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  Straits Times Forum 21 Jul 06
Unfair to discriminate against five-room and executive flats by suggesting they pay more for electricity to deter air-con consumption
Letter from Koh Sia Hui (Ms)

Straits Times Forum 19 Jul 06
Cut down on air-con consumption for cleaner air
Letter from Betty L. Khoo (Ms)

I LIVE in a more than 50-year-old bungalow with my 90-year-old father. We do not have any air-cons but, within spitting distance, our upgraded neighbours do, cooling their all-glassed-up semi-detached bungalows, 10 air-cons each. (I sleep under a mosquito net and do not need a fan, my father sleeps under a ceiling fan and does not need a net.)

My friend lives in an HDB flat in Serangoon and does not need an air-con but all her neighbours have their windows shut and air-cons going full blast every night.

Reading in The Straits Times that Hong Kong officials are told to dress down for cleaner air and that air-cons, spewing out pollution, accounted for about one-third of Hong Kong's total electricity consumption ('Dress down for cleaner air, HK officials told'; ST, July 13) makes me ask: 'Well, what about Singapore?'

A popular air-con brand has boldly advertised that it is 100 per cent eco-friendly. Pest busting companies - fogging pesticides and contributing to Singapore's 'slow killing PM 2.5 (ultra fine air pollutants)' - also blatantly advertise on their vans that they 'protect the environment'.

Get in a taxi, bus or train (during off peak hours) and one freezes. In the Central Business District, one sees office workers dress as if we live in a temperate, not tropical, climate.

It is surely time for a sustained national campaign to make everyone aware that each of us contributes to the overall pollution level in Singapore - and how we can, by a simple change of habits, do our bit to improve our air quality and our health. Note that the asthma death rate here is nearly six times higher than that of Sweden ('Fewer here dying of asthma now'; ST, May 19).

Suggestion No. 1: Increase the cost of electricity in executive and five-room HDB flats and make it proportionally even higher in private homes.

Suggestion No. 2: Train retirees as environmental patrol officers to note down the registration numbers of vehicles (especially diesel-spewing vans, trucks and lorries) that leave the engine running while they make a stop - and the duration of time the engine is kept running with the air-con on.

Straits Times Forum 21 Jul 06
Unfair to discriminate against five-room and executive flats by suggesting they pay more for electricity to deter air-con consumption
Letter from Koh Sia Hui (Ms)

I REFER to the letter, 'Cut down on air-con consumption for cleaner air' by Ms Betty L. Khoo (ST, July 19).

Her suggestion No. 1 was to increase the cost of electricity in executive and five-room HDB flats and make it proportionally even higher in private homes.

Such a suggestion is discriminating and unfair.

Does it mean only people in five-room and executive flats use air-con and not those in four-room flats and below? Why should residents of five-room and executive flats be made to pay more when their peers in three- and four-room flats also enjoy the breeze from their air-cons?

Take a look around and see how many three- and four-room flats also have air-cons installed. Bear in mind that not all who live in five-room flats and above are 'rich' as Ms Khoo made them out to be. Most Singaporeans are asset-rich but cash-poor.
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