1. Background Introduction
This report is developed in response to a call for proposals to recommend engineering solutions in a particular area of focus. The team decided to work on mitigating the effects of a warm and humid climate, that members of the university committee are currently experiencing in the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) Dover campus, for the up and coming Punggol campus.
In recent studies, the rate in which Singapore has been heating up is double that of the world at about 0.25°C per decade (Ng & Tang, 2019). The temperature in Singapore is expected to increase gradually to 40°C between the years 2045 and 2065 due to the amount of greenhouse gases the world continues to emit (Low, 2019). In addition to the rising temperatures from climate change, Singapore is forced to contend with high humidity levels throughout the year (Ng & Tang, 2019).
Being geographically located near the equator, the island experiences a tropical climate. Furthermore, Singapore is surrounded by ocean where the heat and wind will transport water into the country through the breeze and rainfall (Billy Aircon, n.d.). The high humidity and increasing temperature in Singapore may cause people to be more susceptible to heat-related health dangers (Ng & Tang, 2019).
In a case study based in Florida, Saint Johns County Public District were sourcing for ways to regulate the high humidity and temperature levels for washrooms in an elementary school. Situated in an already moist environment, the existing heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems that were controlled by thermostats failed to target the high humidity. This resulted in vast temperature swings which in turn made the washrooms too cold or warm. The implementation of dehumidifiers helped to remove moisture and return drier room temperature air into the washrooms and by integrating them with the air conditioning system, the high temperature and humidity levels were mitigated (Dehumidifier Corporation of America, n.d.).
Team WATERHACK recently conducted a survey on students on the climate in a school environment. According to the survey, nearly two-thirds of the twenty-five respondents feel humid in school, and more than half are facing high humidity related issues such as sweating while queueing for food. (See Appendix)
The team notes that the overall demand of water resources in Singapore will be twice as much by 2060 due to the country’s uprising economy and population growth (Public Utilities Board, n.d.). According to the Public Utilities Board (PUB), managing the water supplies to meet the growing demands of the country require the involvement and contribution of the community due to climate change. This explains how each individual plays an essential role in managing the water demands and ensuring sufficient water supply in the future.
Therefore, team WATERHACK feels that there is a need to address the warm and humid climate in Singapore by implementing measures to help reduce the effects of such climate on people. Simultaneously, the team aims to integrate water recycling solutions in hopes of reducing water wastage and contribute in conserving Singapore’s valuable water by recycling natural resources. All these can be accomplished by installing dehumidifiers in SIT campus at Punggol. Not only would dehumidifiers address the uncomfort and health issues faced by the university body, water conservation techniques will be put in place.
In this report, team WATERHACK will discuss about the ideal school environment for members of the university body in terms of climate, the problems that could arise due to higher relative humidity levels in SIT campus, the proposed engineering solutions developed to mitigate these problems along with a thorough evaluation of each solution and the water recycling benefits of implementing the chosen solution.
1.1 Current Observations in SIT Dover
In SIT@Dover, there are no current measures taken into place to regulate the humidity level in the school, especially in classrooms, where the majority of students spend most of their time. Although air conditioners are used to cool room temperature into a more conducive environment for effective studying, the humidity levels are still high.
1.2 Problem Statement
An ideal forward-looking university should be a conducive and comfortable place for students to be in. In the current SIT@Dover campus, the cold air released by the air conditioning in classrooms can be cooling but it might be unhealthy with the humid air surrounding us. Therefore, the team believes that SIT@Punggol campus should incorporate outdoor dehumidifiers in the campus so as to maximise student’s productivity in their learning process and at the same time, reduce the risk of any heat-related health dangers.
1.3 Purpose Statement
This report aims to propose the implementation of outdoor dehumidifiers in SIT@Punggol campus to the estate planning committee in hopes of mitigating the effects of high humidity on students.
2. Proposed Solutions
The team came out with two solutions in hope of providing a better learning environment for the future SIT@Punggol campus.
2.1 Implementation of outdoor dehumidifiers
In SIT@Dover, the team made an observation that outdoor dehumidifiers are not being used in the campus. In this case, outdoor dehumidifiers will be used to regulate the humidity inside the school campus specifically the classrooms.
2.1.1 Outdoor dehumidifiers
Outdoor dehumidifiers serves the same purpose as an average dehumidifier. An outdoor dehumidifier is to be placed outdoors compared to a dehumidifier which is placed indoors.
Dehumidifiers primary function is to remove excessive moisture from the air by drawing surrounding air into the device. The device will then remove moisture from the collected air through condensation, by converting the moisture in the air into water droplets before releasing the air back to the surroundings. These water droplets will be collected in a tank inside the dehumidifer and can be recycled for multiple purposes (Holmberg, n.d.).
2.1.2 Outdoor Dehumidifiers with air-conditioning system
The team proposes that SIT should consider on investing outdoor dehumidifier for the upcoming campus in Punggol as one of the solutions to combat the humidity level.
The outdoor dehumidifiers is to be used together with the air-conditioning system so as to provide students a better learning environment to study in the future campus. The team notes that the current air-conditioning system in SIT@Dover does remove some moisture from the air while at the same time lowers the room temperature, which as a result can worsen the room humidity level which further complicating the problem.
By incorporating outdoor dehumidifiers into the existing HVAC system in SIT@Punggol, the equipment can contribute to better air quality in the classrooms. The outdoor dehumidifiers contributes to the HVAC system by removing excess moisture, and treated cooled air to flow into the school’s main Air Handling Unit before being supplied to respective classrooms. This will result in cleaner air compared to just using air-conditioners itself in the classroom for the students.
