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After the home is built, most customers find it very
difficult to maintain it. The main reasons are – first the
building may not be in a position to maintain easily and second the
occupant of the house develops a fatigue after sometime in
maintaining the building. Thus “Maintainability Plan” done at
the beginning of the planning stage addresses both challenges.
One known “Maintainability Plan” done by many
customers is that usage of water resistant ceramic tiles in bathroom
walls. Then the same concept was extended to Kitchen walls also.
Q) What all should be part of Maintainability
Plan?
There are many factors that should go as part of
Maintainability Plan. Few of them are explained below:
|
# |
Factor |
Common Problems |
Maintainability Plan |
-
|
Floor Tiles |
Gets dirty after few years. |
Use non-porous tiles like vitrified tiles. |
-
|
Electrical Switches |
Gets dirty after few years. Difficult to clean if
visible screws are there in the switch board. |
Go for Modular switches which are easier to
clean. |
-
|
Water Pipes |
Gets clogged due to salt layer formation and
difficult to clean with chemicals as drinking water line may get
affected. |
Use different pipe lines for drinking water line
and common usage line. |
-
|
Taps, faucets, etc |
Gets dirty after few months. |
Use Chromium Plated Brass fittings which are
easier to clean with new chemical liquids that are easily
available in market. |
-
|
Water Tank |
Gets dirty, inside walls get fungus and dirt
passes through the pipes and clogs the taps. |
Use ceramic tiles for inside walls for easy
cleaning. Provide some clearance between outlet pipe and bottom
of the tank so that dirt settles down below the tank and only
water enters through the pipe. |
-
|
Sanitation Ducts |
After sometime, the ducts clog and difficult to
clean. |
Provide enough cleaning points which should be
easier to open and clean. |
-
|
Painting |
Inside walls get dirty and outside walls get
fungus due to rain, etc. |
Use washable paint for inside walls to clean dirt
and emulsion paint for outside walls to get rid of fungus. |
-
|
Doors |
After few years, doors bend and scratch the floor
which makes it difficult to open and close. |
Use good quality door hinges on a good quality
frame which could withstand the load due to self weight of the
door. |
-
|
Windows |
Grills in the window gets dirty and difficult to
clean. |
Use simple style grill instead of complex style
which will be difficult to clean. |
-
|
Wardrobes |
Shelves where medicines are placed gets sticky
and spoils other items in the wardrobe. |
Instead of using wooden shelves, use water
resistant materials like granite, tiles, etc which would be easier
to clean. |
-
|
Kitchen sink |
Gets dirty very soon and difficult to clean. |
Use stainless steel sink instead of stone which
can be easily cleaned with cleaning liquids. |
-
|
Washbasin |
Gets dirty very soon and difficult to clean. |
Use stain-free ceramic washbasin. |
(the above list will be expanded in the next version
of this website)
Q)Can you give some examples for “Maintainability Plan”?
a) Window slab getting dirty – with and without
granite slab
b) Taps getting dirty – before cleaning and after
cleaning
c) Sanitation Ducts – When opened, non-maintainable ducts
cause problem.
d) Switchboard – before and after cleaning
Q)Does this FAQ section cover everything about
“Maintainability Plan”?
No. The list above is not 100% complete. A
separate book can be published for “Maintainability Plan” alone.
This FAQ section is just to make the reader aware of the fact that there
is something known as “Maintainability Plan” and it should also
be done as part of “Dream Home Planning”.
Q) It looks like if “Maintainability Plan”
is implemented, the cost of construction may increase?
Yes, the cost of construction may increase to some
extent. But when compared to total cost of the building, this will
be negligible. Also the “Return On Investment” (ROI) for this
purpose is very high in the long run.
Q) What if “Maintainability Plan” is not
done?
Once the Home is built, most of the time and money
goes to “Maintenance of the Home”. If this “Maintainability
Plan” is not done, the occupant / owner of the house may have to
spend more time and money for maintenance purpose. So it is better
to do this before building the home.
A home which saves energy is much better than the
one which doesn’t save. There are several ways to save energy. It
may seem a bit expensive to achieve a home to save energy. But this
concept is like CFL bulb. You may incur more cost to buy a CFL bulb
but in the long run it would have saved you money.
This section is just to make you aware of such
ideas. This may not be the complete list and the list provided is
also limited to my knowledge. The objective of this section is just
to make the 'Prospect Owner' think in these lines before building
their Dream Home.
Q) Why does a 'Prospect Owner' need to think
about this 'Energy Saving Plan'?
A ‘Dream Home’ is not meant for few years. It
is meant for few decades. So, if a 'Prospect Owner' thinks about
this 'Energy Saving Plan', then in the long run, it would save money.
This section is not complete in all aspects. Again,
like few other sections, this is also meant to create awareness about
how energy can be saved.
Q) How is 'Energy Saving Plan' implemented?
'Energy Saving Plan' is implemented in various ways.
Few examples are:
|
a) Using Natural Light during day time as much
as possible: Many people use electrical lights even during day
time because of poor lighting due to poor construction plan. So,
by having the window size large enough and using transparent glass
window openings, external light can be used as much as possible.
It may be a bit more expensive to have large windows. But
compared to the total cost of the house, this may be negligible.
For independent houses, roof lit opening as shown here can be done
to save energy. |
|
|
Diagram 1: Large
size windows help avoid usage of electrical lights during day
time. |
Diagram 2: Light
from the roof for independent house. |
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b) Use solar energy as much as possible to
heat water. By installing solar water heater, hot water can be
obtained without spending any electricity. If you are in a hot
region and if you think that you may not use hot water for taking
bath, then this hot water may be useful for many purposes like
cleaning utensils, washing clothes, etc. Since the initial cost
is only between Rs.10000 to Rs.20000 which is negligible compared
to the cost of the entire house, this will be a good option to go
for. |
|
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c) Use automatic water level controller for
motor switch to save both electrical energy as well water. If
this gadget is not used, some amount of electrical energy will
definitely be wasted and also precious water. Since this will be
used almost daily in all households, it is better to fix this. |
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d) Use Tube lights with electronic choke and
Electronic Fan regulators. Electronic chokes consume lesser
energy compared to old chokes. Similarly electronic regulators
consume less energy compared to old resistor based regulators. |
|
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e) Use hollow block bricks for walls where air
conditioning of the room is required. Air inside the hollow
blocks will act as a good insulator and will reduce electrical
consumption of air conditioners. There are other advantages of
hollow-blocks which can be found in some technical books. |
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f) Use auto-switch-on-off lights for apartment
common areas: There are certain switches which will be on when
someone taps or claps and will switch off after few seconds. Thus
such switches help save electrical energy. If there are hundreds of
such lights in the common area of an apartment complex, the energy
saved over a period of time will be really huge. If this concept is
implemented in each and every apartment complex in India, imagine how
much electrical energy can be saved. I’m not sure why Indian
government is not insisting for these kinds of energy saving ideas.
g) Use good quality electrical wires and good
thickness for electrical circuit: If the quality of wire used in
a house is bad or of the thickness is not enough for a given circuit,
then due to high resistance in the wire, some amount of energy is
wasted in the form of heat.
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