne

Bachelor of Engineering with Honours

(Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering)

2010

UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK

R13a

BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS THESIS

Judul: The effect of green roof technology and conventional zinc roof to different building

materials in tropical climate

SESI PENGAJIAN: 2009/2010

Saya KHOR JO ANNE

(HURUF BESAR)

mengaku membenarkan tesis * ini disimpan di Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti

Malaysia Sarawak dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Tesis adalah hakmilik Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

2. Pusat Khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dibenarkan membuat

salinan untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja.

3. Membuat pendigitan untuk membangunkan Pangkalan Data kandungan Tempatan.

4. Pusat khidmat Maklumat Akademik, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak dibenarkan membuat salinan

tesis ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi pengajian tinggi.

5. ** Sila tandakan ( √ ) di kota yang berkenaan

SULIT (Mengandungi maklumat uang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan

Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972).

TERHAD (Mengandungi maklumat TERHAD yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/

Badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan).

TIDAK

TERHAD

Disahkan oleh

(TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (TANDATANGAN PENYELIA)

Alamat tetap:

50, Lorong 10, Pn. Ervina Juanidi

Tmn. Bukit Mas, 34000, Nama Penyelia

Taiping. Perak. Malaysia.

Tarikh: Tarikh:

CATATAN * Tesis dimaksudkan sebagai tesis bagi Ijazah Doktor Falsafah, Sarjana dan Sarjana Muda.

** Jika tesis ini SULIT atau TERHAD, sila lampirkan surat daripada pihak berkuasa/organisasi berkenaan

dengan menyatakan sekali sebab dan tempoh tesis ini perlu dikelaskan sebagai SULIT dan TERHAD.

APPROVAL SHEET

This project report which entitled “The effect of green roof technology and

conventional zinc roof to different building materials in tropical climate,’’ was

prepared by Khor Jo Anne (16456) is hereby read and approved by:

Pn. Ervina Junaidi Date

Project Supervisor

THE EFFECT OF GREEN ROOF

TECHNOLOGY AND CONVENTIONAL ZINC

ROOF TO DIFFERENT BUILDING

MATERIALS IN TROPICAL CLIMATE

KHOR JO ANNE

Thesis is submitted to

Faculty of Engineering, University Malaysia Sarawak

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of Bachelor of Engineering

With Honors (Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering)

2010

To my beloved family and friends

i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and foremost, I would like to express my appreciation to my final year

project supervisor, Pn. Ervina Junaidi and external examiner, Pn. Mahsuri Yusof for

giving me useful guidelines and advice to complete this final year project.

Appreciations also goes to Chemical Engineering and Energy Sustainability lecturer

Mr. Nazeri Abdul Rahman, Mechanical Laboratory Technician, Mr. Masri Zaini and

staffs of Faculty of Engineering in UNIMAS for their cooperation and allow me to

use the facilities that have been provided by UNIMAS.

I would also wish to thank my parents who give me precious information,

support and encouragement in completing this project. Sincere thanked also goes to

my dearest friend, Jack Oh Chee Pin who has inspired and heartens me to overcome

all the obstacles and setbacks before accomplishing this project.

Last but not least, I would like to thank those who have helped me directly or

indirectly in completing this Final Year Project. Thanks you for all your support,

help and advises.

ii

ABSTRACT

The aim of this research is to compare and identify the effect of green roof

technology and conventional zinc roof to different building materials in tropical

climate. Four building models measuring 0.5m×0.5m×0.5m each were built which

are, wood and brick models with zinc roof and green roof for each building material

respectively. The experiment was carried out by measuring the interior air

temperature of each model every hour from 0800h to 1700h for five sunny days.

Then, the average temperature for each model was computed. The result has shown

that the average temperature differences for the brick material are higher than that for

the wood material. For both materials, model with green roof has shown higher

temperature compare to model with zinc roof. The results gained were affected by

the inconsistency of wind and the cloud appearances during the experimentation

period. Besides that, the humidity level in the models and the reflectivity of the zinc

roof has caused the temperature of models with zinc roof to decrease.

