He or his wife would race to the thermostat and turn on the air-conditioning as their four small children, just picked up from day care, awaited relief.
All that changed last month. “Now we come home on days when it’s over 100 degrees outside, and the house is at 80 degrees,” Mr. Waldrep said.
Their solution was a new roof: a shiny plasticized white covering that experts say is not only an energy saver but also a way to help cool the planet.
......From Dubai to New Delhi to Osaka, Japan, reflective roofs have been embraced by local officials seeking to rein in energy costs. In the United States, they have been standard equipment for a decade at new Wal-Mart stores. More than 75 percent of the chain’s 4,268 outlets in the United States have them.
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This is particularly interesting and has some sort of relation to where I'm staying now.
Not that this country will be implementing any solar energy or any sort of alternative energy whatsoever, but more of the vast different of behaviour and mindset between the people living /residing in this country and that of those people of developed countries such as the United States.
Since it is a summer holiday here, hoards of expats and workers whom make the majority of the people in this little oil rich country left their home and head back to their home-country for a long vacation.
I am not quite sure though, whether this habit is carried out elsewhere in this country itself or any other Gulf countries, but here in this vicinity where expats working with the government's oil company reside, the practice of leaving the air conditioning units on is somewhat a customary actions.
Well, when we just started to move here, i have heard about this exercise being carried out by some of my countrymen, and the rational behind this practice is 'that you'd spare your furniture from cracking due to the intense heat'!
As absurd as it sounds, me and a couple of people chose not to follow this unwritten practice which we initially thought 'might not be done by all of the people'. We were wrong because eventually, after few summers here; i know that only a handful of families here who did not subscribed to this habits and leaving the A/C running 24/7 for whatever period we'd be on leave. Average leave for the people here would be one and a half month.
In the long run, we got to know that some of the other nationals also practice the same thing; and the first thing that went thru my head was 'perhaps we are the idiots and NOT them at all!!....funny especially after having to know that the person who is in charged with the facilities of this area also practise this bad habits reason being "to avoid the house tiles from cracking" which is more accepted than " cracking furniture".
If you may ask me what is my conclusion about all; this people are just blind followers of ignorant and oblivious person who subscribed to obtuse practice. God knows who that may be!
Leaving the A/C on for long period of time would pose risks.
1. The risk of electrical short circuit .
2. The risk of fire (which if only burnt their belongings; i seriously don't give a damn, but it might affect others nearby too)
3. The lack of consideration towards energy saving whereby people from developed countries are already in rush to acquire other alternative.
4. The mentality of some who got no sense of empathy when electrical and water were provided free by the company, thus making them feel free leaving the bills running. I doubt this would ever happen if the company require electical bill to be borne by the house owner.
5. Don't they ever read about the ozone layers, the rotting environment and energy saving effort and Bills by other developed countries?
Coming from a tropical humid climate such as Malaysia, the occurrence of cracked or loosen-up tiles or parquet flooring is nothing new. This will happened to houses of more than 20 years, or some cases less than 10 years, mostly built by substandard developers.
Tiles and parquet flooring will definitely cracked or even pop up due to lots of reasons among all the climate itself. But the main reason would always be the laying of the tiles and the materials used under them, not forgetting the quality of the tiles or parquet too. Besides that, inadequate precautions and non-skilled people performing the job, will have an effect on the lifespan of tiles (these are some of the advices given to me by my contractors back home).
When development of any house(s) are carried out disregarding quality of works and other aspect of reinforcement required, cracking of walls or tiles will take place. The best installations will need materials and layer of other reinforcement material. Tiles set properly on top of these substrates won't crack, even if you drop something on them.
Coming back to the subject of cracking tiles if A/C not running 24/7, my incomprehension to why they were so concern about the tiles more than the risks it imposed, will never be answered...i guess.
There are no reason to be worried about the house when, the company itself provide monthly maintenance on plumbing, electrical and pest control. What is the big deal if the tiles cracked?
As for me, the few minority not practising this practice here, and have been away on holidays and not leaving the A/C on, my only hope is that, this habits will come to a halt before it jeopardise their own households, and other surrounding neighbour, the cost they and the company will have to bear in case of fire, and not forgetting the environment.
And please help save our earth and the energy, if all of the mentioned justifications on why you should not leave your A/C on 24/7 are chicken feed to the doers.
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