Extreme heat adversely affects human health and day-to-day activities. It inhibits the physiological processes by restricting the bodily heat, leading to the rise of core body temperature and water loss to perspiration. It is crucial to equally prioritize energy efficiency, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality when addressing This approach should provide climate-zone-specific solutions for improving energy efficiency, thermal comfort, and indoor air quality through relevant interventions. These interventions include spatial design techniques (e.g., passive design elements and microclimatic modifications) and construction technologies (e.g., insulated cavity walls and cool roofs).
This project titled ‘Building-Level Cooling and Ventilation Systems in South Asia’ supported by World Bank is to prepare a toolkit report addressing the indoor cooling and ventilation systems in South Asia – particularly in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. The project aims to leverage the existing scientific resources to devise energy-efficient and affordable solutions to enhancing indoor thermal comfort and IAQ while emphasizing the aspects of holistic occupant well-being, productivity, and resilience of the indoor environment.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) assigned Center for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE) to support green building ecosystem in the affordable housing sector in India, in coordination with IIFL Home Finance Limited (IIFL Home Finance), a private sector housing finance company with a strategic focus Under the objective title Green Building and Climate Research the project will work to establish and enhance the present state of understanding of affordable, climate-resilient housing in India from the perspectives of gender sensitivity, finance, and overall performance. It will emphasize understanding, identifying the gaps, and recommending modifications in the present-day building rating systems from the perspectives of climate responsiveness and resilience in combination with the aspects of gender-sensitive and affordable building practices. Under the objective titled ‘Incubation and Innovation’ the project will facilitate the development of novel green technologies which complement the affordable and resilient building stock. It will target the identification of innovative technologies and facilitate their incubation. These national/international, affordable, and resilient technologies will be identified as ‘ready to use’, ‘under research’, and more. These technologies will be supported by relevant industry stakeholders and/or government agencies. This project component will include the development and publication of a holistic, climate-sensitive, and unified resilient green building system based on the interactions with a broad array of stakeholders at public and private levels.
Sustainable urbanization requires the provision of secured energy for health & comfort. The Key to planning sustainable energy services is how energy demand changes over time, space and tools to help plan its reduction & generation.
Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF) was established in 2009 to facilitate India’s transition to a sustainable energy future by promoting policies that encourage energy efficiency as well as the increased generation of renewable energy. Energy efficiency is a key component of Shakti’s strategy.
Energy savings by Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) implementation with regards to estimation of floor space at city level had been a challenge. Precise understanding of current floor space stock along with its historical growth pattern can help estimate floor space at city level. The study attempts to Tax database is a widly used instrument to collect annual property tax within city, which is a reliable source to understand amount of floor space, its associated use, building characteristics and age relying on vintage value of floor space. All Urban Local bodies (ULB’s) across India have this mandate of collecting and maintaining property tax database. Understanding of present and future floor space is significant parameter to quantify ECBC impact.
Background: The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), India, launched the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) in 2007. Through mandatory compliance with the ECBC, India can achieve estimated annual energy saving of 1.7 billion
Overview: The objective of this project was to develop a tiered approach to facilitate compliance with the ECBC. In order to achieve this objective, individual ECBC measures were evaluated for energy savings, incremental cost, and ease of enforcement. The findings were peer reviewed and the measures were then bundled into tiers. Lower tiers include ECBC measures that are easier for the market to adopt, and are enforceable through the current building permit process. This will help to build capacity over time and allow developers to get experience on the subject matter of building energy efficiency, without reducing stringency of the code. This approach can be enforced more effectively given the current construction and real estate practices.
Background: The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), India, launched the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) in 2007. In order to achieve significant compliance and subsequently, higher energy savings, the code must However, government and public sector agencies currently do not have the manpower or expertise to enforce ECBC. It is, therefore, crucial to build capacity and create a cadre of professionals outside the public sector.
Overview: The objective of this project was to develop a framework for Third Party Assessor (TPA) model to facilitate ECBC compliance and enforcement. In order to develop this framework, various successful TPA models in India and worldwide were studied. Some of these TPA models were related to building energy codes or ratings systems, while others were from the non-building sector, but offered valuable insights towards developing a TPA model for ECBC implementation and enforcement in India. A large stakeholder engagement provided useful feedback for the development of the TPA’s role and organizational framework.
India, with a population of nearly 1.2 billion, is the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter. It has pledged to reduce carbon emission per unit of gross domestic product up to 35% by 2030 from the 2005 level. The building sector is experiencing unprecedented growth leading to higher energy India’s electricity demand is expected to rise from 775 TWh in 2012 to 2499 TWh by 2030. Estimates by National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) indicate that the mitigation activities for moderate low carbon development would cost India around USD 834 billion till 2030 at 2011 prices (de Dear, Leow, & Foo, 1991). With an increase in affordability and power supply, the future shall see a steep rise in demand for air conditioning. By 2030, 60% of commercial space and 40% of residential households in India are expected to be air-conditioned. The space cooling systems adopted in developing nations like India have a great impact on the economy as well greenhouse gas emissions.
