I live in Manila. Our home was built in the 1980s. When I came back to Manila 10 years ago, I found the home to be very hot. It wasn't well ventilated and insulated. We don't have winter cold here, so the problem is mainly about improving ventilation and insulation to keep heat out, and from building up. Our home is typical of homes made here, although we have used better materials as the house was built for the owner to live in, and he was generous with the use of materials.
What's very typical of Philippine houses is that the industry has made it standard to build homes with no regard to proper ventilation, which would not be up to code in the United States, and maybe pretty much the rest of developed countries in the world. Not that the Philippines is considered developed, but I digress.
At the minimum, the roof design has to have soffit vents to draw in cool air, and ridge vents for the warmest, or hottest, air to go out. Over the years, homes are being built that have less and less area for the soffit vent to let in cool air, while it has remained standard for homes to be built with no ridge vent at all. I suppose it really makes sense to have little or no inlet for cool air to come in to the roof (thru soffit vents) if ridge vents (to let warm air out) is nonexistent.
It makes no sense at all that our homes have zero ventilation in the roofs, considering that this is a tropical country. It makes even less sense that we have use electric airconditioners to cool our homes, and considering that electricity is not cheap, we are wasting power and spending more because of faulty design of all of our homes' roofs. It is beyond stupidity that we also have to rely largely on imported energy sources for our energy, and yet we still don't do anything to conserve power by better home designs.
I do not know what our country's regulatory agency regarding home construction is really doing all these years. We have plenty of universities that teach architecture and civil engineering, and yet we can't build a house that's properly ventilated. What is true is that more and more shitty houses are being built, and the general population know nothing about what is well-built and what's not. Therefore, no one's pushing to let builders know they have to build better homes. Not only do home buyers and owners have to pay more monthly to cool their unventilated homes, they have to constantly be fixing their homes as well.
Since there are people from many countries around the world in this forum, please make me feel better than it's not just our country that have shitty homes. Please tell me we are not alone in the Philippines to suffer from shitty home designs and construction.
I would like homes to be built like cars are built these days. They last long as long as properly well-maintained, and car manufacturers are expected by buyers to make reliable cars.
What is it like with my neighboring countries? Vietnam? Thailand? Malaysia? Indonesia? What's it like in Mexico? In Southern India? In Saudi Arabia? In Israel? In Spain? In Portugal? In Greece? In Taiwan? In Southern China? Costa Rica? Honduras? Dominican Republic? Cuba? Belize?
What's very typical of Philippine houses is that the industry has made it standard to build homes with no regard to proper ventilation, which would not be up to code in the United States, and maybe pretty much the rest of developed countries in the world. Not that the Philippines is considered developed, but I digress.
At the minimum, the roof design has to have soffit vents to draw in cool air, and ridge vents for the warmest, or hottest, air to go out. Over the years, homes are being built that have less and less area for the soffit vent to let in cool air, while it has remained standard for homes to be built with no ridge vent at all. I suppose it really makes sense to have little or no inlet for cool air to come in to the roof (thru soffit vents) if ridge vents (to let warm air out) is nonexistent.
It makes no sense at all that our homes have zero ventilation in the roofs, considering that this is a tropical country. It makes even less sense that we have use electric airconditioners to cool our homes, and considering that electricity is not cheap, we are wasting power and spending more because of faulty design of all of our homes' roofs. It is beyond stupidity that we also have to rely largely on imported energy sources for our energy, and yet we still don't do anything to conserve power by better home designs.
I do not know what our country's regulatory agency regarding home construction is really doing all these years. We have plenty of universities that teach architecture and civil engineering, and yet we can't build a house that's properly ventilated. What is true is that more and more shitty houses are being built, and the general population know nothing about what is well-built and what's not. Therefore, no one's pushing to let builders know they have to build better homes. Not only do home buyers and owners have to pay more monthly to cool their unventilated homes, they have to constantly be fixing their homes as well.
Since there are people from many countries around the world in this forum, please make me feel better than it's not just our country that have shitty homes. Please tell me we are not alone in the Philippines to suffer from shitty home designs and construction.
I would like homes to be built like cars are built these days. They last long as long as properly well-maintained, and car manufacturers are expected by buyers to make reliable cars.
What is it like with my neighboring countries? Vietnam? Thailand? Malaysia? Indonesia? What's it like in Mexico? In Southern India? In Saudi Arabia? In Israel? In Spain? In Portugal? In Greece? In Taiwan? In Southern China? Costa Rica? Honduras? Dominican Republic? Cuba? Belize?
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