Greening your house in a tropical climate...

...or, how to avoid air conditioning and it expenses.
When we bought our house 5 1/2 years ago it wasn't finished and there wasn't a plant in sight/site. Our lot is one of the larger ones in our village with the bulk of the property on the west side of the house. Both bedrooms are on the west side as is the driveway. This resulted in the west side of the house baking all afternoon and radiating that heat back into the wee hours of the morning. Also we couldn't sit on the front porch after 10 a.m. from the end Of March until the end of August. Fans work, but the house was a heat sink so; a plan was drawn up and put into action.

Shade trees were planted on the north and west sides of the house. It took 2 years to effectively shade the front (facing north). We used a couple of fast growing trees called Daw Kaes. During the summer the sun goes to 45deg. north latitude and we live at 14 deg. north latitude so the front of the house is baked for 5 mos. out of every year. 5 1/2 years later we have the west side well shaded after 3 p.m.

My wife had never had aircon and neither had I; I don't like it much because it keeps one from acclimating. Without acclimating one can never be comfortable going places with out aircon. So, now we have a house that even on the hottest days (38 c) is very comfortable with just fans. We can sit outside at any time of day and be comfortable and it only cost us very little money and some physical labor.

On a final note; many, many Thai homes have no lawn or dirt/garden. The entire property is covered in cement which is then tiled. Looks beautiful (depends on taste) but acts like a heat sink as well, thereby contributing to a very hot environment. We've avoided doing this except for a carport area along the west side of the house.

Happy Trails...