The ISO and ASHRAE thermal comfort standards are used to design space conditioning systems, where the systems operate at 22.5 ± 1°C. The ASHRAE 55-2010 standard includes an adaptive thermal comfort model to differentiate the thermal response of occupants in air-conditioned and naturally ventilated buildings. However, until now there has been a lack of a contextual model for adaptive thermal comfort for India, even though a large proportion of existing as well as new buildings are either fully naturally ventilated or use natural ventilation for most of the year, supplemented by air-conditioning.
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Energy security, climate change and economic growth are matters of international importance which are affecting billions of people globally. One of the most significant global development challenge is how we mitigate against the proliferation of energy intensive air-conditioning (AC) for cooling and ventilation in buildings in response to This is particularly pertinent in developing countries such as India as disposable income increases, making AC easily accessible. Many of India’s most populous metropolises such as Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta have hot and humid climates, and growth rates in the use of AC is seen at approximately 30% per year. The electricity demand for space cooling comprises up to 60% of the summer peak load in large cities like New Delhi, and most air-conditioners are inefficient and use refrigerants with high GWP (Global Warming Potential). This makes energy efficiency and thermal comfort a priority area for the Indian government which reflects in recent revisions of its National Building and Energy Conservation Building Codes which emphasize the need to design buildings for Natural Ventilation (NV) and Mixed Mode (MM) operation.
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Through the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) Research program, a five-year joint U.S. India Center for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD) was created to The main focus of CBERD during the duration of five years (2012-2017) was to conduct collaborative research that results into reduction in energy use in buildings.
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The main aim of the Centre for Excellence in Solar Passive Architecture and Green Building Technologies established at CEPT University with support from Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), was to frame strategies for developing energy efficient, low carbon and sustainable built environment using concepts of green The specific objectives for the project duration of five year (2011-2016) were to enhance knowledge and develop a database of construction materials and practices for energy efficient buildings in India. Under the project testing facilities and protocols as per standards were developed to characterize materials including glass and mirrors for their thermo-physical-optical properties. Database for energy efficient built environment in India as per indigenize guidelines, codes and standards was generated. Extensive research was done in energy policy with integrated approach to resource planning. Existing curriculum was reviewed and recommendations were developed based on feedback obtained from stakeholders. A living laboratory was established to develop concepts of Net-Zero Energy Technologies – construct technology demonstration building to house centre activities. The implementation of GRIHA, ECBC and other codes, develop standards and labeling program for Fenestration, Insulation and Solar Thermal products were facilitated under the project. It also developed criteria for sustainable higher educational campuses and conduct post-occupancy evaluations. Conducted capacity building activities by developing e-lectures, training of trainers, organizing workshops on computer simulation and various related topics.
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In the absence of space conditioning standard contextual to Indian context, the space conditioning systems for buildings are designed based on ISO and ASHRAE thermal comfort standards. Field observations have indicated that these systems often operate at 22.5 ± 1°C (72.5°F ± 1.8°F) all year round without adjusting to In the absence of space conditioning standard contextual to Indian context, the space conditioning systems for buildings are designed based on ISO and ASHRAE thermal comfort standards. Field observations have indicated that these systems often operate at 22.5 ± 1°C (72.5°F ± 1.8°F) all year round without adjusting to comfort needs of the occupants. Such operational practices are largely attributed to an increased expectation for stable comfort conditions.
India’s Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) references National Building Code for ventilation guidelines in naturally ventilated buildings, but it does not deal with conditioning requirements contextual to climate zones. In the ECBC user guide, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE, 2009) also recommends “Adaptive comfort model” as “additional information” to users.
However, the ECBC remains silent on the recommended temperature and humidity conditions for space conditioning of buildings for Indian climatic conditions. CEPT, with support from SSEF and MNRE (Govt of India), has developed adaptive thermal comfort model contextual to climate conditions in India. This study addressed comfort expectations of office workers in naturally ventilated building, mixed mode buildings (buildings which rely on mechanical cooling systems to maintain thermal comfort only during adverse outdoor conditions) and air conditioned buildings Study found strong evidence that Indians can be comfortable at higher temperature than 24 degree centigrade fix temperature across the year. Study also indicates wider range of temperature adaptability of Indian subjects.
Deployment of adaptive thermal comfort standard is expected to save enormous amount of savings, however, no significant study has been carried out to understand larger benefit of such standard. Adaptive thermal comfort standard also will allow many other non-conventional, Low energy cooling technology to serve space cooling requirements. Identification of such technology will also make path of wider range of product availability in Market. Following graph illustrates that hot and dry climate, ECBC envelop can provide decrease in uncomfortable hours, remaining uncomfortable hours can be served with low energy cooling systems.
