It’s been quite some time hearing new Green Buildings around with new green technologies and impressive numbers and statistics reflecting on how low the carbon footprint of the new construction will be. But certainly there’s a need a focus towards the existing buildings too, accounting to the larger amount of carbon footprint for many inefficient appliances such as chillers and lighting equipment. Simple retrofits and advice on routine green practices by the office staffs can show you how quick a payback period can be done.

So What’s the hype in Singapore?

In Singapore, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Sustainable Development IMCSD has set a target to achieve 80% Green Mark Certification for all buildings by the year 2030, in which includes existing commercial buildings particularly. And this has a lot of aspects to deal with, and you have new solutions to overcome budget constraints such as ECPS Energy Savings Performance Contract. (View NEA’s Mr Tan Kok Kwong’s Presentation HERE) But along the sides of regulations of policies for such initiative, there should be a physical model for people to look at what they are talking about. This brings to the idea of Zero Energy Building, located within BCA Building Construction Authority campus in Singapore, being the first zero energy building retrofitted from an existing building.

THE ESSENTIAL OF “TESTBED”

It’s part of the overall BCA campus. Converted from a three-storey former workshop, the building houses offices, classrooms and a resource centre. The ZEB aims to serve as a test bed for integration of Green Building Technologies into existing buildings, and to be a hub for practitioners and students in the study of energy efficiency and green buildings. Such examples are extremely critical for people to experience themselves while being in it, related examples are Sime Darby’s very own IDEA HOUSE that has a very good documentation on the good practices from the design phase towards post commissioning period, and also Panasonic’s Econation Center that displays on how it’s latest technology can integrate into a retrofitted home to be more energy efficient. All these ‘test beds’ or examples are to prove that it’s not hard to go after green buildings and to beat all the skeptics on payback period in investing Renewable Energy and Energy Efficient items.

AWARDS ON THE RECORD- ZEB has grabbed various accolades for its innovative approach, including BCA Green Mark Platinum 2009, BCI Green Design Award 2010, IES Prestigious Engineering Achievement Award 2010, 2011 ASEAN Energy Awards, Minister for National Development’s R&D Award 2011. The challenging part of this retrofitting is that the unfavorable orientation of the building itself, having its main facades to be facing east and west.

This visit was made recently, November of 2012, almost after 3 years since it’s official opening 26/10/2009. Like any Green Building, the aim is not only focusing on cutting down the carbon footprint of the building but improving working environment by ensuring good internal air quality. Generally there are 3 highlight zones, The Visitor Centre at the Ground Floor, the Office level, and the Solar Energy Panorama. Each of this area tested different approach of innovation according to the activity purpose and location within the building. I shall try my best to describe the highlights here,  with the availability of the photos i have.

1. Shading Devices-  The basic fundamental of any green building is to have low overall thermal transfer value, in which shading device plays a crucial role at the first step to prevent any unnecessary heat gain. In ZEB, it seems that the study is done extensively on various options to design a sun shading device that is not only effectively prevent heat gain but allowing the maximum amount of  day light to be harvested.

2. Low E Glazing - When it comes to glazing, there are a lot of aspects to look at rather than U Value, U Value is the thermal transfer rate, glazings are known to be prone to heat gain compared to wall surfaces. However the important aspects is to choose one based on VLT Visible Light Transmission level which shows how much light is permissible and also SHGC Solar Heat Gain Coefficient. Double Glazing Unit is known to have a better LSG Light to Solar Gain ratio and performs good in preventing heat gain and yet allowing visible light without the harmful UV rays. ZEB is also a test bed for glazings when you have 4 different chambers with different glazings side to side to observe their performances.

3. Vegetation Skin – Well it is also part of the strategy to reduce heat gain of the wall, whether it could be done vertically or planted on roof top,  the benefit of vegetation as building skin offers much more than reducing the overall EETV Envelope Thermal Transfer Value , but also emphasizing on the significance of ensuring our next generation survive from nature deficit order. The three kind of vegetation systems are also tested out in ZEB to study the effectiveness and efficiency over the time. You have Panel System, Cage System, or Mini Planter Box.

The office is truly a test bed itself to understand ergonomics better, one of the main challenges when consultants try to create the best indoor environment quality for office space is to understand the user’s occupancy pattern. The key to understand is that there are never a system that can fulfill everyone’s satisfaction in terms of lighting and ventilation/temperature, so does ZEB do is to allow users to personalize their own space usage.

