Biomimicry in House Temperature Control

I was reading about endotherms and ectotherms in an ecology textbook yesterday and the idea struck me that houses themselves can be looked at as either 'endotherms' or 'ectotherms' with regards to how temperature was being controlled in them.

Earth building

Endothermic Houses

A house that uses an air conditioner would be considered an endothermic house, since it uses internal means to regulate its temperature. Like endothermic organisms, which consume a lot of energy (and food) to regulate their internal body temperature, an endothermic house would be using a lot of energy (electricity) to regulate the temperature inside it as the air conditioner works. Endotherms also consume even larger amounts of energy to regulate their internal temperate when the external temperature is more extreme. This is the case too with 'endothermic' houses, which consume growing amounts of energy as the temperature outside the house becomes more and more extreme.

Ectothermic Houses

Ectotherms, on the other hand, use external means to regulate their body temperature. Ectothermic houses thus would be the ones that do not have an internal heating or cooling system but rather use external means to regulate their 'body' temperature. Ectothermic houses can use angle to the sun, angle to wind, air vents and a number of other strategies in order to help regulate their internal temperature without consuming too much energy to do so.

Insulation

Organism also make use of insulation in the form of fur, feathers, skin and fat to help reduce undesired body temperature loss or gain. Similarly, houses can make use of such powerful strategy in order to help regulate internal temperature without need for expending energy. This could be for instance in the form of thick walls that slowly absorb and store heat to name just one insulation strategy.

Conclusion

By employing techniques used by ectotherms rather than endotherms as well as insulation, houses can be designed to consume much less energy than ones that are much more energy hungry as endotherms.

Birdwatching in Cairo

Last April I joined a group of birdwatchers during a Birdwatching City Walk that took place in the Heliopolis suburb of Cairo. Despite the heat of the day, I enjoyed the walk and learned a lot from it, not to mention meeting some interesting new people who were fond of nature.

The birdwatching city walk was co-organized by Nature Conservation Egypt (NCE), an Egyptian NGO aiming to conserve nature, and Earth Keepers which is a grassroots initiative promoting sound ecological practices that was born through a collaborative effort from plant and nature lovers living near and around a street garden in Heliopolis.

House sparrow
Photo by Watter Al Bahry

Even though birdwatching has been practices in Egypt yet the novel thing this time was to carry it out in the city! Watter AlBahry, wildlife photographer, Administrative Officer at Nature Conservation Egypt and co-founder of Egypt Geographic, led the group pointing to various birds and identifying them to us, handing over binoculars to us and distributing bilingual (Arabic and English) booklets containing photos and names of birds found in Egypt. Watter was later joined by Mr. Ahmed Riad, a long time birdwatcher, also from NCE, who further provider us with knowledge about birds, their types and their behavior. It was just brilliant!

Olivaceous Warbler
Photo by Watter Al Bahry

Among the birds identified during that day were:

1. House sparrow
2. Bee-eater
3. Common bulbul
4. Kestrel
5. Olivaceous Warbler
6. Hooded Crow
7. Laughing Dove
8. Feral Pigeon

From among the very interesting pieces of information that I had learnt on that day was that birds that forage in groups often have specific patches and areas in which they control. That is, each group of birds have their own spots of land in which they forage. In the past, I had thought that birds just fly about and eat from anywhere. I never knew that each group of birds had their own areas. It is like dogs which have territories that they defend in clans.

I also experienced the notion of identifying birds first through their songs before actually spotting them with binoculars or with the naked eye.

Kestrel
Photo by Watter Al Bahry

The idea of having birdwatching inside the city was great. I live the concept of urban ecology. I do hope that we repeat such a birdwatching day in the city once again and expand it further!