iii

ABSTRAK

Matlamat kajian adalah untuk mengkaji kesan teknologi bumbung hijau

berbanding bumbung zink konvensional terhadap bahan binaan berlainan, iaitu kayu

dan bata di iklim khatulistiwa. Empat model bangunan berukuran 0.5m×0.5m×0.5m

setiap satu telah dibina iaitu model-model kayu dan bata dengan bumbung zink dan

bumbung hijau untuk setiap bahan binaan masing masing. Eksperimen dijalankan

dengan mengukur suhu udara dalaman setiap model setiap jam dari 0800h hingga

1700h selama lima hari yang mengandungi cuaca cerah. Purata suhu untuk setiap

model untuk setiap jam dikira. Keputusan menunjukkan purata suhu untuk bata

adalah lebih tinggi berbanding purata suhu untuk kayu. Bagi kedua-dua bahan

binaan, model bumbung hijau menunjukkan suhu yang lebih tinggi berbanding

model zinc. Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi keputusan eksperimen ini adalah

kelajuan angin yang tidak konsisten dan keadaan awan yang tidak sekata. Selain itu,

keputusan eksperimen ini juga dipengaruhi oleh kadar kelembapan di dalam setiap

model and juga kebolehpantulan bumbung zink dan ini telah menyebabkan suhu

dalaman model zink untuk turun.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Acknowledgement i

