Singapore Expats

Hi all, just wanted to throw out a question about the heat here 'cos I'm melting...

We live on the top floor of a low rise apt. block, unfortunately, we get the morning, noon and evening sun throughout various rooms. The heat inside has been very uncomfortable making us either turn on the fan or a/c almost 24hours a day. The kitchen is a sauna...I've concluded that the apt unit has very bad air circulation (plus other design defects) but it wasn't like this when we inspected the unit.

I've not been back to Singapore for over 8 years, I can't remember the heat being this bad. Anyone with the same situation here with the heat? I'm in central Singapore, how's the wind breeze over at West & East coast? There's virtually none here for the past few weeks. Very tempted to rent closer to the sea.

Cheers
Tex.

textex wrote:Hi all, just wanted to throw out a question about the heat here 'cos I'm melting...

We live on the top floor of a low rise apt. block, unfortunately, we get the morning, noon and evening sun throughout various rooms. The heat inside has been very uncomfortable making us either turn on the fan or a/c almost 24hours a day. The kitchen is a sauna...I've concluded that the apt unit has very bad air circulation (plus other design defects) but it wasn't like this when we inspected the unit.

I've not been back to Singapore for over 8 years, I can't remember the heat being this bad. Anyone with the same situation here with the heat? I'm in central Singapore, how's the wind breeze over at West & East coast? There's virtually none here for the past few weeks. Very tempted to rent closer to the sea.

Cheers
Tex.

i'm melting as well... been very hot for couple of months now!!!
feels like a sauna even at night

The design and location of your condo as well as the specific location of your apartment in the building makes a huge difference in comfort. Not much you can do after you signed on the dotted line...

I have been melting since I got here 8 months ago.
Im down to 91KG now.

Sounds like you might have needed melting or you're over 1.9 M tall!

textex wrote:Hi all, just wanted to throw out a question about the heat here 'cos I'm melting...

We live on the top floor of a low rise apt. block, unfortunately, we get the morning, noon and evening sun throughout various rooms. The heat inside has been very uncomfortable making us either turn on the fan or a/c almost 24hours a day. The kitchen is a sauna...I've concluded that the apt unit has very bad air circulation (plus other design defects) but it wasn't like this when we inspected the unit.

I've not been back to Singapore for over 8 years, I can't remember the heat being this bad. Anyone with the same situation here with the heat? I'm in central Singapore, how's the wind breeze over at West & East coast? There's virtually none here for the past few weeks. Very tempted to rent closer to the sea.

Cheers
Tex.

sounds very familiar. I too live in the top floor of a low rise apartment. I get the full morning sun and I find that as the months go by, the sun's rays also changed, such that in the months of may and june, I'm getting more sun than in january.

it's disgustingly hot, so I throw open my front door, leaving my gate locked, hence allowing for some air flow, and I throw open several windows for through air, while keeping the others shut with the blinds down. I turn on a fan almost 24/7 (I got a good one at harvey norman for a fantastic price - this fan is really really powerful) and place it right beside me, and it does help cool me down a lot (without having to turn on costly A/C). I find that it helps if you have a large bowl of iced water with ice cubes placed right in front of the fan and position myself a little further back. it's how the chinese in the past cooled themselves down - the first A/C ever! it does help.

ceiling fans are also great but I don't have them here.

and yes, singapore's getting hotter..

Before I lived in the lovely penthouse we have now (cool sea breezes all day long) I lived in a low rise condo. When it got particularly unbearable I would make drastic changes to my day to cope with the heat. The condo had an aircon gym so I changed my workout from 6am to 10am. At 6am I would open all the windows and let the cool early morning air in, put the fans on and enjoy the coolness for the first 2 or 3 hours. I invested in a quality 100% blackout curtains for the lounge and would draw them as the sun got too hot. After my workout and I wanted to get some work done I would take my laptop to (a) the condo function room, (b) a coffee shop or (c) a hotel lobby (Fullerton works well). If not I would just try to be out of the house running errands, swimming, shopping whatever and when I returned the curtains had kept the condo nice and cool.
I also opted to travel on the bus alot more as the long aircon ride with my ipod on was preferable to a short taxi ride and back into the heat! LOL

KL's a hothouse and the meteorology department (the joke that it is here) forecasts that it will stay this hot until September due to the El Nino effect . . .

Knowing the professionalism of the Malaysian specialists one can conclude that from July to September it will snow.

Vaucluse wrote:KL's a hothouse and the meteorology department (the joke that it is here) forecasts that it will stay this hot until September due to the El Nino effect . . .

Knowing the professionalism of the Malaysian specialists one can conclude that from July to September it will snow.

