This study presents a comparative analysis of carbon emissions and thermal comfort in an Indian affordable housing project, employing two envelope materials: EPS core technology and brick-andmortar construction. The study quantifies embodied and operational emissions through life cycle analysis to establish an emissions thermal comfort trade-off. Focused on the Bureau
In recent years, the adaptive model of thermal comfort has gained traction as a more robust alternative to fixed set-point-driven design, which considers various factors that impact human comfort, such as humidity, air velocity, mean radiant temperature, and ambient temperature. Nonetheless, it is crucial to recognize the limitations of such models
Heat stress profoundly affects well-being in hot climates. With the rise of energy-efficient, naturally
ventilated buildings, understanding their impact on heat stress is crucial. This is particularly
significant in countries like India, grappling with climate change-induced heat waves. The study
focusses on the factor of heat stress in adaptive thermal comfort models, emphasizing the need for
a more holistic approach to indoor comfort factors. Insights gained can lead to improved strategies
for optimal thermal comfort and reduced heat stress risks, vital for occupant health. Indoor WBGT
ranged from 16°C to 33°C for various envelopes, averaging 28°C (RCC), 24°C (Brick), and 22°C
(EPS). Indoor air velocity of 0.9-1.8 m/s lowered WBGT by 0.15°C or 0.27°C annually. Discomfort
hours were ~5,000 (RCC), 3,600 (Brick), and 3,200 (EPS), peaking in May-June at 40°C outdoor DBT.
Proper insulation and ventilation are crucial for comfort and heat stress reduction. By considering
diverse factors affecting indoor comfort, it offers insights to create safe and comfortable indoor
environments, especially in regions prone to heat stress. The findings advocate a balanced approach
that combines effective insulation and ventilation strategies for optimal occupant well-being.
Green Buildings were a market initiative to propel sustainability in the built environment. Various national and international Green Building Rating Agencies have formulated several region- and building typology-specific Green Building Rating Programs (GBRP). Prevailing GBRPs encompass intent-based criteria that judge a building’s performance based on optimizing the
The paper acknowledges that Urban Heat Island Effect (UHIE) occurs due to urbanization impacting earth surface characteristics, changes in the vegetation profile within urban regions, and increased anthropogenic heat. Without a common agreed-upon methodology with the various objectives that cities wish to accomplish, Indian cities are adopting
Urban Building Energy Models (UBEMs) are increasingly important tools for national and local authorities seeking to understand and manage their carbon emissions. As such tools move from the preserve of research into the more general application, interest in learning about their application is increasing. The quantity
This paper is based on a study that evaluates the efficacy of early Building Performance Simulation (BPS) users in critically examining their simulation model results with minimal external support. The objective of the study was to deepen the current understanding of challenges faced by
The purpose of this study is to assess the embodied energy emissions of walling systems used in dwelling units of India over a reference period of 50 years. The Life Cycle Assessment is undertaken within the system boundary of cradle to gate, as defined in standard ISO
On an average, India has more than 3000 Cooling Degree Days (CDD). The multifamily public housing being constructed under India’s Prime Minister Awas Yojana (PMAY) is aimed at providing formal housing to the society’s Economic Weaker Section (EWS). It is essential that this housing delivers thermally comfortable
Final energy use for cooling in buildings has tripled between 1990 and 2016 to 2020 terawatt hours. Excluding China and Japan, India accounts for about 28% of
Municipal water supply systems account for the highest share of total electricity consumption out of the other energy-intensive municipal services such as wastewater pumping, treatment, and street lighting. The energy-efficiency in the sector has majorly been looked in terms of With the increase in urbanization, expansion of cities and densification are leading to a burden on existing infrastructure and an urgent need for additional basic infrastructural facilities is being felt. The study aims to explore the relationship between the urban form of a city and electricity consumption for the municipal water distribution systems. The study focuses on the city of Ahmedabad. The urban form of a city corresponds to urban development parameters such as the spatial distribution of water users, net plot density, network length, and population density. The pumping electricity consumption in the study has been divided into two parts - municipal level and building level (as the municipalities in India supplies water for a certain head pressure).