4. Day lighting Harvesting – The possibilities of harvesting natural lighting is studied extensively. Whether it is light shelves, or skylight, or Light Pipes or Light trough, these concept are used in different spaces in trying to harvest every bit of possibilities of day lighting. The skylight opening at the top of the office space is adjustable via a butterfly pivot system located above the entrance, in which users can control the shading preference too to adjust the light level. . Light shelves are placed extensively to the office layout too. And Light trough are used to harvest direct sunlight instead of only skylight to the groundfloor conference room

There are a lot of strategies to harvest daylight, however a few things i have noticed of is that maintenance is crucial to clean the light shelf to maximize the efficiency, and there are concerns on aluminium reflectors can oxidized over a period of time. Another issue is that the light trough install here is only able to harvest sunlight half the day because it’s only position at one side of the building.

5. Efficient  Task Lighting – On top of daylighting, here we have task lighting to allow office occupants to personalize their space. Having a flexible , extendable, and efficient LED task lighting, this can satisfy user’s preference of brightness and convenience. The benefit of combination of daylighting and task lighting is extensive, Read More HERE.

6. Photo Sensors - Sensors in this office measures the light intensity within the office space. When light levels are sufficiently provided for by natural light, the artificial light is switched off. There is a master switch to overwrite the sensor as well, in which rather than deciding to switching on or off the lights, you are directing if the lux sensor system should control the decision.

7. Displacement Cooling – Instead of the typical air conditioning coming down from air vents above. Cool air is supplied from the floor level at low velocity. This cool air mixes with the warm air in the space and rises towards the ceiling where it is extracted. this approach requires less energy than a conventional air-conditioning system.

12. Active Control and Management - Afterall, above all these features, the important brain of all is the Building Energy Management System. The ZEB has an advanced Building Management System to control, monitor, and manage all the equipment installed in the building. With close monitoring of usage and occupancy patterns, energy use can be optimised while maintaining comfort and functionality.It is essential to study on how a building perform across time, and a continuity in calibrating the sensors after studying the various user preference and perhaps a change in activity or interior equipment in the building. The purpose of this system is more than monitoring but must be flexible to adapt and fix to changes as time goes.

THE ROAD AHEAD

The most important aspect of any green building is the continuity of effort after its completion, which lies on two main elements, occupants and also energy management system. It is very essential to ensure occupants understand their building and their surrounding that relates to their work performance. It is once said that,

Stupid Technology, Smart People, Makes Smart Building ; while,  Smart Technology, Stupid People, Makes Stupid Building.

Credits to BCA website for giving extensive information and some pictures via their web. Credits to IEN Consultants making this trip possible. Looking forward for the rise of Building Automation systems paving the path to smarter buildings with Energy management systems.. For more technical details and perhaps some of the other aspects i did not mention, kindly scroll through the PDF below.

Download (PDF, 7.46MB)

Or lazy to read all the details? well then just watch the video of ZEB OR ALSO, Feel Free to view more picture via FACEBOOK.

Related posts:

Building Energy Index in Malaysia Malaysia Green Building Index GBI with its new INC and IBE Sustainable Building? or Green (Building) Washing?

Taken in Heritage Inn, Penang, a guesthouse with maximizing daylighting, easily done.

In his report, there are 4 distinctive category of buildings mentioned, namely HealthCare Buildings, Workspace, Institutions/Schools, and Retail Buildings. There were studies done in proving how the daylight has been a testimony in many ways it could be, to different occupants in different buildings role.

The Benefits of Daylight in Healthcare

When it comes to designing Healthcare buildings, M&Es are often the most emphasize area as you have different services running through everywhere, but when it comes to daylighting the rooms, it’s widely related to the essential post operation recovery of the patience.

The common impression we have on hospitals is often bright and the importance of landscaping is still not really emphasized. But we could see the importance of Daylighting extensively through several reports and findings here.

1) The Impact of Daylight and Patients ALOS (Average Length of Stay)

“25% of the comparison sets showed that, in the brighter orientations, as in rooms located in the SE area, the average length of stay by patients was shorter than that in the NW area by 16%-41%. Further, no dataset showed a shorter patient ALOS in the NW area than in the SE.

 “The high illuminance in the morning seemed to be more beneficial than in the afternoon.  Since short ALOS cases were more consistently found in the SE, it would appear that morning light has more positive effect than light in the afternoon does, and provides physiological benefits for human”

Choi JH, Beltran L and Kim H, Impacts of Indoor Daylight Environments on patient average length of stay in a healthcare facility

“ A retrospective study of myocardial infarction patients in a cardiac intensive area unit treated in either sunny rooms or dull rooms found that female patients stayed a shorter time in sunny rooms (2.3 days in sunny rooms, 3.3days in dull rooms).

