Tuesday 29 July 2014

Smelly Praying Room at Shopping Complexes in Malaysia

To friends still working in M&E consultancy field, I had a mere suggestion.

It is best to install exhaust fan kat Surau / Praying Room in your design. (the same like those small Toilet Exhaust Fan).

The smallest size of 150cfm is adequate,however the final size depends on your allocated Surau space. (Surau Air Volume and ACH calculation)

The reason is sometimes after ablution, those wet feet stinks like hell,

and the smell got stuck in the carpet causing a very smelly Praying Room in the long run, especially in Malaysia where the humidity is high.

The spinning ceiling fans just moves the air inside the room, and so you still can’t get the smelly air out. The ACMV approach is to consider air-in /air -out ventilation.

And so the exhaust fan can regulate the air exhausted out, with fresh air coming thru infiltraition  (leakage of air inside thru opening at door, windows, etc.)

The exhaust fan could be located near the ablution area, as usually the aircond split unit is located at the front of praying room, and so the heat loss to cool air being exhausted out can be minimized.

To me, the smelly problem at Praying Room at Shopping Complexes in Malaysia is because of poor ventilation due to cramped spaces allocated for Praying Room during design stage.

However, there is no need to blame developers and Architects for the crappy space allocation, engineers are there to solve problems, and so my idea above is just my opinion to solve the shit.

Anyway I’m not in M&E consultancy anymore therefore, I felt that writing here with friends sharing this blog could get the word across.