Centralised Cooling Systems

Owners of seven buildings in Tampines Central are giving high energy bills the cold shoulder by coming together to tap a centralised cooling system. The project by Temasek and SP Group is one of the efforts to transform Tampines into an eco-town by 2025, in line with the Singapore Green Plan 2030.

Chilled water pipes, among other infrastructure, will be retrofitted and installed in these buildings so they can share the cooling load to provide air-conditioning, said Temasek and SP Group on Thursday (Aug 19). This leads to greater system efficiency through economies of scale, compared with standalone cooling systems, they added.

A study found that the cooling system would reduce energy consumption by 17 per cent, enough to power 1,665 three-room HDB flats for a year. It could also curb carbon emissions by 18 per cent each year that is the equivalent of removing 2,250 cars from roads annually. Building owners would save $4.3 million annually from energy savings.

See-Think-Wonder:

· What do you observe?

· What do you think helps the office buildings cool down?

· What about the process that makes you wonder?