Joseph A, The impact of Light on Outcomes in Healthcare settings.

2) On Post Operative Recovery

“ The windowless ICU had twice as many patients developing post operative delirium and depression. Windows provided a psychological escape that decreased the stress level for patients. This environment provides a necessary mental balance for patients and reduces the tendency toward brief psychotic episodes. Windows are important in the medical field because they can reduce the stress and depression in patient unit.

Wilson L. Intensive Care Delirium. The effect of outside deprivation in a windowsless unit.

3) The importance of views from Healthcare Building

“Twice as many windowless patients demonstrated delirium and, among patients with abnormal haemoglobin or blood urea, the incidence was threefold. Hallucinations were more than twice as high in a new windowless unit than in the old unit.”

Wilson L. Intensive Care delirium; The effect of outside deprivation in a windowless unit.

6)Optimum Window Design and Size in Healthcare buildings

“Four factors which influence window design are Sunshine, Awareness, View and Lack of Privacy. Being close to a window was highly desirable regardless of the size of the visual field”

Markus T. The function of Windows. Builing Science 1967

“Unpleasant feelings of enclosure were minimal with a window width of at least 1.5 metres. The ideal was two lateral windows with a total width of 3-4 metres in a six metre wide room.

Roessler G. The psychological Function of windows for the visual communication between the interior of rooms with permanent supplementary artificial lighting and the exterior. 

“2% of patients and 62% of staff considered sunlight to be a nuisance, while 91% of patients and 31% of staff considered sunlight to be pleasurable. In hospitals, when forced to choose between good views without indoor sunshine and unpleasant views with indoor sunshine, 50% preferred the former while 31% preferred the latter.”

Ne’eman E. Visual aspect of sunlight in buildings. Light Research and Technology 1974

The Benefits of Daylight in WORKSPACE

The effect of Daylight in the work space has a lot to do with the psychological aspect of lighting. In earlier post i mention on how daylighting is better compared to artificial lighting in terms of quality of the light spectrum. But here the findings emphasize on the psychological aspect. Employees did not believe working by electric lighting resulted in poor work output, they believed that their work output was achieved at greater personal STRESS Level.

Green Energy Office @ Bangi. Office Space Setting

“The Study reports that 35% of employees when questioned “instantly” identified the absence of a window to be their major concern associated with their office. The reasons are No daylight, Poor ventilation, Inability to see outside and know what is happening, the feelings of being cooped-up, isolation and depression.

Collin, B “The psychological aspects of lighting”

Among the respondents, Employees highly value any size of window that they have access to and value it more than privacy in their office.

I.96% preferred to work under natural light as opposed to electric lighting.

II.86% preferred having sunshine in their office year round.

III.74% preferred having a window close to their workspace.

IV.57% preferred the window to be beside their workspace rather than in front or behind their workspace.

Wotton, E; Barkow B (1983)“ An investigation to the Effects of Windows and Lighting in Offices

“Positively and significantly correlated to higher sales. All other things being equal, an average non-skylit store in the chain would likely have 40% higher sales with the addition of skylights, with a probably range between 31% and 49%. This was found with 99% statistical certainty. After the number of hours open per week, the presence of skylights was the best predictor of the sales per store of all the variables that we considered. Thus, if a typical non skylit store were averaging sales of $2/sf, then its sales might be expected to increase to between $2.61 and $2.98 with the addition of a skylighting system.”

 “The skylights are seen to have a major impact on the overall operation of the chain. Were the chain to add the skylighting system to the remaining 33% of its stores, yearly gross sales are predicted to increase by 11%. The difference between having none of their stores skylit and all their stores skylit is a increase up to 40% in gross sales for the retail chain.”

Pacific Gas and Electric Company/Mahone1999 Skylighting and Retails Sales An investigation into the Relationship between Daylighting and Human Performance. 

Personally i LOVE Sunway Giza a lot. This design isn’t the first in Malaysia, previously was seen in NZX in Ara Damansara which was closed down due to poor proximity and tenants. But yes i just like open air atriums, where people would not feel that hot but yet still get to feel the daylight and the attachment to the nature happening, rain etc. And don’t you think it’s way architectural aesthetic. The Double volume that made it so wide open unlike thick compact shopping malls with heavy M&E in need.

So yes i hope these peer reviews can help you understand a little bit more on the qualitative aspect on the ergonomic or economical benefits. It’s not all about daylight is better than artificial light due to its “free” source of energy and better lighting characteristic, but let’s just say, i believe these findings have been discovered long ago, ages centuries ago, you can easily find out a lot of interesting facts in the ancient civilizations on how much lighting matter to them, and it’s even in the “building code” they used to have! Ahh shall write about that soon. That’s all for now. So go for daylighting! Common sense!

