Allow your home to breathe by opening your windows. Here are the 4 reasons why you should open the windows in your homes as often as you can. 1. Good for your bodyStudies show that one of the most dangerous hazards to our health is indoor air pollution. When windows are closed, air is trapped inside your home and air pollutants can build up. These pollutants are mainly from off-gassing of paints, cleaning products, carpet and new furniture. Allergens such as dust and dander will also accumulate when the air is stale inside your home. Rooms that are air tight will build up high levels of humidity inside that is the main source of molds. Let the fresh air in by opening your windows. It will significantly improve the indoor air quality of your home and improve your and your family’s health. Open windows will force the air inside your home to move and replace all the unwanted air inside into a fresher and cleaner air from outside. 2. Good for your mindAir quality has a positive effect in your cognition or your ability to acquire knowledge and understanding. It will make you think better and is very important for learning. Studies show that employees are significantly less productive if the indoor air quality inside a building is poor and they have no access to fresh air from the outside. By opening your windows, you are somehow connecting yourself to nature, which can boost your mood and make you happier. Also, sunlight during morning and afternoon is a very effective mood booster and a good source of vitamin D. 3. More savingsInstead of relying on air conditioners and fans, why not use the free air that is available outside? Just open your windows and let nature cool you free of charge. It will reduce your reliance on air conditioners and lower your electric consumption. More than 40% of your electric consumption comes from these cooling equipment. By always opening your windows and allowing fresh air to go inside, your home will have lower humidity levels. This means that you will no longer need dehumidifiers that will cost you around P10,000. Air fresheners will not be needed as well because with lower humidity and higher air movement inside, your house will not smell stuffy and old. Your house will actually smell a lot better if you open your windows. 4. Good for the environmentBy lowering your reliance to air conditioners and harnessing the power of nature in cooling your home, you will reduce your reliance on fossil-fuel generated energy that is harmful for nature.
Opening your windows has many benefits not just for you, but for the environment as well. BluHomes Breeze, a nature-friendly townhouse development in Amparo Caloocan, encourages its homeowners to open their windows by providing free insect screens to all its openable windows so they will not worry about insects entering their homes. Also, windows at BluHomes Breeze are casement-type windows that are 100% openable, which will allow more fresh air to come in compared to ordinary sliding windows.
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For thousands of years, humans rely on the sun for light. We adopted our own body clock with reference to the movement of the sun, from when we wake up, when we hunt for food, and when we sleep. It is only after 140 years ago that we shifted to artificial light, when Thomas Edison invented the light bulb. It disrupted how our body naturally functions and affects our health and wellbeing. Here are the reasons why you should have more windows and natural light in your homes. 1. Better HealthStudies show that being exposed to natural light during early mornings and late afternoons makes us healthier. Sunlight is our natural medicine to fight for common illnesses and bacteria. It is also a great source of vitamin D, which increases the ability of our body to absorb calcium, magnesium and phosphate. 2. Better VisionNatural light can enhance our vision and regulate the growth of our eyeballs. Our eyes are already used to the dynamic change of sunlight throughout centuries and are not used to the fluorescent lights that we have today. Too much exposure to fluorescent light inside our homes can cause eyestrain and headaches because of its flickering property. 3. Better MoodOur bodies have adopted to the dynamic natural light that the sun produces. The intensity and colors of light change with time, from dark during night time, to the soft yellow-orange hue during mornings and afternoons, to the intense bright white-blue light during midday. This natural biorhythm raises our moods and increases our energy levels. Also, seeing the outdoors makes us feel connected back to nature and enhances our moods. 4. More ProductiveStudies have shown that providing more natural light in offices increases the productivity and comfort of its occupants. The building with more natural light also has happier occupants. Its naturally-changing shades stimulates our brains and affects our energy for the task at hand. 5. More SavingsOn average, lighting consumes 15% of our energy consumption. Artificial light, especially incandescent bulbs, produces heat that makes our house hotter and less comfortable, increasing our likelihood of using air conditioners and electric fans, which consumes a lot of electricity. Using natural light instead of artificial lighting can significantly reduce our energy consumption.
