The colour of cool !!!

Downing large glasses of lassi and iced tea at regular intervals isn’t enough to keep you cool during summer. Keeping the heat at bay is a full-time job — and Chennaiites are doing everything from planting terrace gardens to putting up thatched roofs to cool their homes. And for most of them, that means going green. “Nothing can beat the good old tree for cooling and shade,” says architect Meena Chandrasekharan. “I do suggest false ceilings and roofs with gaps for air to my clients but trees are the best and most natural way to keep the temperature down.” S Natesan would definitely agree with her. The 68-year-old’s house in suburban Karanodai is cooled by 30,000 trees planted on his farm. “My house in T Nagar needed four air-conditioners to keep it cool. Now I don’t have a single one,” he says. “This year, my son has also moved in with me and we’ve rented out that hot house in T Nagar,” says Natesan, who has been nicknamed ‘Tree’ Natesan because of his passion for growing trees. Since his retirement, Indrakumar S has been on a mission to create a carbon neutral home. Of course, it’s also helped to keep the heat out of his Pammal home. “I’ve ‘wrapped’ myself in green,” says Indrakumar, whose house is now an example of a ‘green home’ that students from across the world come to see. From the moment you enter his gate, all you see is green — green in pots, green on the roof, green on the walls, green even on top of 10-foot high pillars. “Now, when the electricity goes off, all I need to do is open the windows and the house is cool,” he says, smiling proudly. Indrakumar, who is now also part of Exnora, had an open courtyard which he has had to convert into a large skylight for security reasons. “It’s just a four foot by four foot opening so the house is secure but the heat goes out,” he explains. “But what really cuts down the heat is the green.” Natesan says that there are several “tried and tested” methods to cool the house. “The most efficient is a roof garden but that requires a waterproofed roof. You can also use shading nets, which cost around Rs 3 a square foot. A net with 75% shading cuts out a lot of heat,” he says. Natesan also suggests building a sunshade about three feet in width on the western side of the house as that’s the part that gets the hottest. “Otherwise, you can build a wooden frame and grow creepers on it,” he adds. In Vellore, around two hours from the city, the power goes out twice a day and for hours. So Gita M decided to try a simple solution someone suggested — inverting terracotta pots on the terrace. “I bought around 100 and put them on the roof. It’s a whole lot cooler now. One of my friends said painting the pots white would make them reflect the heat, so that’s my next step,” she says. Meena explains that the terracotta pots create an air pocket that cools the building. “It’s similar to what a false ceiling does,” says Meena, who once suggested that a client build a thatched shed on the terrace. “It costs around Rs 10,000 and serves the same purpose.” But the simplest solution? Watering the garden. “Every evening, we just water the area around the house and this cools it down,” says Unnamalai who lives in Teynampet.
-source TIMESOFINDIA