Related posts:

Task Lighting & Daylighting – Efficient & Effective Workplace Lighting Solution Building Faster, Better, and Cheaper? – Broad Sustainable Buildings Advocacy In Green Buildings – Where’s the sound?

The Inconvenient Truth

Green Building Index has been around for more than 3 years and certifying dozens of buildings with various certification of standards. But with this effort in mind, there are indeed, many questions to be pondered upon if these certifications mean directly to a better built environment that will benefit mother nature or so? Anyone in the Green Building industry should take a step back and see if what we are doing is really heading to the change we seek for if we are keen for it. Change to see how our built environments can be more environmental friendly, in a very critical analytical manner.

“The major criticism of any green building rating system is that they generally tend to be perspective, often resulting in the project team seeking the easiest points available to achieve a high certification level, which in the worst case, can lead to a building that despite achieving a high rating, ultimately fails as a Green building as it only focuses on isolated aspects of sustainable practices.” SA Magazine

There are many painful realities actually to take note of, the primary indication is the market itself. These questions can be referred to the marketing professionals themselves, referring to  TheStarProperty, Reapfield Properties Sdn Bhd founder and president David Ong, and Malaysian Institute of Estate Agent (MIEA) president Julie Won spoke about their opinion on the Green Buildings Market.

Are there many people who ask for green buildings or homes? Wong: I think that the public is not really aware about this yet. Only those people in the industry will know, because they attend seminars and forums. But the public doesn’t really know what green is all about or what it means to go green. Ong: People are more concerned about bread and butter, than green. Wong: Incentives given by the Government are not as attractive, compared to Singapore. The Singapore Government is giving lots of incentive for developers who go green.

Acknowledging the Message and The Big Picture

That is only one of the many concerns i have for the future of Green Buildings, if market perceptions will be good towards it and if there is really a demand for it in present and future. But what worries me the most ultimately, comes to the message of Green Building itself. It’s a pleasure to meet Dr Nirmal Kishnani, who has been in the forefront in the green building industry as a thinker that delivered his presentation last week in SGBC, ( I am still reading his PHD thesis on Thermal Comfort HERE) 

His presentation consisted of some best management practices on how Green Building can bind community together, thus giving this sense of belonging to the community by being a local landmark, and also of course environmental friendly. And i think indirectly he also means that many other buildings worldwide will rather entertain a visible green technology than have an effective passive design that reduces the overall consumption of the building over its lifetime.

Understanding the language of Green Buildings

What gave me a twist of thought is, how many of the green buildings we design are really heading to this direction. How has Green Buildings in Malaysia been performing in the aspect of advocating the “green” message behind? Are we just merely producing buildings with great performance but neglecting post occupancy maintenance? Are we, anyone, in this industry being so driven daily by our task that we have forgotten that the greater awareness should be done to the public to sustain this message through? Is there a need for a better awareness on the bigger picture rather just marketing campaigns and investments profits particulars in this green building market? Are we potential to put this entire green building industry into an oxymoron situation or has it already happened?

The Greatest Asset of the Green Building – Green Occupants

You can have a super efficient building services system but without putting the considerations of the occupants into the decision making puts your entire design into a high risk of achieving a truly sustaining, green building. I believe the emphasize should be placed on the awareness and understanding and execution of the occupants towards the building. Despite being guided by various scoring points or index to achieve green buildings, in my opinion, there are few fundamentals any successful green buildings must achieve.

Green Energy Office, Bangi, entire office room is naturally daylighted, thus does not need artificial lighting assistance.

A Green Building satisfies and improves Occupants Living Conditions -

To improve occupants’ indoor comfort is best described as having the best design that provides natural daylights and also with surrounding landscapes. It is scientifically proven that having more common spaces with vegetation landscapes surrounded could improve the quality of work and also reducing sick building syndromes of the occupants.

Thermal comfort is also another matter, not too cold not too hot, just right. It’s a very simple approach but still widely done wrong in most Malaysia’s building for having centralized chiller plants where aircond supply is always as cold as 16 degree!

An EMS monitoring reports on energy savings, monetary savings too, and the breakdowns of it.

A Green Building educates Occupants on going Green -

To understand a building is similar as to understand a machine. Energy Management System is crucial to aware the building occupants on how their building is performing and how much this ‘machine” is consuming, and how the occupants can troubleshoot and improve their building performance. Having an EMS system installed improves the communication and understanding on how energy works in the building.

