Thursday, October 1, 2015

Zinc Sheet to Reduce Heat - Sabah

While I was in Sandakan couple of weeks ago, I came across two very interesting Swiftlet farms.
They are located not far from the town at a Kampong area.

What attracted my attention was how these two Swiftlet farms were built. Interestingly the owners do have some good knowledge of Swiftlet farming. It was done with the simplest way and cost effective.

Not many Swiftlet farms could achieve this.  They used Zinc sheets as a shield to reduce heat from penetrating into the farms, brilliant idea. Obviously, this is not new but what interesting is that the Zinc sheets are placed 1 ft  away from the walls.



The gaps of 1 ft between the walls and Zinc sheets works as a channel for wind to move freely. The fast circulation of air  cool down the wall thus reduce the farms' temperature.

I have seen many people doing the same but, often the gaps are too small to be effectively to reduce the temperature of the wall.


These Swiftlet farms were done this way because both building are built for industry purposes. Now they have been converted into Swiftlet farm. To reduce the renovation cost this was the best way to do it.

Here is another  Swiftlet farm, obtaining the similar concept of reducing temperature of the wall. 
But it seems the whole wall is not covered. 




C channel is used as frames to hold the Zinc sheets. There are ventilated bricks on wall of the ceiling. This indicated heat is a major problem here.


Well designed, a staircase is built, from outside to access to the farm. There are quite a lot of birds playing outside during my visit at 3.00 pm.

I am sure within a short period of time these Swiftlet farms would have lots of nests.

Good Swiftlet farming All.