BluHomes Breeze, a nature-friendly townhouse development in Amparo Caloocan, are designed to have better natural lighting. It has bigger and wider windows, and its interior walls are painted plain white to reflect these natural light deeper into the house. Your attic is one of the main reasons why your house is hot. Roofs in the Philippines are mostly made of very thin steel sheet called "long span", and it is a highly-conductive material. When the sun hits your roof, it absorbs the heat and transfers it to the inside, directly to the attic of your house. The attic is the area between the roof and the ceiling of the highest floor. What does your attic do to this heat? Why is my second floor hot?Your attic transfers that heat downwards into the the second floor of your house. To add to this, the principle of convection states that hot air will naturally rise and cold air will naturally go down. These are the reasons why it is hotter in the second floor compared to the ground floor. The bad news, your second floor is usually where you spend most of your time in. It is also where you sleep! What can I do?You can replace your roof into a material that is not as conductive as a steel. You can also add insulation under your roof. But these will be very expensive for you. The easiest and most practical way to cool your attic is to allow it to vent the heat outdoors, instead of into the house, by providing some holes or vent to your ceiling eaves. That is why the ceiling eaves under the roof of BluHomes Breeze, a nature-friendly townhouse development in Amparo Caloocan, have slotted holes on them, to allow these heat to escape from the attic to the outside environment. What are the benefits?This attic ventilation will significantly reduce the heat inside your attic and, most importantly, will make your house cooler and more comfortable. You will be able to stay in your room longer without air conditioners. Your house will be cooler, literally. With a more comfortable house, you may lessen the use of air conditioners and electric fans, and your electric bills will go down and give you more savings. And with lower use of energy, it will lower also your carbon footprint to nature. You and your home will be nature-friendly. Will these holes look nice on my house?Yes. Check out BluHomes Breeze in Amparo Caloocan and how they incorporated this attic ventilation into the design of their house. Also, people will not notice these holes from afar, especially if the facade of your house is eye-catching!
Our windows are one of the main sources of heat inside our house. It is the weakest part the the "building envelope," which is the term used by engineers and architects to refer to the exterior shell of the house, particularly the roofs and walls, that are supposed to protect us from the outdoor environment. It is the easiest way for the heat of the sun to enter the house. The simplest way to cool our house significantly is by selecting the most efficient window covering. BluHomes Breeze, a townhouse development in Amparo Caloocan, uses White PVC Horizontal Window Blinds for their window coverings to cool the house passively for 4 reasons. 1. It is color whiteWhite is the coolest color among all colors. The lighter the color of a material, the less heat is absorbed by the material and the cooler the material becomes. When sunlight hits the white blinds, instead of absorbing the heat and letting it penetrate the house, it reflects the heat back to the outside. 2. It is PVC materialPlastic is considered as a low-conductive material. Conductivity is a property of a material that measures its ability to let heat pass through its body. Steel is highly conductive, that's why the steel spoon is hot when we use it for cooking. The less conductive the material is, like PVC, the less heat will transfer from one end to another. This means that the heat on the outdoor side of the window blinds is not being passed through the material and into the interior of the house. 3. It blocks the sunSince it is horizontal, the blinds can be manually adjusted to control the amount of sunlight that you want to enter inside the house. You can totally or partially block the direct sunlight from entering the house with the blinds, thus giving you full control of the amount of light and heat you allow to enter your house. 4. It allows air to enterWhen there is no air movement inside the house, you feel hotter. Wind that passes by your body makes you feel cooler because the wind pushes away the humidity around your body that makes you feel hot. Unlike curtains and shut-off blinds, horizontal window blinds can block the sunlight and yet allow for the air to enter the house, making the house cooler and more comfortable.
The purpose of building a house is to provide a home. In the future, it must be more than that. All buildings are built for a purpose. A hospital building is built for health care to the community. A school building is built for providing education. A house is built to provide shelter. Buildings are built for a single purpose of satisfying basic human needs. Houses built to contribute to the environmentHouses in the future must satisfy more than one purpose of providing shelter. It would be much better if the house that are being built contribute to the environment as well. Instead of adding burden to the environment and contributing negatively, why not contribute positively? Houses must be built to reduce its negative impact to the environment. Houses with less energy demandThe first step is to reduce the energy demand of the house by building it using the concept of passive cool house. A passive cool house is a house built to be cooler and comfortable only by design, without air-conditioners, using better roof and wall insulation, cross ventilation techniques, and better house orientation and shading. This will significantly reduce the energy demand of the house. House with solar panelsAfter designing the house with reduced energy demand, the next step is to build the house with renewable energy sources like solar panels. This will offset the energy sourced from dirty non-renewable energy and reduce its negative impact to the environment.
This is the vision of BluHomes for the future of the housing industry in the Philippines, to have houses that have less impact to the environment and are powered solely by renewable energy, mainly by solar power. With this kind of housing, the world will be a much better, healthier, and more sustainable. Showing our love for Mother Earth doesn't need to be boring. It must be a celebration of the things that we take for granted. As BluHomes supports Earth Hour, here are the 5 fun activities that we can do when our lights are out during Earth Hour. 1. Play Traditional GamesLife can be as fun without gadgets! During Earth Hour, bring out your board games, playing cards, and other fun table games. You can play the traditional Filipino games outdoors like patintero, tumbang preso or taya-tayaan. Compared to gadgets where our kids play by themselves, these games will teach them the value of teamwork and camaraderie. 2. Star GazingYou can see 10 times more stars when there are no lights around. Earth Hour is the perfect time to star gaze because the darkness allows the stars to stand-out and shine brighter. You will appreciate how beautiful and amazing the universe is when you see this many stars. Star gazing is also the perfect time to reflect on your life and discover something about yourself. 3. Set-up Picnic OutdoorsTake your dinner outside the house and set-up a picnic for you and your family. Celebrate the outdoors, appreciate the nature as-is without the man-made stuff, and bond with your family. No cellphones and no gadgets. Talk. Share stories. Appreciate each other's company. 4. ExerciseOur house can be hot during Earth Hour. You are perspiring anyway, so why not exercise? You will surely sweat more and lose more. If you don't like the heat inside the house, go outside and jog. Breathe the outdoor air and see your neighborhood in a different perspective. 5. SleepStudies show that the easiest way to sleep better and more deeply is to turn off all your lights. Earth Hour is that time. It is the perfect time for you to catch-up on your sleep. You are rejuvenating yourself and Mother Earth at the same time.