However EMS is just one of the many methods to promote green living, what matters most often is the activities within a building that generates the culture of green living. A more critical way of ensuring the occupants to cultivate the green living habit is to promote permaculture activities in the building, where food waste is decomposed, recycled of almost everything is practiced, and reducing comes first of course.

Kenyeang’s Solaris project boast a vast detail in landscape by promoting Green ramps

A Green Building brings Occupants closer to Nature -

And this is merely just about putting a lot of landscapes vegetation and assume that by having 15% or more of the total site areas landscaped you could score points for GBI.  Generally there is a lack of crucial understanding of the significance of landscape design in Malaysia. Designing landscape in a high rise residential tower truly has much more to explore about rather than assigning different plots of species. Combination with Waterscape could even make it more interesting, the sound of waterfall or fountains, all these are part of the Biophilic Design. 

It is known that Ken Yeang has been promoting green architecture relatively different compared to today’s as he emphasize a lot on the landscape details. Solaris does give an extensive amount of studies.

These 3 simple rules are merely just being said by my point of view for being an environmentalist and also being in the built environment career. But as simple as it sounds, that should be the way, but the contradicting part is that you do not find most buildings which are being certified as green buildings playing in this context. And not to the surprise of many, going through the 3 principles again could simply tie you back to our traditional rumah melayu, but needless to say, there are much more complicated design needed to be done in the context of city design, however with the breakthrough in technology at a appropriate scale can make us achieve such green buildings.

 Conclusion

A poor design in Green building that does not establish communication between the building and its occupants will fail the performance of the building ultimately. The three simple principles revolves around the occupant because that is the core of designing a green building, like how any other architects should be doing, studying on how the design of a building could affect their occupants.

Every Architecture speaks a language, but as the 21st century emerges, we need a new range of buildings, green buildings, that truly promote critical thinking on going green rather than some multi million investment game or green PR propaganda. The Green buildings need to advocate how green living is like, thanks to the rapid developments over the past centuries that produced many poor performing building all just for the sake of fast cash.

“Neither economic productivity nor aesthetic and intergenerational moral values can be protected without protecting the complex, organised system that provides the ecological context on which all values depend. To assume that all values are economic values is to ignore this implicit background value of the ecological processes that support economic, and all other, activity.” – Bryan Norton

Related posts:

Sustainable Building? or Green (Building) Washing? Malaysia Green Building Index GBI with its new INC and IBE Permaculture will Save the World, Some call it the Green Architecture.

Testing Grounds - I have tried it out around Bangsar Area as a medium of transport to work, and also on the way and inside the campus of UPM Serdang, and i brought it up to USM, Penang. As a regular cyclist, i decided to take this gadget back to where i have been riding for the past 3 years and kick it in for a test to know the difference compared to a bicycle. I know a lot of arguments happened over how environmental friendly the yikebike is compared to bicycle, but i think the best thing is to test it out yourself before making any judgement.

Disclaimer - This post on blog.japhethlim.com is purely based on a personal opinion of a frequent public transport user and not a carbon analysis or a EV expert. While it’s with some references to materials of IEN consultants, the rest remains to the blogger’s personal user experience. It is not supported by any kind of advertisement or marketing by the distributor but it is purely on an individual’s interest to seek better urban transportation for Malaysia with a neutral stand. Any further technical questions can be forwarded to the distributor/manufacturer itself.

Specifications - I think before i go in detail with my sharing, some of you may be a stranger to this world’s smallest electric bike, here’s a summary of the specifications.

 As for more details, please visit Mysikal as Yikebike has different range of performance too, of course at a different price.

Brief History / Awards –  Yikebike has been quite a highlight over it’s achievement for being the best inventions of the year, by TheTIME2009, click HERE for more.

The YikeBike was invented by New Zealand Entrepreneur Grant Ryan and his team of expert engineers, and is the product of 6 years of Research & Development in Christchurch, New Zealand. The YikeBike is the only production model of the patented design ‘mini-farthing’ as it resembles the original Penny Farthing Bicycle design.  (please refer to www.minifarthing.com )

It is officially (Guiness Book of World Records) the World’s Smallest Lightweight Foldable Electric Bicycle, and is packed with safety design features including permanent front and rear lights, anti-skid regenerative braking, signal indicators, and horn.  It has other benefit features such as German Schwalbe Tyres (the foremost bicycle tyre manufacturer in Europe), puncture-proof inner tubes, and not to mention the rapid charge time of 50 minutes. 