Impact of Energy Building Code at City level:
City administration consumes large amount of their financial resources on electricity to manage city level facilities such as street lights, water pumping, and their own buildings – hospitals, ward offices, and essential services. During CEPT’s study on Benchmarking of city administration buildings, it became apparent that the city administration does not have required processes and systems to take informed decision as well as to implement energy efficiency measures.
Local city governments are smallest and yet the most important units in implementation & enforcement of ECBC. To understand energy saving potential of implementation of ECBC at city level, city needs to collate data regarding new building construction and their probable usage. To link present land use, floor space character, future land use allocation, and future energy demand are essential to parameter to understand impact of energy efficiency in buildings. This also will be able to provide insight in to change in peak demand, which will be of interest to utility.
Presently, no such mechanism does exist to access information regarding available floor space and future addition in it. ULB do not have framework in place to collate this information. Few city level administrations have created energy conservation cells but they are not mandated to work in conjunction with Town development or estate offices, and hence do not focus on ECBC. It is important for city administrations to develop such processes to envisage benefits of ECBC implementations.
CARBSE proposes to study one city in detail to develop processes that can be practiced to achieve energy efficiency at buildings owned by city government and understand enforcement of ECBC at city level.
In the absence of space conditioning standard contextual to Indian context, the space conditioning systems for buildings are designed based on ISO and ASHRAE thermal comfort standards. Field observations have indicated that these systems often operate at 22.5 ± 1°C (72.5°F ± 1.8°F) all year round without adjusting
CEPT has developed adaptive thermal comfort model contextual to climate conditions in India. This study addressed comfort expectations of office workers in naturally ventilated building, mixed mode buildings (buildings which rely on mechanical cooling systems to maintain thermal comfort only during adverse outdoor conditions) and air conditioned buildings. Study found strong evidence that Indians can be comfortable at higher temperature the year with wider range of temperature adaptability of Indian subjects.
Background: Building simulations and energy calculations based on detailed modeling form an extremely important tool for design and investigation of energy efficient buildings. Various building components and building forms can be tested for These simulation methods also help formulate policy level decisions. However, when the results of such simulated building models are compared to on site measurements; there is bound to be differences. Simulation tools are developed across the world based on empirical data, research, computational skills and software development, yet it is believed and understood that discrepancies against actual measured data is inevitable. This huge gap in the knowledge database needs to be addressed and studied, especially for the Indian context. The idea is to study these differences and derive parallels relations between simulated data and on-site measured data.
Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB) is envisioned as a living laboratory for continuous and in-depth building energy-efficiency research. To achieve the goal, building design contains sophisticated and flexible control systems that can support continuous research experiments on building monitoring and performance optimization. The control system in the building is
objectives:
- To serve as a single platform for monitoring and controls in the building
- To provide testbed for development of new technologies and control algorithms
- To integrate with test chambers for effective operations and controls 
Figure 1: Details of Monitoring, Integration and Controls Philosophy
Building control system continuously monitors installed components and uses efficient algorithms to optimize building performance. The building design incorporates sophisticated controls strategy such as demand ventilation, economizer based on enthalpy, chilled water reset, heat recovery wheel optimization algorithm, and chiller performance optimization.
The control system will also be able to configure various indoor comfort condition algorithms such as operation based on schedule, based on custom adaptive comfort equation, and based on equation of outdoor/indoor conditions, or based on PMV algorithm. Key energy and operational parameters would be continuously displayed on display screen located on the ground floor.
Providing daylight in the spaces is crucial for energy conservation as well as health and wellbeing and improved work efficiency of human beings. Tubular Daylighting Devices (TDD – also called Light pipes) are simple means of directing daylight (diffuse and direct light) from the sky into interior spaces TDDs consist of three parts: outside collector, tube to transport daylight and a diffuser inside the room. CARBSE is developing a test facility to enable the testing of TDDs for VT (visible transmittance) and Solar Gain based on International Standards. The visible transmittance (VT) is an optical rating that determines how much light in the visible spectrum is transmitted through a window glazing or other fenestration. The VT measurement of a TDD must accommodate the geometrical complexity of light entering and exiting the device at angles that are more variable than those associated with flat window products. Therefore, an integrating sphere with two meter diameter, also known as Large Diameter Integrating Sphere (LDIS), is used. TDD is mounted on the LDIS and the lux meters placed inside the LDIS measure average distributed non-uniform light that enters the sphere from TDD sample. A single VT result will represent the total transmission integrated over all various output angles for a given solar incidence angle that can be adjusted by the positioning of the LDIS relative to the sun.