Abstract ii

Abstrak iii

Table of Contents iv

List of Tables vii

List of Figures ix

List of Nomenclatures x

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Green Building 1

1.2 Problem Statement 4

1.3 Objectives 5

Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction to Green Building 6

2.1.1 Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI) 9

2.2 Energy Usage in Malaysia 10

2.3 Green Roof Technology 12

2.3.1 Types of Green Roof 14

2.3.2 Green Roof System 18

2.3.3 Type of Grass 21

v

2.4 Building Materials 23

2.4.1 Plywood 23

2.4.2 Brick 25

Chapter 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction 27

3.2 Concepts Generation 29

3.2.1 Working Principle 29

3.2.2 Experimentation Parameters 30

3.3 Preparation of Materials 31

3.3.1 Bricks 31

3.3.2 Plywood 32

3.3.3 Carpet Grass 32

3.4 Fabrication of Model Unit 34

3.4.1 Building the Models 34

3.4.2 Green Roof Fabrication 38

3.5 Experimentation Preparation 39

3.5.1 Determining Parameters to be Evaluated 39

3.5.2 Preliminary Experimentation Procedures 40

3.6 Experimentation Procedures 41

Chapter 4 RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Introduction 43

4.2 Wood Models Results 44

4.3 Brick Models Results 46

vi

4.4 Temperature Differences Comparison for Brick and

Wood Models 49

4.5 Discussions 52

Chapter 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECCOMENDATIONS

5.1 Conclusions 54

5.2 Recommendations 56

REFERENCES 58

vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure Title Page

1.1 Average Price of Crude Oil in Western Texas Intermediate

(WTI) and Tapis crude from 2000 to 2009

2

2.1 G-Tower 8

2.2 Energy usage per capita for ASEAN countries from 1990 to

2001

11

2.3 Green roof 13

2.4 Green roof in Lot 10, Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia

14

2.5 Extensive green roof 15

2.6 Intensive green roof 16

2.7 Green roof complete system 18

2.8 Green grid system 19

2.9 Green roof block system 19

2.10 Pre-cultivated vegetation blanket system 20

2.11 Carpet grass 21

3.1 Flow chart for the designing, fabrication and

experimentation procedures

28

3.2 Green building system 29

3.3 Flow chart of the concept generation of the project 31

3.4 Carpet grass (Axonopus affinis) 33

3.5 Wood model with zinc roof (Model 1) 35

3.6 Wood model with green roof (Model 2) 35

viii

3.7 Brick model with zinc roof (Model 3) 36

3.8 Brick model with green roof (Model 4) 36

3.9 Stretcher bond 37

3.10 Green roof plastic insulation layer at the bottom 39

3.11 Thermo-hygrometer 41

4.1 Chart for average temperature of wood models 45

4.2 Chart for average temperature of brick models 48

4.3 Average temperature differences of wood models and brick

models

51

5.1 A wind barrier attached to fence 56

5.2 Close-up of the wind barrier 57

ix

LIST OF TABLES

Table Title Page

2.1 Comparison of extensive and intensive green roofs 17

2.2 Average physical properties of rubber wood plywood 24

2.3 Physical and thermal properties of building bricks ASTM C

62 standards

26

3.1 Information of carpet grass 33

3.2 Summary of building material and type of roof for each

model

37

4.1 Temperature (ºC) of wood model with zinc roof, T1 44

4.2 Temperature (ºC) of wood model with green roof, T2 45

4.3 Temperature (ºC) of brick model with zinc roof, T3 47

4.4 Temperature (ºC) of brick model with green roof, T4 47

4.5 Average Temperature Difference of Wood Models 49

4.6 Average Temperature Difference of Brick Models 50

x

LIST OF NOMENCLATURES

PTM - Pusat Tenaga Malaysia

WTI - Western Texas Intermediate

PAM - Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia

ACEM - Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia

USGBC - United States Green Building Council

GBI - Green Building Index

BCA - Building and Construction Authority

MSC - Multimedia Super Corridor

ASTM - American Standard of Testing and Materials

NRAF - National Rent A Fence

ASEAN - Association of South East Asia Nations

T1 - Temperature (ºC) of wood model with zinc roof

T2 - Temperature (ºC) of wood model with green roof

T3 - Temperature (ºC) of brick model with zinc roof

T4 - Temperature (ºC) of brick model with green roof

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Green Building

Green building or known as sustainable building is defined as a building that

used the least amount of natural resources during its entire life cycle. Besides that,

green building also has the objective that is to protect the human health and the

environment from negative impact through its recyclable and environmental-friendly

building material. The popularity of the designing a green building is increasing

because of the decreasing in natural resources worldwide (Brownstone et. al, 2004).

Such depletion has also caused the price of the natural resources such as fossil fuels

to increase rapidly causing the world to consume energy conservatively and

efficiently. Based on the statistic obtained from Malaysia Energy Center (PTM), the

fuel prices has been rising steadily from 2001 till reaching its peak at 2008 as shown

in Figure 1.1.

2

Figure1.1: Average Price of Crude Oil in Western Texas Intermediate (WTI) and

Tapis crude from 2000 to 2009 (PTM, 2009)

Fossil fuels burning that are still currently the major energy contributor to

human activities is the greatest source of greenhouse gases. Combustion of fossil

fuels produces carbon dioxide gas that is causing the earth average surface

temperature to increase as the carbon dioxide is trapping the heat from the sun.

As the sunlight reaches the earth surface, part if the energy is radiate back

towards the space as infrared radiation. The radiation tends to be absorbed by the

greenhouse gases in the atmosphere such as water vapor, carbon dioxide and

methane. Then, the heated atmosphere will radiate the heated infrared radiation back

to the earth surface and increase the earth average surface temperature and this

process is known as greenhouse effect and leads to global warming.

3

The greenhouse gases cause the occurrence of the greenhouse effect. These

greenhouse gases are emitted from the effect of development around the world as the

energy needs are predominantly generated through the fossil fuels combustion such

as crude oil, natural gas and coal. For example, the usage of air-conditioning in

commercial and residential building has tremendous negative impacts to the

environment. Therefore effort should be done to reduce the usage of air-conditioning

through the usage of passive cooling methods. In addition, the generation of

electricity from fossil fuel combustion could be replaced with other renewable

sources such as solar power.

As the greenhouse effect is getting worse and its impact to the world

ecosystem is becoming apparent, a new concept and guidelines of a more

environmental friendly building was introduced by scientists and engineers. This new

concept is known as Green Building (Brownstone et. al, 2004). In Malaysia, the

Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) and the Association of Consulting Engineers

Malaysia (ACEM) introduced this concept and criteria of green building through the

Malaysia’s Green Building Index on 3 January 2009 (Tan, 2009). The purpose of

introducing this concept is to promote the Malaysia construction and building

industry towards an environmental friendly industry. In addition, it also serves to

raise awareness about environmental issues and education among the public.

4

1.2 Problem Statement

Green building technology is currently a popular research around the world as

the engineers and scientist try to reduce the energy consumption of building as part

of the measure to reduce global warming (Brownstone et. al, 2004).

The concept of green building technology is to design and create buildings

where the usage of natural recourses such as energy and water will keep to the

minimum level. This is achieved by using renewable energy as power supply and

reducing the usage of electrical equipments such as air-conditioning and lighting

system. However, most of these researches done by the United States and European

nations might not be suitable to be applied in Malaysia buildings scenario as

Malaysia has tropical climate compare to those colder Western countries. Besides

that, green building technologies has not achieve a great attention from local

researchers and scientist to create the green technology that could be adapted by

engineers and contractors to be applied into typical building in Malaysia.

The basic materials of buildings in tropical climate like Malaysia are made up

of wood or bricks. The conventional roof of these buildings is made from zinc. As

part of this project, the approach and application of green roof technology would be

tested and experimented using model buildings for the wood and brick materials to

gauge the effectiveness of green building technology in Malaysia.