Whereabouts in KL are you? Not that the climate changes much from one end of the city to the other.

What I love about KL is the non air conditioned underground LRT stations, followed by supposedly class A office buildings that do not air con the elevator service areas... Menara Telcom comes to mind.

Well the rain & clouds over the past few days have cooled things down a little. I've resorted to use fans throughout the apt., double curtains over the sunny windows and fan sucking air in from shaded ones, one more fan in the kitchen and kitched hood ducted to blow air out the window. And one last fan from the wash area to blow air out to the back airwell as well as making sure the hot a/c compressor air doesn't come back in. All incandescent lamps replaced with CFL so not to emanate heat and electricals get switched off with no standby power - how's that.

5 fans X 50W @ = 250W, equivalent of 1 well lit room.

I was contemplating the bowl of ice in front of the fan but that generates more humidity in the room, plus its already 90+% humidity in Singapore...so no swamp cooling for me.

Now, let's hope the haze doesn't find its way from Indonesia to here...

Tex.

Strong Eagle wrote:

Vaucluse wrote:KL's a hothouse and the meteorology department (the joke that it is here) forecasts that it will stay this hot until September due to the El Nino effect . . .

Knowing the professionalism of the Malaysian specialists one can conclude that from July to September it will snow.

Whereabouts in KL are you? Not that the climate changes much from one end of the city to the other.

What I love about KL is the non air conditioned underground LRT stations, followed by supposedly class A office buildings that do not air con the elevator service areas... Menara Telcom comes to mind.

Live in Desa Parkcity and work in Kelana Jaya . . . home is not a problem, aside from the bathroom roof caving in due to improperly constructed roof tiles . . . and this in supposedly the 'best' place to live in KL.

Work - when it rains heavily or the building is being cleaned . . . waterfall through our windows.

Malaysia Boleh!

textex wrote:Now, let's hope the haze doesn't find its way from Indonesia to here...

Actually, the only good thing about haze is that it also cools down temperatures quite appreciably -- it reflects/block sunlight in the same way that clouds do.

jpatokal wrote:The design and location of your condo as well as the specific location of your apartment in the building makes a huge difference in comfort. Not much you can do after you signed on the dotted line...

....stuck in a mozzie infested apt...

Left Wing wrote:

jpatokal wrote:The design and location of your condo as well as the specific location of your apartment in the building makes a huge difference in comfort. Not much you can do after you signed on the dotted line...

....stuck in a mozzie infested apt...

Now that is unusual in Singapore -- your condo has the legal duty to keep critters in check. Do they spray regularly? If not, have you complained to management? If no response, get in touch with NEA.

http://www.nea.gov.sg

textex wrote:Hi all, just wanted to throw out a question about the heat here 'cos I'm melting...

We live on the top floor of a low rise apt. block, unfortunately, we get the morning, noon and evening sun throughout various rooms. The heat inside has been very uncomfortable making us either turn on the fan or a/c almost 24hours a day. The kitchen is a sauna...I've concluded that the apt unit has very bad air circulation (plus other design defects) but it wasn't like this when we inspected the unit.

I've not been back to Singapore for over 8 years, I can't remember the heat being this bad. Anyone with the same situation here with the heat? I'm in central Singapore, how's the wind breeze over at West & East coast? There's virtually none here for the past few weeks. Very tempted to rent closer to the sea.

Cheers
Tex.

It would be more advisable, if you cannot adapt,,,,
We have aground floor maisonette that is acceptable to my Taiwanese wife, although not well suited for me, so I use the fan every where i go in the house, even after 4 years, I still need a fan at night.

Could it be that i am used to a Scandinavia climate, i think so, because i can walk around in 10c, with just a T shirt on and feel okay, but my best climate was my own apartment at 18c all year round, now people found 18c too cold in winter, if i go above that, then i become very sleepy, I almost said "Dozy" okay okay I'm expecting it!

The fact is it can be very unpleasant with no breeze, hence the fan...But opening all the windows also helps too if there is a breeze at all, we thank who ever is responsible. And to think i even run in this weather, normally i take a break at this time of the year, but not this time.

Only seen 1 or 2 mossies in the two years we have lived here, and the neighbours are really something else, very very nice, although god knows what they think of me blasting out give peace a chance, even though it doesn't sound loud, I went out side, walked 50 meters and i could still hear it so back i went and asked the neighbour if they could hear the music and was it too loud. Night time being worse of course because sound does travel. But they said no, but i turned it down anyway, because we do have many neighbours.

I have lost some hearing anyway, so i need to screw up a little, although my daughter says put your bloody head phone on she's 9 this year and i am forced to watch Anna Montana, and she's really very good.