2.1.3 Stakeholders Involvement
A dedicated outdoor dehumidifier in SIT@Punggol can overcome the issue of humidity level in the future, by directly delivering better air quality in conjunction with the air-conditioning system.
With this, the team is targeting the financial head of SIT@Dover to invest in an outdoor dehumidifier for well-being of the students. This is to help the student have a better study environment and prevent any health-related issues such as headaches. The team hopes to make a change in that for the future campus.
2.2 Implementation of outdoor misting system
The team also made an observation that no outdoor misting systems are used in SIT@Dover campus. As a result, outdoor misting system can be used in the future SIT@Punggol campus to reduce the surrounding temperature.
2.2.1 Outdoor misting system information
Outdoor misting system is an evaporative cooling method that lowers outdoor temperature on hot and sunny days. This system forces water out of the nozzles which will encourage the formation of fine mist. The evaporation of these fine mist will absorb heat energy from the surrounding and thus, lowering the temperature around the misted area (Wintering, 2017).
2.2.2 Location of outdoor misting system
2.2.2 Location of outdoor misting system
An ideal place for the outdoor misting system would be the sheltered walkways around the future SIT@Punggol campus.
3. Benefits of Proposed Solutions
3.1 Benefits of Outdoor dehumidifiers
Outdoor dehumidifiers being implemented can bring many benefits to the school.
In general, an ideal room or space should maintain a humidity level of 40 to 50% (Sylvane, n.d.).
3.1.1 Proper use of recycled water
As the team aims to maximise water resources, the 3R’s implemented by National Environment Agency is a major element that he team referenced to.
“Gray water”, which is collected by a dehumidifier from the moisture of the outdoor air, is not drinkable but can be recycled for multiple purposes. This includes watering of plants in the school garden or even flushing of toilets. SIT@Punggol does not need to worry about wasting the unused water.
3.1.2 Saving costs from bills
SIT@Punggol can also benefit from saving costs from the electrical bills. Combining of outdoor dehumidifiers with air conditioning system allows the school to save money.
As humid air takes more energy for the air conditioning to cool down the room temperature, the use of outdoor dehumidifier will precool the air. Thus air conditioning system will use less energy on its cooling capacity to remove sensible heat and more on removing latent heat. Therefore, SIT could consider this as one of the benefits in the long run to maintain the school’s financial.
3.2 Benefits of outdoor misting system
Outdoor misting system is more environmentally friendly than conventional air conditioner because its system only uses water to reduce the surrounding temperature and because of that, it will not produce any harmful greenhouse gases.
4. Limitations of Proposed Solutions
4.1 Limitations of Outdoor Dehumidifiers
The drawbacks of an outdoor dehumidifier includes the maintenance and cost.
A good outdoor dehumidifier is essential to maintain the indoor air quality for an optimal comfort of the students in the campus. SIT@Punggol have to regularly clean the filters of the dehumidifier to ensure healthier dehumidified air is being released back into the classrooms. Adding on, water collected have to be emptied to prevent mosquitoes from breeding. Research has shown that a school physical environment can make an impact on the students’ productivity in the campus.
Choosing the accurate size and specification for SIT@Punggol can be one of the challenges the management could face when implementing and outdoor dehumidifier in the school campus. As the team is unaware of the new layout for SIT@Punggol, coming up with a suitable size for outdoor dehumidifiers would be a challenge. The different sizes of outdoor dehumidifiers have different prices attached to it. The larger an outdoor dehumidifier is, the equipment gets more expensive.
To mitigate these issues, the team suggested that dehumidifier will only operate when it reaches a certain percentage of relative humidity level. Otherwise, the dehumidifiers will not operate to save energy costs from the bills. This could also regulate the humidity level when it is necessary.
4.2 Limitations of Outdoor misting system
The system has to be maintained constantly. The contaminated water from the collected water will pose a serious hazard to the users. Mist being produced by contaminated water can illnesses such as Legionnaire’s disease and Pontiac fever. Furthermore, it could be a breeding spot for mosquitoes.
4.3 Evaluation of chosen solution
By comparing the two solutions stated above, the team decided to go with the outdoor dehumidifiers. Despite being very costly in implementing the outdoor dehumidifiers, the benefits can be considered in the long run for the campus in Punggol. SIT@Dover could be an ideal place to testbed the outdoor dehumidifiers. Outdoor dehumidifiers have the potential of mitigating the humidity level at the same time provide good air quality to the students.
5. Methods and Procedure
In this section, the team will highlight the techniques used to gather all the relevant information.
5.1 Primary research
The team decided to use survey and personal observation for the report.
A survey was conducted to find out how the students feel about the humidity level in SIT@Dover. A total of 25 students responded to the survey. (see Appendix)
Through this survey, the team observed that the humidity level has to be mitigated for the comfort of the students in the upcoming campus in Punggol.
References
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Low, Y. (2019, July 4). Temperatures in Singapore could hit 40°C as early as 2045: Scientists. Today Online. Retrieved from https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/singapore-could-swelter-through-40degc-days-2045-if-business-usual-emissions.
Ng, D., & Tang, H. H. (2019, January 13). Why Singapore is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the world. CNA Insider. Retrieved from https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/cnainsider/singapore-hot-weather-urban-heat-effect-temperature-humidity-11115384.
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Wintering, G. (2017, January 9). The Best Option: Outdoor Misting System. Retrieved from https://fogco.com/the-best-option-outdoor-misting-system/.
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