At the end of this report, it is hope that the green building technology such as

the green roof technology suggested here could be apply effectively in other

buildings in Malaysia as well as buildings in other tropical countries to improve the

5

passive cooling while reducing usage of air conditioning and increasing energy

efficiency of the buildings.

1.3 Objectives

The objective of this research is to identify the effect of green roof technology and

conventional zinc roof to different building materials in tropical climate by

determining the interior temperature difference of the model buildings. The building

materials here refer to wood and brick. Four building models were built at the size of

mmm 5.05.05.0 each. Interior temperature of each model was taken every hour

from 0800h to 1700h for five sunny days. Then, the average temperature of each

model was calculated. The average temperature difference between the green roof

and the zinc roof for each building materials were also computed.

6

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction to Green Building

Green building, also known as sustainable building is a building that used the

least amount of natural resources during its entire life cycle, which include

designing, constructing, maintaining, operating and finally removing. Green building

must also be able to protect environment that is to bring the minimum negative

impact to it. Another characteristic of a green building is to improve the quality of

human health. This means that the materials used in building and operating a green

building must be free from emission of toxic and poisonous gases that can harm the

building occupants.

According to the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), green

building is defined as the design and construction to significantly reduce or eliminate

the negative impact of buildings on the environment and on the building occupants.

Some criteria considered when designing and constructing the green building are site

planning, water and energy efficiency, conservation of resources and materials and

the quality of the surrounding environment, which include the indoor and outdoor

environment.

7

According to the Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI), there are five

characteristic and concept of a green building. They are as below:

a) Designation of a green building helps to save energy and natural resources,

recycle materials as much as possible and minimize the emission of toxic

substances throughout its life cycle.

b) Green building’s concept is to harmonize and integrate with the local climate,

traditions, culture and the surrounding environment.

c) Green building must be able to maintain and improve the quality of humans’

health and also the ecosystem.

d) Throughout its life cycle, green building must be able to use resources

efficiently and increase workplace productivity.

e) Company or organization of the green building must be responsible to each

and every part of the building.

Malaysia’s first green building is the G-Tower. The G-Tower has been

certified by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA) on March

2008 and is rated grade A++. Singapore’s BCA is an organization under the

Singapore’s Ministry of National Development. Its main focus is on the development

excellent buildings, structure and infrastructure for Singapore. Figure 2.1 shows the

view of the G-Tower.

8

Figure 2.1: G-Tower

The ‘A’ here refer to the multi-faceted facilities of the building. It focuses on

cost saving features such as constructed a Bridge Bar using recycled and recyclable

materials. The G-Tower also focuses on the five-star services, high level of comfort,

technology and advanced security system.

The first ‘+’ of the rated grade shows that this building has obtained the

Singapore’s BCA’s Green Mark GOLD recognition. G-Tower is designed to achieve

energy and water efficiency. It consumes approximately 23% less energy compare to

other buildings of similar size and location and uses water efficiency equipments and

rainwater harvesting system in its daily water usage (G Tower, 2010). It also concern

on the indoor environment quality. A system has been installed in the basement car

parks to detect and monitor the level of carbon monoxide. The system will pump

fresh air into the basement car parks once it has detected that the level of carbon

monoxide has exceeded the its limit (Thean & Tee, 2010).

9

The second ‘+’ implies that this building has achieved the Multimedia Super

Corridor (MSC) Malaysia Cyber-centre status. The status was obtained on the 9th

November 2009.

2.1.1 Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI)

Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI) was formed by the Pertubuhan

Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) and the Association of Consulting Engineers Malaysia

(ACEM). It was introduced on the 3rd

January 2009 during the Green Design Forum

organized by the PAM and was launched on April 2009 by the PAM and the ACEM.

It was established to promote and to help the Malaysia property industry towards an

environmental friendly industry. The GBI also intended to raise awareness about

environmental issues especially to those involved in designing, constructing and

operating a building. Those that involve are the designers, contractors, engineers,

architects, planners, developers and also the public.

The rating system introduced in the GBI comprises of a complete framework

to assess the environmental impact and the buildings’ performance. By doing so, it

will give the developers a good opportunity to design and construct buildings

towards the green building concept. At the same time, it can also help to save the

world by reducing the materials used and improve the surrounding environment.

Buildings are evaluated and awarded the Malaysia’s GBI rating based on the six

criteria as follows: