Potensi Hutan Kota sebagai Alternatif Substitusi Fungsi Alat Pendingin Udara (Air Conditioner) di Kota Surabaya

Abstract

Most of the societies used the air conditioners to reduce overwarming. However, besides apart from costly, air conditioner only increase global warming. One attempt to control temperatures in urban areas is by developing an urban forest. The purpose of this research was to assess the ability of urban forest vegetation in absorbing heat in replacing air conditioner, hence the efficiency of urban forest. The research would be known was conducted in the city of Surabaya. The research was initiated by performing measurements at room with Room Air Conditioner methods. The potential of urban forest made through of measuring the heat flux density on vegetation. The result show that the heat absorption ability of the trees was 2958.7 KJ/h (Bratang urban forest) and 2589 KJ/h (Wonorejo urban forest). One unit of 1 PK air conditioner ( capacity of 9495 Kj/h ) can be substituted by 3-4 trees, one unit of 1.5 PK air conditioner (capacity of 18990 Kj/h ) can be substituted by 6-7 trees and one unit 2 PK of air conditioner (capacity 28458 Kj/h) can be substituted with 9-10 trees. The total efficiency of the eight rooms studied was found token Rp 22.811.042,-/year (Bratang Urban Forest) and Rp.20.365.265,-/year (Wonorejo Urban Forest). Thus, The development of urban forests to replace air conditioner is rational because it could significantly save the cost of a room spending.