Correlation analysis was used to find the kind of relationship that exists and its significance. The value of correlation coefficient obtained at city level showed a strong positive relationship between the pumping electricity consumption and network length configuration (r= +0.633) while a very weak relationship with the population density (r= 0.098). Municipal level pumping electricity consumption doesn’t decrease much with the increase in density. However, the building level pumping electricity consumption showed a usual trend with the highest electricity consumption in bungalow societies, high rise apartments (>5 floors) followed by mid-rise apartments (3-5 floors) and the least in the row housing. The findings of the study at both, municipal level and building level pumping electricity consumption pave the way forward for shaping Ahmedabad's future urbanization in an energy-sensitive manner.
In India, the energy end-use is anticipated to increase by 56% from 2014 to 2050. It shares 12% of total carbon emissions in the world by Room Air Conditioners (RACs). As increase in energy production using fossil fuels has an adverse effect on climate, there is
A review of existing large-scale building energy models was undertaken, highlighting their prevalence at geographically higher latitudes. The ability of these models to adequately represent is questionable and existing classifications are inadequate to describe the diversity of models that have been developed. As a response, a novel model classification scheme was developed to explore how the various models capture the underlying physical context, and to assess their appropriateness for application to the city of Ahmedabad in western India. The model classification scheme was used to develop a characteristic map for the new model of Ahmedabad and define priorities for the model’s development
In order to assist tertiary architectural education institutions as well as the architecture profession in developing course material and training packages related to Building Performance Simulation (BPS), we present the outcome of a survey conducted in Australia, India, the US and the UK. The main
As energy consumption from residential buildings is predicted to rise by more than eight times by 2050, it is of vital importance for India to develop energy-efficiency strategies focused on the residential sector to limit the current trend of unsustainable escalating energy demand. This study investigates impeded
The study conducted a survey of 800 households, in four-climate zones of India, to map current equipment penetration rate and electricity consumption patterns. Key information including residential unit area, monthly energy consumption, connected load, number of appliances & their power rating, as well as operational patterns, has been gathered in a survey. Building energy modeling (using EnergyPlus) was then deployed to quantify comfort benefits and energy savings potentials of better performing building envelopes.
The trends observed during survey and building energy modeling analysis, along with the information from past studies, have been used to derive residential electric energy projections till 2050. The projections in the study have been segregated by three end use segments (air conditioning, envelope, and equipment) for urban and rural residential sectors. Projection scenarios show that the electricity consumption will rise by more than eight times under the business-as-usual scenario. With the focused policy and market efforts, the electricity rise in residential sectors can be restricted to five times, four times, and three times that of current energy use under modest, aggressive, and very aggressive scenarios.
Various works carried out by Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE) at CEPT University, Ahmedabad, has been discussed in this paper. The objective of this project was
This paper traces the design and construction process of a net-zero energy building (NZEB) in a university campus in India. Climate resilient, high performance building design warrants an integrated and iterative design process with front-loaded analysis to arrive at an optimized solution. The building discussed in this paper
The relevance of radiant space cooling system over conventional Variable Air Volume (VAV) space cooling system with reference to economics, system operation, installed capacity, energy consumption, and human thermal comfort has been studied for commercial office buildings in India .EnergyPlus energy simulation program has been used to evaluate
India has experienced an average economic growth of 10% since 1991 leading to the establishment of new commercial buildings. Amongst other initiatives, Indian government enacted the Energy Conservation Act in 2001
Urbanization has direct impact on the spatial structure of the city, which in turn results in the dramatic change of the overall immediate environment. High-rise, high density built areas provides multiple surfaces
The) Energy) Conservation) Building) Code) (ECBC)) was)launched)in)India)in)May)2007)under)the)Energy) Conservation) Act,) 2001.) ) It) offers) two) compliance) approaches) U) Prescriptive) and) Whole) Building) Performance) (WBP).) According) to) the) EC) Act,) compliance) with) the) ECBC) has) to) be) expressed) in) terms) of) Energy) Performance) Index) (EPI)) which) is) the) annual) energy) consumption) per) square) meter) of) floor) area,) and)
This) paper)aims)to)link)
ECBC) Prescriptive) requirements) to) the) EPI)
performance) metric) in) order) to) bridge) the) gap) that)
exists) between) EC) Act) and) ECBC) Prescriptive)
compliance)method.))
The) simulation) results) help) in) understanding) the)
relative) impact) of) ECBC) Prescriptive) requirements)
and) prioritizing) the) Energy) Conservation) Measures)
(ECMs).) The) results) are) extrapolated) to) understand)
the)longUterm)impact)of)the)code) on)national)energy)
savings.)The) paper) also) provides) an)insight)into)the)
sensitivity)of)the) various)ECMs)in)different)climatic)
zones.))
Before India’s building sector can fulfil its CO2 abatement potential, it is imperative for new build projects, especially those which provide for commercial and public functions, to eschew the energy-intensive designs that characterized western commercial buildings of the 20th century. In the absence of an adaptive thermal comfort standard specifically for India’s
Personal Environmental Control Systems (PECS) offer individual control of thermal conditioning in localized environments within the building. It provides an innovative solution to decentralize space comfort conditioning. Several studies have demonstrated the advantages of PECS on thermal comfort and energy saving; most of them
The advancement in the field of Urban Building Energy Modelling (UBEM) is assisting urban planners and managers to design and operate cities to meet environmental UBEM depends upon the quality and level of details (LoD) of the inputs to the model. The inadequacy and quality of relevant input data pose challenges. This paper analyses the usefulness of different methodologies for developing a 3D building stock model of Ahmedabad, India, recognizing data gaps and heterogenous development of the city over time. It evaluates the potentials, limitations, and challenges of remote sensing techniques namely (a) Satellite imagery (b) LiDAR and (c) Photogrammetry for this application. Further, the details and benefits of data capturing through UAV assisted Photogrammetry technique for the development of the 3D city model are discussed. The research develops potential techniques for feature detection and model reconstruction using Computer vision on the Photogrammetry reality mesh. Preliminary results indicate that the use of supervised learning for Image based segmentation on the reality mesh detects building footprints with higher accuracy as compared to geometry-based segmentation of the point cloud. This methodology has the potential to detect complex building features and remove redundant objects to develop the semantic model at different LoDs for urban simulations. The framework deployed and demonstrated for the part of Ahmedabad has a potential for scaling up to other parts of the city and other Indian cities having similar urban morphology and no previous data for developing a UBEM.
Direct evaporative cooling (DEC) is one of the most
commonly used cooling systems in many parts of the
world with mainly hot and dry climatic conditions.
Various simulation-based studies have been conducted to
explore the potential of direct evaporative cooling in
buildings. However, current dynamic thermal simulation
tools use a simplified on/off
The commercial and residential sector demands high cooling requirement, which is mostly achieved
by using conventional cooling systems like split ACs, chillers or VRF. These systems currently produce 100 MT
of CO2 per annum and hence contribute significantly to carbon emissions. To mitigate such environmental
impacts,
Phase change materials (PCMs) are known for storing thermal energy by the virtue of their inherent latent enthalpies. Careful introduction of PCMs as thermal mass along with external insulation is likely to naturally ventilated buildings and reduce cooling energy consumption in air conditioned buildings. Form stabilized phase change materials integrated with building envelope promises to offer ease of construction without encroaching on valuable floor space occupied by building structure. This study evaluates influence of PCMs on thermal performance of buildings in hot and dry climate of India. In first phase, study relied on whole building energy performance simulation to determine potential benefits of phase change materials and to identify suitable thermal characteristics of PCMs. Based on simulation results, two PCM compositions were developed by manufacturer and characterized in the laboratory. Based on measured characteristics, one composition was selected to develop ceiling tile prototype for deployment in experimental setup. In second phase, PCM ceiling tiles were installed in externally insulated naturally ventilated room measuring 3.3 meter by 3.3 meter by 3.3 meter. Fully instrumented room capable of measuring various indoor and outdoor environmental conditions provided insights into PCM effectiveness. Study quantifies benefits of PCM on thermal comfort conditions inside naturally ventilated buildings using simulations and experimental setup. Study also provides guidance to determine most appropriate melting and freezing point of PCM, which helps in manufacturing. A collaborative approach between R&D institute and PCM manufacture provide valuable results leading to understanding of PCM performance in India.
The study aims at quantifying the savings in lighting energy consumption for office buildings in India due to the permanent advancement of Indian standard time from +0530 to +0600 GMT. The study initiates by walk through energy audit to evaluate lighting load and occupancy details for Ahmedabad and Kolkata. This data is used to
A majority of the residential buildings in India have masonry external walls. Heat gain and loss due to the conduction of heat from the external walls have a significant influence on indoor thermal comfort and cooling requirements. Design Uvalue of the external wall assembly
Thermally comfortable and energy-efficient buildings will play a pivotal role in radically reducing operational energy use and carbon emissions from the built environment. The emphasis in emission reduction strategies is now moving away from reliance on the marginal energy benefits of slightly more energy efficient machines
The study presents a cost-effective and scalable method to determine the Window to Wall Ratio (WWR) and A/C status of existing buildings from ground-view façade imagery. Object Detection Classifier deploying Faster Region-based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) is used to detect windows and buildings in visible images.
Occupant's interaction with the external fenestration has a large impact on the indoor environment and energy consumption of buildings. The rapid increase in India’s residential cooling demand requires a better understanding of mixed-mode operations in residential buildings. This study attempts to understand occupant behaviour for window operation. This
The Central Business District (CBD) of Ahmedabad in India, planned to be developed by 2040, will have increased floor space, three times of what it is in 2020. This will double the cooling energy demand if contemporary practices are followed. This research aims to develop building
Growing urbanisation in India has led to the increasing development of high-rise buildings. To maintain the building aesthetics, the outdoor air conditioner (AC) units are stacked withing a recessed space. The heat rejected from these outdoor units (ODU) leads to increase in air temperature of the
Rapid urbanization, rising per capita income and a warming climate are significantly increasing the burden on the electricity grid throughout India(Rawal and Shukla, 2014). The combined use of natural ventilation (NV) and mechanical cooling (MC) systems is a potential solution to provide cooling and thermal comfort
This paper presents four design charts (DC) to work as a simplified, easy-to-use and cost-effective tool to assist architects and building designers on sizing openings to deliver natural ventilation (NV) for cooling. The DC are derived from analytical techniques for four
The paper presents the case study of a Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB) located within the CEPT University campus, Ahmedabad. It starts with a narration on design and construction and provides an overview of the building envelope characteristics and operational strategies. Custom design and operation of the building management system (BMS) in
Current prescriptive building codes have limited ways to account for the effect of solar shading, such as overhangs and awnings, on window solar heat gains. We propose two new indicators, the adjusted Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (aSHGC) which accounts for external
PLEA 2017 Proceedings Volume II, pp 2648-2655
In recent years, there has been a proliferation of air-conditioning in both residential and commercial buildings in India. Mixed-mode buildings are buildings in which a combination of air-conditioning and natural ventilation is buildings are likely to be less energy consuming than fully air-conditioned buildings, and further energy savings can be achieved by using air movement to increase the cooling setpoint temperature without jeopardizing the occupants’ thermal comfort. The aim of this research was to develop and test on a typical Indian apartment a methodology to quantify these energy savings using dynamic thermal simulations. The core of this method is the definition of the cooling setpoint, which varies monthly according to the ASHRAE 55-2013 adaptive model. The results show that the annual energy demand for space cooling can be reduced by as much as up to 70 percent by using air motion devices. Moreover, the indoor thermal conditions during the occupied periods predicted by the model are closer to the values measured in field studies in India.
In the context of climate change, reduction in operational energy of buildings has gained a prominent focus amongst researchers and practitioners. India and the U.S. have both used design strategies to provide comfortable indoor environments with no or marginal reliance on conventional energy sources, but often with significant differences in their
This paper documents the challenges and lessons learned from an extensive monitoring
study undertaken in India. It forms a part of a larger project that aims at formulating a set of
protocols of such field monitoring activity and evaluating the performance of selected passive
strategies. Observations were made for each stage of monitoring, from building selection to data
quality assurance. We found that many buildings were not necessarily constructed or operated as
originally designed vis-à-vis the passive strategies we were studying. In some cases the physical
components of a passive strategies were not maintained properly. Our experience also
emphasizes the importance of having a local champion in the building being monitored. We
realized the significance of understanding the trade-offs between the quality and extent of
instrumentation as well as the value of allowing flexibility in the monitoring plan to make realtime changes on site.
India has a largely cooling dominated climate where space cooling accounts for approximately 31% of the energy consumed by commercial buildings. Deeper market penetration of air conditioning systems, higher income levels driving higher comfort expectations, and growing floor space have led to a steep rise in associated carbon emissions. India needs to
As the climate changes,
global use of air-conditioning will proliferate as solutions are sought for
maintaining thermal comfort in buildings. This rises alongside increased
purchasing
This paper presents study of application of Laser Cut Panel (LCP) with reference to availability of daylight in deep plan open offices. The study generates Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function (BSDF) which was compared with measured BSDF data using goniophotometer. A typical office floor plate was considered as a reference model to investigate daylight and energy performance for three variations of LCPs. Analysis was done for three cities in India located on different latitudes with 30%, 50% and 70% Window to Wall Ratio (WWR), with windows placed on North, South, East and West facades. Results generated are analysed for spatial distribution of daylight and savings in lighting energy consumption.
In the past 30 years, much effort has been directed to make building performance simulation become inherent in architectural practice. Anecdotal evidence however shows that it still a long way for this goal to be achieved. This paper presents the outcome of a survey conducted in Australia, India, the US and the UK, to
As our fast interdepended global world enters the depth of the 21st century, everyone’s immediate attention is to mitigate climate change by various means. One of the proven methods to address climate mitigation is to reduce energy consumption in buildings. The war with global energy crisis is getting
Buildings account for 30% of energy consumption in India, and it is estimated that 70% of the projected commercial building stock by 2030 is yet to be built. The recently established five-year US-India Centre for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD) project aims to address
The EC buildings performed well in many categories compared to the ‘business as usual buildings’. One of the EC designed buildings in particular performed exceptionally well compared to the CBE database which consists of over 600 buildings mainly from the US but also from 9 other countries. In the other three buildings, dissatisfaction prevailed mainly with acoustic quality and office layout due to lack of speech privacy and visual privacy, but this is common across the larger database. More than 70% occupants were satisfied with thermal comfort in all except one of the BAU building and of the occupants who were uncomfortable mostly cited air movement being too low as the reason for discomfort.
To achieve net zero energy, façade designs must move from static dark glass monoliths to dynamic, climate responsive layers for balancing daylighting and shading, natural ventilation and mixed mode conditioning. While 5-15 year energy paybacks are sufficient to prompt some level investment in facades, dynamic facades require the addition of triple bottom line (TBL) calculations that capture the economic, environmental and human benefits of high performance buildings. This paper introduces an approach to TBL justifications of climate-specific high performance building façade solutions, to provide professionals and manufacturers compelling arguments for inspiring building investment that will improve the quality of the indoor environment. Given that lighting and space conditioning are 80% of office energy loads in India, arguments for investing in façades that optimize daylighting and shading, natural ventilation and mixed mode conditioning are critically needed. This paper illustrates the triple bottom line of five climate-responsive façade and related system improvements – high visible transmission/ low solar glass, internal light shelves/inverted blinds, daylight dimming, external overhangs/shades, and operable windows - that demonstrate TBL paybacks of less than two years for new and retrofit construction. This ongoing project is funded by the US Department of Energy and LBNL, and undertaken in collaboration with CEPT, India through the Center for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD).
India has a rich tradition of passive architectural design practice. There has been, however, little effort to study these design strategies to evaluate their effectiveness. This study analyses the climate responsiveness and thermal performance of The study compares the performance of hemispherical domes and segmental vaults in a residence-office building for indoor conditions measured on hourly basis for one year. The study gives the necessary quantifiable performance of domes and vaults constructed using low-cost, local materials as an effective energy efficient design strategy that may be easily adopted as a practice.
Free-running buildings (i.e. naturally ventilated buildings with no mechanical systems for heating or cooling) have the potential to be much more energy efficient than air-conditioned buildings. This paper is based on approximately 3200 instantaneous thermal comfort and 1500 long term background survey datasets from a large scale field study conducted in
The increasing penetration and diversity of plug loads and their ubiquitous nature in work environments in India means that they are potentially significant consumers of electricity. End-use energy efficiency measures in buildings have largely ignored plug loads which might be attributed to a dearth of India-specific studies which
This study aims to establish a correlation between thermal comfort and energy consumption for typical office buildings in India. Building envelope characteristics are varied to represent local energy code compliant case. derive the aforementioned correlation using energy consumption and thermal comfort indices from the simulation output. The results from this study will assist designers to understand the energy implications of improving thermal comfort, both in terms of comfort hours as well as PMV. This paper is also aimed at supporting some of the field observations from post-occupancy surveys currently being done in India that indicate a preference of temperatures higher than what conventional practice dictates and make the case for more responsible control of indoor environments
The paper attempts to analyze the relationship between surface colour reflectance and lighting power density for a given context. Analysis was based on digital modelling using validated lighting simulation tool. The study establishes itself on the premise that grey value of colour can be presumed
The purpose of this study is to determine appropriate daylighting devices for office buildings in the city of New Delhi, India. It
The study is placed within the context of local building regulations in India. Building regulations, for fenestration in general and window openings in particular, are, to a large extent, ambiguous in nature. In the context of India, observations show that the