Recently, Yikebike has expanded its market to Malaysia, the official distributor is Mysikal, located in Langkawi. You can contact them via their WebSite HERE. Also recently it was previewed in Penang Green Transformer Expo, August 2012 with the support of YB LimGuanEng, Chief Minister of Penang, who has been emphasizing on “Cleaner, Greener Penang”

About the Distributor

Mysikal Ecobikes are the sole distributors of YikeBike for Malaysia.  YikeBike has other partners in other Asian countries, and they each have to work with their own national government to establish the current legalities of electric vehicles.  The YikeBike is custom built in New Zealand, and delivered to your door with 3 weeks of your order.  It comes with a full service warranty, continued support from Mysikal Ecobikes, and there are also numerous videos online for YikeBike owners to maintain their own YikeBike easily. Please follow up with their Facebook PAGE  for more details.

Using the MiniFarthing concept.

When it comes to Yikebike, many people will think of it’s closest relative, the segwey. At HERE, you can see what Grant Ryan, the inventor of yikebike has to elaborate on segwey and also the concept of minifarthing generally. The concepts are:

• It is super-small and light so it can go everywhere in a city. The light weight means it is easy to carry up/down stairs, in the store or as part of a commute. The small folded size means it is easy to tuck away on a train or bus, in a car, in an elevator, in a closet, under a desk etc.
• There is no parking hassle meaning it is faster to get from point to point. And because you can just take it with you, there is less risk of theft.
• The mechanics are enclosed so it is both low maintenance and clothes don’t get damaged (particularly when carrying).
• It is a stable platform with emphasis on safety. The shorter wheel-base makes it very manoeuvrable, the front wheel is a decent size for bumps and curbs, the upright riding position makes it easier to see and be seen in traffic and handle-bars are no longer a hazard in an accident. More at HERE

The Top 3 first Reactions / Impressions – I have been trying to show the bike to all kind of target groups, from campus students, professors, press medias, and also Dr Guenter Georg Gruber, the German Ambassador in Malaysia who has always been pushing Green lifestyle. Well as long as i am riding it, there’s always people looking/peeking at it, instant center of attraction. 

To the extend that i get people winding down their car windshields to ask me more about it during the stop at traffic lights, but anyways, just to share the common reactions i get.

1. You Ride that on TheRoad?!?!? I think it’s a direct translation of what they mean, “You sure that’s safe to ride, seems so small and fragile!” Most people will question on the logic of its design and assume it was supposed to sit the other way around. Perhaps they have forgotten that the earlier day bicycles also used to have bigger front wheel and smaller rear wheel. It seems to be too small for people to imagine how to something as small as half the size of a typical bicycle can have a faster take off speed than bicycles.

It takes quite sometime to get the handling right, i took one day to get around before riding it on the road steadily. It’s NOT like how you ride a bicycle, totally not, it’s sitting on a moving chair! The Yikebike travels at max 23km/h and i would say that’s the best top speed it should have, not beyond it, because i can’t imagine the handling beyond that speed. It is indeed a engineer marvel i would say, the entire motor and battery is just embedded at the small portion of the front big wheel, yet it’s compacted and light and powerful.

2. So Expensiveeee! Yes i get that a lot when i say it cost 7k+ ringgit for one unit of these. 80% of them will instantly throw back the price at me while the other 20% will say it’s sooo cheappp! simply because you cannot compare this product with anything else on the product so far, bicycle or motorcycle? well perhaps it’s just our common mentality to evaluate things based on price. They are just totally different and all has their pros and cons which i will elaborate later. But really i think 7k is worth the price totally provided you really use it around daily. Or perhaps most people just don’t dare of investing 7k into something unknown yet in the market.

3. Is it Legal?  Mysikal Ecobikes have received confirmation from JPJ Malaysia that the YikeBike is classed under the same rules as a bicycle, and is therefore accepted for use on Malaysian roads, exempt from registration and licensing requirements.  The YikeBike is super lightweight, and is limited to 23kph for this reason, and most countries around the world are accepting this standard as a bicycle, with larger Electric Motorbikes (over 40kg) coming under a different category which require other registration, tax and licensing regulations. Please visit HERE for JPJ’s Acts Regulations to EVs.

It’s hard to miss out the YikeBike in the dark, it’s Hi Vis built in LED doesn’t only light your surrounding but also allows you to give signals. and also there’s a honk button which most probably can only be heard by pedestrians but i am sure that the electric motor sound can be heard from quite a distance, which is good actually because nothing on the road is meant to be travelling quiet, quite dangerous in my opnion.

Environmental Friendly or Not?

