Houses in Cyprus

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House construction
    Walls
    Roofs
    Doors
    Windows
Heating
Air conditioning
Water
Hot water
Conclusions
Further reading

Most modern houses in Cyprus are not well constructed from the point of view of the environment. Enormous amounts of energy are needlessly wasted in both summer and winter, through cheap and simple construction. The cost of improving this would be small, if the necessary measures were taken at the time of construction. Modifying existing houses would be expensive. Of course, the drama is a result of the fact that no heating or air conditioning is required for most of the year, but is required for short periods.

The use of water is also poorly managed in many houses (see also the essay on Water). Again, conservation and recycling water would be cheap if this were foreseen at the time of construction.

House construction

Walls

Most houses are constructed with a reinforced concrete skeleton to provide protection against earthquakes. The outside walls are mostly filled in with terracotta bricks with air gaps. Both the inside and outside surfaces are rendered with cement "plastering", to provide a finish suitable for painting. There is no additional insulation.

Roofs

The roofs are sometimes simply wooden joists strung between members of the concrete skeleton, supporting wood planking over which a waterproof layer is laid. Laths and then terracotta tiles are fixed on top. Again, there is no insulation.

Doors

Outside doors are often in MDF and fit badly, allowing air to circulate. In most cases, the front doors open directly into the living room, without a porch or an intermediate hallway. This means that, every time the door is opened in winter, heat escapes and, in summer, heat enters, increasing the load on heating and air conditioning.

Windows

The case of windows is even worse. Semi-reflective double glazing is fairly standard and should be effective. The problem is that the frames and surrounds are in aluminium profiles, which are excellent heat conductors. In the case of sliding double windows and doors, there is a gap of several millimetres between the two window frames. This is "closed" off by a thin brush or rubber flap, allowing an important exchange of air with the outside. This is particularly noticeable in winter when there is a strong wind blowing: cold draughts are inevitable. Unfortunately, there is little alternative available. It would be possible to have wooden-framed casement windows and doors, but the maintenance in the climate would be difficult and expensive. All wood used for construction is imported and expensive and not necessarily of the best quality. There could be considerable shrinkage in the hot, dry summers and expansion in the cool, wet winters. An annual painting would be necessary. Research into synthetic constructional materials may be required to provide an answer to this dilemma.

Heating

Even modern houses are constructed without thought as to how they can be heated in winter. Because of the poor quality of construction, some form of heating is necessary. All new houses should have correctly insulated central heating pipework installed or three-phase wiring for low-cost storage heaters. This lack of heating infrastructure means that many kinds of wasteful, expensive and often polluting means are used to ensure a reasonable degree of comfort. These include using reversible air conditioning units, bottled gas radiant heaters, kerosene heaters, electric convection or fan heaters and others.

Because of the poor insulation, the cost of heating is at least twice what it should be with just a reasonable amount of insulation and thought. The cost of this could be recovered easily in only two or three winters.

Another problem is that, in cases where oil-fired central heating is installed, the boiler, which also provides hot water when the solar heating is inadequate, is often sited in an outhouse. This means runs of outside poorly insulated pipework. When new, this is not too catastrophic, but the quality of the insulation often deteriorates in time, allowing the ingress of ground water. This may be very good for the garden plants but is not good for the fuel bills. The idea of having the boiler in a cellar under the house itself is rare, but offers other advantages besides short, indoor, pipe runs. The fact that there is a concrete slab between the boiler room and the house means that any waste heat will help keep the house warm. Similarly, the heat from the chimney pipe, usually embedded in the wall, also helps to keep the house warm.

While on the subject of oil-fired central heating, there are rarely adequate precautions taken to prevent an accidental leak of the heating oil from polluting the surrounding soil. It should not be thought that either plastic or metallic tanks last indefinitely and leaks can and do occur. Every tank should be situated in a suitably lined brick housing that can contain the full volume of the tank, in the event of a leak. It is probable that this is also required under EU regulations.