A cool house is a nature-friendly house. It reduces the consumption of air conditioners, which comprises of more than 50% of the average household energy consumption. How does light colors affect the temperature of a house? Light colors reflect UV raysNotice that when you wear a white shirt, you magically feel cool and comfortable. And when you wear a black shirt, you feel very hot. That is because black absorbs all the heat coming from the light of the sun, while white reflects everything. The lighter the color of the shirt, the more heat is reflected and the cooler you feel. This is especially true in houses. The lighter the color of the walls and roof, the more UV light is reflected and the cooler the house. Light colors are coolUsing light colors for the facade and roof makes the house significantly cool as it reflects the heat. The cooler the house, the less air conditioners that the homeowner will use and less energy they will consume. This makes the house nature-friendly as it reduces the energy that is drawn from power plants.
BluHomes Breeze in Amparo Caloocan uses this technique to make its townhouse nature-friendly. Its roof is color white and its facade is made up of very light colors. The result is a house that is relatively cooler and more comfortable compared to other conventional houses. Grass in your home makes your life better, physically, spiritually, and psychologically. Here are four reasons why you should cover your yard with grass instead of concrete. 1. It makes surroundings coolerWhy is it that it's much cooler in the province compared to the city? It's because the ground in the province is mostly grass instead of concrete. Concrete has this property called Thermal Mass, wherein it absorbs the heat from its surroundings during warm temperature at daytime, and releases that heat during cold temperature at night. Grass, on the other hand, reduces this heating effect from concrete. It absorbs the heat coming from its surroundings and it releases oxygen that makes the surroundings cooler. 2. It cleans the airGrass breathes-in carbon dioxide that is harmful for the environment and contributes to global warming. It replaces this carbon dioxide by releasing oxygen that is essential for our health and life in general. More grass means less carbon dioxide and more oxygen, which we need for our brains and lungs to function well. 3. It makes you relaxStudies have shown that seeing grass makes our brains relax and enhances our moods. For thousands of years, human beings were surrounded with trees and grass that serve as their home. Within the last 100 years, we got surrounded by this concrete jungle that makes us feel constrained. This is why our mood lightens up when we see a golf course. 4. It's beautifulThis is the exemption to the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." All human beings are psychologically attracted to grass. It is ingrained in our DNA. Also, green is a very good contrast to the color of the house that is usually white, grey, beige or brown. Its color adds excitement to the boring, repetitive, and flat colors of the house. These are the reasons why the front yard of BluHomes Breeze, a nature-friendly townhouse development in Amparo Caloocan, is covered with grass. It makes the surroundings cooler, cleans the air, makes us feel relaxed, and makes the house much more beautiful and exciting.
Natural air is free. It does not cost any money and it does not need energy from the electric grid. Using casement-type windows in our homes takes advantage of this green feature.
A casement-type window, commonly known as swing-type window, is a type of window that is hinged on one side and can be opened by swinging it outward. Unlike the common sliding-type window that can be opened by sliding it to the side and only half of the window is open, the casement-type window can be 100% full opened. This allows the natural air to have a larger access to enter the house compared to a sliding-type window that is only 50% open. Also, when the window frames are fully swung open, it acts like a scoop to funnel-in the breezes that pass by the house allowing more air to enter. BluHomes Breeze, a nature-friendly townhouse development in Amparo Caloocan, uses casement-type windows. Not only can it be 100% fully opened, its windows are also provided with insect screen to encourage the homeowners to harness this feature and not worry about insects entering the house. All its windows have white frames to reflect the UV rays coming from the sun, reducing the heat inside the house. Harnessing this free air that nature provides will not only make our living more comfortable, it will also make our house nature-friendly. BluHomes Breeze is a townhouse development in Amparo Caloocan that is walking distance only to MRT-7. It is designed as a passive cool house wherein the house in itself is already cool and comfortable without air conditioners. This makes the development nature friendly. #BluHomesPh #PassiveHouse #EcoFriendly
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February 2024
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