Air conditioning has become essential in most Singaporeans’ homes for relief from hot weather.
But a Singapore man takes the cake by reportedly using a total of nine aircons in his four-room Sengkang flat at the same time. This is because he’s a cancer patient and needs to be comfortable at home.
However, this has caused some inconvenience to his neighbours in the unit above, who have to bear with condensation on their floors.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
The 64-year-old resident in question lives in a flat in Block 258A Compassvale Road, reported Shin Min Daily News.
Source: Google Maps
Identified only as Mr Huang, he said he was diagnosed with end-stage liver cancer in 2020 and had to sell off his house to pay for his treatment.
Thus, he moved into his current rented flat in the block a few months ago.
Upon moving in, Mr Huang installed nine aircon units in the flat, despite it only having four rooms.
While there are two of them in the master bedroom, the other two bedrooms have “just” one each.
The living room, however, has five aircon units.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
He paid S$13,000 to install the appliances.
Mr Huang told Shin Min that the aircons are turned off when he’s not at home during the daytime. However, when he’s at home, he turns them all on at the same time, set to a frigid 18°C.
He explained that the extreme temperature is due to the hot weather, and it’s how he can feel comfortable at home.
As for his electricity bills, he claimed that they exceeded S$1,000 per month at the previous residences he’d rented.
But he’s cut down a lot on his usage now, so his bill for last month was a comparatively cheap S$350.
While many Singaporeans don’t wear much at home, Mr Huang apparently wears several layers of clothes due to the icy conditions in his flat.
When a Shin Min reporter visited him on Sunday (21 Aug), he was wearing a green sweater over a blue long-sleeved shirt, and three or four layers underneath that.
However, he was also wearing a pair of black shorts.
The chill from his unit could be felt from the corridor outside.
Source: SRX
Mr Huang explained that he’s also afraid of the cold.
But for the sake of his comfort, he apparently has no choice but to turn on the aircon and wear more clothes.
He also said keeping the body warm would help improve his immunity — important due to his illness.
All this is cold comfort to Mr Huang’s neighbour directly above, Mr Liu Zhiyun.
The 57-year-old food supplier said the day after the nine aircons were installed, his floor became cold and damp.
Water droplets even started forming on the surface, he said, such that his footprints could be seen.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
This has severely affected his family’s lives for more than two months, he added.
Because of the dampness affecting all the rooms in his flat, the floors had to be mopped three times a day, Mr Liu told Shin Min.
Source: Shin Min Daily News on Facebook
He’s also slipped and almost fell on the wet surface.
His wife pointed out that the door and walls of their master bedroom were starting to grow mouldy.
She worries that there’ll be problems with their floor tiles in future — they may shatter due to the frequent extreme changes in temperature.
They’ve already complained about the situation to the authorities many times but were unable to resolve it.
However, there could be a potential resolution to the problem. Shin Min understands that the neighbours met up on Sunday night to discuss the issue and finally settled on a compromise.
Mr Huang said in future, he’ll use his aircon for a shorter time period. For example, when he’s sleeping, he’ll use only the two units in his master bedroom.
Professing to have no choice about the master bedroom, he said he needed to turn on the aircon there for a long time to sleep comfortably.
He conceded when he’s not in the living room, he’ll turn off the aircon there as well as those in the other two bedrooms.
On Mr Liu’s side, he said he agreed to this proposal but must see how it goes first.
If condensation still forms on his floors in future, that means the problem isn’t resolved, he added.
Mr Huang said if he can’t reach an understanding with his neighbours, he’ll move out and find somewhere else to live.
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Featured image adapted from Shin Min Daily News on Facebook.
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