This is something widely debated between me and my other environmentalist friends, my principle is to be neutral in this topic.. One of the main arguments is that the YikeBike is not eco at all compared to the bicycle as it consumes electricity. My answers are:

Yikebike isn’t invented to take over bicycle, it’s meant to replace cars in the urban setting for close distance travelling. So you can’t compare with bicycles. Then a counter argument to that is that if you are a meat eater travelling on a bicycle compared to a vegetarian travelling on the yikebike, then you can be having a higher carbon footprint as well!

But all in all, the quantified analysis on this is to simply calculate its energy usage and to see how much exactly it uses. And based on several references, it’s calculated that it only uses 8sens per 10km trip, the amount of energy usage is almost as much as charging your laptop, or.. anything you can imagine with the amount of electricity you pay with your most often misplaced your 10 sens coins.

The Ultimate Green Ride yet?

Yes. And depends on what context you are talking about. The Yikebike is probably 100 times lighter than the car and 10 times smaller than the size of the car. If we are going to assume such gadgets being deployed in places like Georgetown while you have it car free zone, it does not require a car park, you don’t pile up in the traffic jam ( and furthermore car burns out more fuel while they are crawling in the jam).

If we are going to compare the context with the bicycle, i would say bear in mind that most people mind the sweat by pedaling over 5km in the city center and stepping into the office just wanting another shower.  But definitely the idea of both yikebike and bicycles saving congestion and offer better mobility still puts them as the urban congestion solution options. Just that the yikebike wins over bicycles in avoiding the sweaty and tiring ride and also definitely much more compacted and lighter than even foldable bicycles. Current foldable bicycles are still quite a bulky and heavy and performance varies with the size of the wheels.

Please PLAY the Short Clip for a preview of its riding in Bangsar Area.

Best Practice Usage

Yikebike is NOT meant for long distance travelling, just in case you have not realize, it’s NOT meant to go along with highways or LDP. I ALWAYS use the back lanes, residential road etc. simply because the urban road design does not reserve a space as wide as a bicycle lane for you to use the yikebike. And using the main roads will instead slow the traffic down because of your speed and you just couldn’t afford to go to the side to give way to them.

But to go along with commuters and bus, i would say it is something really worth to think about. As i have been using via my house to KelanaJaya station then transit to Bangsar Station, then a 3km ride up the hill, the Yikebike proves to be good for that. Another best usage would be university campus lifestyle, i really wish i had the yikebike during my past 3 years of university life, i cycled everyday however the sloppy hills in USM main campus gives me sweat every time the moment i reach class. I tried the slopes with yikebike weeks ago, it works really well with the hilly slope too! And Yikebike is also good for large factory areas / complex etc.

Possible Improvements

- There are quite a few versions of Yikebike as far as i notice, the fusion series is 15kg while the carbon frame is 7kg. Despite the latter is half the weight, both are still heavy things and would still require a place to secure it as it’s your transport gadget. eg, i wouldn’t be carrying this in the shopping mall everywhere i go. Thus it’s good if there’s a place to lock it, but again to think that it’s something more than 7 thousand ringgit, so not your average bicycle to be locked randomly at any possible locations. It will be good if Yikebike comes with an embedded lock or a wiring device that can be extracted out with some access code, just as the mean of securing the yikebike.

- Paddings can be added to the bottom side of the yikebike to sustain the wear off or scratches. well yikebike often does go over some landscape rocky areas in unexpected journey, or sometimes driving to close to the road divider or to the car while crossing through the jam.

- Suspension. Riding the yikebike over the potholes can be quite a painful experience i would say! Not only to you physically but the bike itself which you wonder if it can take the impact of the potholes. And earlier on i said take back lanes/ residential lanes, but most often those are roads less maintained!

Conclusion

As for my point of view, Yikebike is solution for urban congestion in KL and this is just a general statement as that really depends on each user preference and their travelling route. It’s still relatively new in Malaysia and we are hoping to see more of it on the streets and hoping for good feed backs then.  I still suggest people to try their hands first on the yikebike to understand it before drawing a conclusion. Feel free to email me at limgeneharn@gmail.com for more enquiries or perhaps even a test drive if it is possible! or call up Mysikal for more details about it!

IF you are really interested in the whole concept of the yikebike from the point of view of the inventor itself, then please read MiniFarthing as it really helps you understand the concept before understanding the product! 

Credits to William from Mysikal for the additional input.

Credits to MYSIKAL ECOBIKES for giving us the opportunity to test drive, please visit THEM for more purchasing information. 

Credits to Gregers / IEN consultants for the material references listed.

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Hari Kebangkitan Rakyat Malaysia #HKR112 – The Magnificent Sight of Malaysian Spirit 5 Reasons why you should cycle during University Life. Why the Answer to Urban Design is about Location, Location and Location, Not Density?