Air conditioning

With modern houses, air conditioning is a must for reasonable comfort in high summer. Central air-conditioning with a chiller is not appropriate for individual houses, although they are efficient for large apartment blocks. Split air-conditioning units are suitable for villas and they should be dimensioned appropriately for each room. Reversible systems can be used to provide emergency heat in winter at no extra capital cost and minimal running costs. Suitable insulation, as described in the previous section on construction will reduce energy requirements, costs and pollution.

Unfortunately, air conditioning is abused by many users, causing unnecessary energy consumption and consequent pollution. My personal experience is that setting the temperature to about 27° or 28°C provides all the comfort that is required, when dressed in summer clothes. If the house is reasonably insulated, it can be switched off after about one hour and the room will remain comfortable for quite long periods, even with the outside temperature in the 40s. Of course, the "aircon" should be switched off in rooms that will not be used in the near future. I find that switching it on in bedrooms about 45 minutes before retiring and switching it off again on going to bed will allow one to fall asleep in comfort and there will be no disturbing noise. On awaking some six to eight hours later, one is naturally uncomfortably hot but a good night's sleep has been achieved at no energy cost. It is a mistake to run the bedroom units throughout the night and it is not healthy. (If one awakes prematurely, for example with the need to use the toilet, it may be necessary to switch it on again, in hot weather, for 10 or 15 minutes, before settling down to sleep again.)

These recommendations for usage may be modified, of course, under individual conditions, particularly in the case where someone is ill.

Water

Domestic water management is atrociously poor in a country where periodic droughts lead to severe water rationing. Low volume toilet flushes are rare, the use of grey water for toilet flushing and garden irrigation is almost unknown, collecting roof run-off for garden irrigation or as a complement to grey water systems is equally rare. Yet the cost of adding these to a new house is small and can reduce the water consumption by half. Unfortunately, the cost of adding these to existing houses is prohibitive, except possibly for a complete refurbishment.

Another negative is that the usual gravity-fed hot water system often requires running water for minutes before it starts to run hot. This cold water is usually allowed to run to waste. Ideally, a pumped recirculatory hot water system would offer the comfort of instant hot water in all taps and prevent this wastage, especially in houses without a grey water system. The negative aspect is that the small pump does consume a small quantity of electricity. This can be partially offset by using a timer to run the pump only for a short period before expected periods of hot water consumption (e.g., in the early morning for showers, at meal times for washing up, in the evening for kid's baths etc.). At other times, the hot water would still be available after a minute or so. In this case, the cold water may be collected in a watering can for pot plants. Again, the extra cost of adding a recirculatory system is almost negligible in new houses, but is too costly for existing houses.

Hot water

Most houses up to an altitude of about 500 - 600 m are equipped with direct solar heating panels, which will provide adequate hot water for most of the year. The payback time of these is typically two to three years. In the high mountains, where severe frosts can occur, a more expensive indirect solar water heater system is suitable, with a payback time of eight to ten years. Ideally, the solar panels should be complemented by an electric immersion heater for the few insufficiently sunny days in winter. This is the most energy-efficient method. The efficiency of using central heating water to heat domestic water is much poorer and results in increased pollution, including greenhouse gas emissions.

Conclusions

New houses in Cyprus can be made much more energy-efficient at relatively little extra cost. No matter how heating and air-conditioning is done, this reduction of energy requirements translates into reduced running costs and reduced pollution. It is essential to remember that increased energy usage engenders increased pollution, even if that pollution comes from the stack of a power station hundreds of kilometres away.

Where feasible, additional insulation can be added to existing houses, especially when going through major redecoration.

A major problem exists with modern window construction. The aluminium frames, surrounds and runners, as well as aluminium doors, are major causes of heat transmission between the inside and outside of many houses. Without doubt, these extruded profiles are excellent in every other way, but they probably cause 20 per cent or more of the total losses from heating and cooling and thus an equivalent amount of emitted pollution. It is suggested that some better form of window frame be developed that would reduce these losses.

Architects and building contractors, heating and sanitary engineers, as well as others involved with house construction, should voluntarily suggest to their clients the benefits in building houses with proper thought to reducing energy and water requirements. In the meanwhile, general building standards can be improved while awaiting the mandatory implementation of better means to achieve these results.