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Approximately 1,400 families will be the first to live in smart device-enabled Housing Board flats in Punggol Northshore later this year.
Spread over two Build-To-Order (BTO) projects, Northshore Residences I and II, the apartments are equipped with the “brain” of a smart home: smart plugs and high-tech distribution boards.
These built-in accessories allow homeowners to transform their apartments into smart homes if they wish. This means that any appliance that is connected to a power source (lamp, fan, or coffee maker) can be controlled via a mobile app.
The 1,402 units in 12 residential blocks are the first batch of smart technology enabled BTO flats that HDB will implement. The owners are now collecting their keys.
Punggol Northshore, one of the seven waterfront housing districts in Punggol, will also be Singapore’s first district to have smart features.
Sensors will be deployed to analyze the performance of key real estate services such as lighting, water pumps, elevators and garbage collection for predictive maintenance.
Inside the farm, smart lighting in common areas where little or no human traffic is detected can be automatically dimmed to 30 percent, which can save up to 60 percent in energy use.
An intelligent irrigation system with humidity sensors uses factors such as rain and sunlight to optimize schedules and water use. This makes it a less labor-efficient and water-efficient approach to maintaining vegetation and landscapes within the farm.
Yesterday the HDB exposed how Punggol, one of Singapore’s newest cities, has developed as a smart and sustainable city over the last decade.
First, there was Treelodge @ Punggol, the nation’s first public housing development with green features.
Completed in 2010, the eco-site comprises seven residential blocks with a podium car park and green spaces at the site level.
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THE FACILITIES ALLOW A GREENER LIFESTYLE
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TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SOLAR ENERGY
What: Solar panels on the roofs of the Housing Board blocks in Punggol generate power to power common services such as elevator operations and lighting in common areas, with energy-saving LED lighting also in use.
Total energy savings: 82.6 gigawatt hours per year, enough to power 17,200 four-room flats a year.
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SAVING WATER
What: The new floors at Punggol come with water efficient fixtures to reduce water consumption in the home. Within housing projects, an urban water catchment system collects and stores rainwater for non-potable uses, such as washing corridors and watering gardens.
Total water savings: 1,387,818 cubic meters per year, enough to fill 555 Olympic swimming pools.
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MINIMIZE WASTE
What: All Punggol blocks have a centralized recycling pipeline to promote domestic recycling.
Amount of recyclables collected: Approximately 1,285 tons per year, the estimated weight of 89 double-decker buses.
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BICYCLE-FRIENDLY VILLAGE
What: Punggol will have more than 50 km of bike lanes when the network is completed. There will be dual bike racks conveniently located to encourage green commuting.
At 5.2 km per km2, the complete cycling network will also be denser than Helsinki’s 4.7 km per km2.
Michelle Ng
The guiding principle of the design was to harness the elements of nature wherever possible, such as wind, daylight, rain and vegetation, to promote sustainable green living, the HDB said.
To achieve this, the roof of the parking lot was transformed into an ecological roof with extensive vegetation, including a community garden.
To encourage recycling and for convenience, a centralized garbage chute for recyclable materials was incorporated into each block.
Treelodge @ Punggol was also the first public housing development to have solar photovoltaic panels on its rooftops. The energy generated is almost enough to power services such as elevator operations and lighting in common areas.
Since then, 169 Punggol blocks have been fitted with solar panels, and another 300 are fitted.
Along the way, Punggol has served as a “living laboratory” where HDB tests new ideas and technologies. Features that are successfully tested will be replicated in future developments, such as the “Forest City” of Tengah.
So far, 30 solutions have been implemented and deployed in the rest of Punggol, such as double bike racks and a rainwater harvesting system.
Of these, 22 solutions have been implemented beyond Punggol, such as centralized recycling bins and energy-saving LED lighting with motion sensors.
The smart features of Northshore Residences were the biggest draw for 28-year-old graphic designer Haris Rasid. He and his wife decided to have their first home in Punggol, even if it meant not living near their parents in the western part of Singapore.
“The farm comes with so many smart features and living in this current era where technology is key, my wife and I thought we would give it a try and be one of the first owners of a smart HDB floor,” said the father of one.
Their four bedroom unit at Northshore Residences II is undergoing renovations and they hope to move in at the end of the month.
“At first, I plan to use the smart features to track our utility usage just to get the hang of the system, as it’s new to us. Maybe sometime in the future, we’ll see the possibility of branching out into other gadgets and systems. smart, “he said.
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