Center for Advanced Research in Building Science and Technology (CARBSE) has constructed a Mirror Box to create Artificial Sky conditions. A mirror box is used to simulate overcast sky conditions for building models, which can help architects and engineers to understand daylight inside the building and take necessary A mirror box consists of an extremely bright homogenously lit ceiling and mirrored walls. The light source is a milky white diffusing acrylic sheet illuminated with over 6,000 LEDs behind. The mirrors, arranged vertically all around the periphery of the boxproduces an image of the lit ceiling by reflection and inter-reflection to infinity. The building model to be analysed for daylight performance is placed inside the mirror box and illuminance levels are measured using lux meters to determine daylight factor.
Background: Given India’s rapid economic growth and concomitant expansion in its commercial sector, soaring demand for air-conditioned commercial buildings can be confidently predicted. This increased demand for air-conditioned buildings in India has been If permitted to grow unchecked, building air-conditioning will add immense pressure on electricity infrastructure and exacerbate the already extreme peak-demand problem in the country.In the absence of an adaptive thermal comfort standard specifically focused on India’s climatic and cultural context, the recent trend in India is to design air-conditioned office buildings (that often operate at 22.5 ± 1 °C all year round) to meet the “Class A” comfort specifications articulated in documents such as ISO 2005 and ASHRAE 55 for air-conditioned buildings. This approach may elevate Indian comfort expectations to levels that require unsustainable energy inputs, without substantially improving overall occupant comfort, satisfaction and productivity.
Background: India is experiencing tremendous expansion in Building Construction Industry. Influx of new material has increased in last decade. Building Energy Efficiency and Integration of Renewable Energy Sources has become imperative Number of computer models have been developed and are practiced across the country, which help professionals in envisaging future energy demand within and outside buildings.However, thermo-physical-optical property of locally available building materials is very limited and at the same time, the characterization of newly developed building material is also not very much in public domain. To enhance performance of building material and construction assembly, it is very essential that such knowledge gets created and gets disseminated to all stakeholders.
About Project
Exercise will develop extensive data of thermo-physical-optical property of building materials, building components and construction assemblies. State of the art material testing facilities will be used to characterize materials. Opaque building materials such as clay bricks, gypsum, stones, cement and RCC will be characterized for its thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, specific heat, density etc. Transparent – translucent materials such as glass, acrylics will be characterized for transmittance, absorptance and reflectance. Subsequent to data base for material, database for construction assemblies such as walls, roofs and components such as windows, skylights and doors will be developed. Online web tool will be developed to facilitate the use of acquired knowledge. This study is an effort initiated by Centre of Excellence in Solar Passive Architecture and Green Building Technology, Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE) at CEPT University and is supported by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India. CARBSE is also partnering with local Indian academic and research institutes to accomplish this exercise.
Click to view Brochure - Building Material Characterization And Construction Assemblies
Center for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE) with support from Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power Govt of India conducted three day refresher course for the master trainers recognised by BEE for Energy Conservation Building Code. The group of master trainings are responsible During the three days if training topics such as Building Envelop systems, HVAC systems, Building Performance Simulation, and case studies of ECBC Compliance were covered. Approximately 60 master trainers participated this training.
Training programs announced! For application and more details, click here.
Under the Indo-German Technical Cooperation, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of India jointly agreed to promote the “Indo-German Energy Program” (IGEN). IGEN aims to advance sustainability in the built environment in turn improving environment and climate conditions. Within IGEN, the Climate Smart Buildings (CSB) programme targets to enhance climate resilience and thermal comfort in buildings. It is aligned with the commitments made by the Indian Government to meet its objectives submitted under SDG 11- Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) facilitates the CSB programme.
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International Finance Corporation (IFC) and CARBSE conducted two Teachers Training (ToT) Program to train the educators from architecture and engineering higher education institutes. The teachers trained during this program are expected to impart education to the students in their universities to promote awareness and understanding of green buildings aimed at university students of architecture and engineering and professionals related to sustainable construction. This course consists of a range of digital materials in the form of power point slides, case studies, assignments, and teacher’s notes. Designated senior members of the CARBSE worked with IFC resource persons to localize the IFC content to suite Indian context. CARBSE and IFC selected 12 faculty members from six institutes for two ToTs offered during May 2021.
December 15-22, 2019
The Indo-Swiss Building Energy Efficiency Camp (BEEP Camp) is an intensive and immersive experience,
8 days. 50 participants. Faculty consisting of technical experts and soft skill trainers from India and Switzerland
The Equipment consists of an robust hexa-copter with RTK capabilities for high precision position data, which is used with an 5-angle oblique camera which captures detailed aerial images
The urban microclimate modelling is used to understand the effects of extreme weather on the occupant’s thermal comfort