I think my exposure towards this sustainable thing was during my undergraduate education where somehow sustainable is being mentioned almost everyday, with the most misconception that green building is sustainable by a very vague understanding within the students. And later on i became even more curious where you see terms like ESD Education for Sustainable Development.. or Sustainable Education coming up.. even in my own university, USM, with the tagline of “to ensure the sustainability of higher education tomorrow” freaks me out sometimes too, and this somewhat leads students to the usage of the words for many projects without a solid understanding of what does it mean.

So What’s Wrong?

I don’t have any issue with sustainability and how the concept came about, but there’s a great issue on how the public perceives it and how the green marketing are turning this agenda that scares people off instead! It’s no surprise for me to see the mix reaction from the public, while some environmental activist pat their backs for the good news, some others don’t, and being pessimistic about it, i can assume that i am one of them. It’s just part of our responsibility to ensure that things are right and whether it could really bring benefits to the environment and built environment. Personally i recognize professors who are doing various research on this new paradigm shifts, it could be sustainable development.. or GreenBuildingIndex. You can easily just google and read dozens of thesis done on it.

Green Washing?

Being a person who is interested into environmental issues, i think there’s a lot to observe over this paradigm shift. In case you haven’t come across the word GREEN WASHING. It simply means pushing PR and Marketing stating that your company is going for Green! that promotes the perception that the company is environmental friendly, whatever to increase support but the fact is not much has been done to help the environment. More at WIKI. It’s not hard to spot one anytime.

For example, as extracted from Wiki.

The term greenwashing was coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westervelt in a 1986 essay regarding the hotel industry’s practice of placing placards in each room promoting reuse of towels ostensibly to “save the environment”. Westerveld noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward reducing energy waste was being made by these institutions—as evidenced by the lack of cost reduction this practice effected. Westerveld opined that the actual objective of this “green campaign” on the part of many hoteliers was, in fact, increased profit. Westerveld thus labeled this and other outwardly environmentally conscientious acts with a greater, underlying purpose of profit increase as greenwashing.

Greening the Built Environment

The reason why i took the time to elaborate on Green Washing is to illustrate that the same is happening in Green Buildings. As a Green Building Consultant i recognize the fact that recently Malaysia is having a leap forward in the built environment when a group of professional Architects and Engineers came together to start a tool, Green Building Index to rate the efficiency of a building. Formation of the Malaysian Green Building Confederation started in May 2007, when a group consultants, academia and representatives from the building industry met to initiate a non-profit making organisation to promote sustainable buildings in Malaysia.

I personally recognize that GBI is a neutral and fair pointing system and it’s always being improvised in comparison with other countries pointing system. There’s a lot of inputs and efforts in launching the effort to produce smarter, energy efficient building to house occupants more effectively and efficiently. As consultants, we strive our best to assist in designs, to help buildings to achieve GBI points in an ethical manner, in a green holistic manner, that is being emphasized strongly to anyone going along with this direction.

Then when Green Building Washing Starts?

Again like Marketing and PR agency, they will find easy ways with the cheapest cost to buy the impression of going green, the same goes to GreenBuildingIndex too when people can abuse the pointing system for just trying to achieve low hanging fruits with the minimal budget. Most of them will just go for “Certified” Level, which is the lowest certificate in GBI. The benefit of having a building going for GBI certificates is many, from PR, to Sales increase Profit, to the full tax exemption on any Green Building Technology Cost in the project. Many Buildings worldwide will rather entertain a visible green technology than have an effective passive design that reduces the overall consumption of the buildings over its lifetime.

This often happens when clients wants the most out of the little budget and a tiny or non existent will in pursuing towards what green building really means, but rather look forward for the incentive of doing so.The terms like “Low Carbon” “Green” and “Sustainable” are used frequently within government reports, while policy documents deal in ecologically modern concepts.. but most often does the end product represent its intention as much as it should be? Sales Gallery will be decorated with landscape extensively, brochures will be boasted with all the green technology the building has, that is totally all right, but what makes matter worst is ultimately the occupants themselves, if they are responsive and understand how the building is designed in the first place. I think that’s one of the disturbing issue for any passionate individuals in built environment to take note of, to think about on the relations between this green building and their occupants.

While some can be skeptical of Green Building Rating system and argues that it’s a political tool that solely looking after the economic factors to grow GDP through investment in so called “Green Technology” i think the problem over Green Building Washing has a much higher priority to be stop now, instead of arguing on something that could at least bring mankind better buildings.

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