ENERGY EFFICIENT APARTMENT DESIGN IN COMPOSITE CLIMATE OF NORTH INDIA

Abstract

Buildings, as they are designed and used today, depict the uncontrolled consumption of natural resources, energy, man power and capital. Residential sector, which accounts for 23% of the total energy consumption in India (as per Energy Conservation Building Code,2009), is a major issue of concern. This dissertation aims to present a study on comprehensive assessment of energy use for an apartment development. The scope is restricted to an apartment project in the composite climatic region of India for a life cycle of 50 years. The analysis intentionally focuses on a modern building, in which a conscious attempt is made to show the variations in operating energy, CO2 emissions, energy loads due to internal lighting and solar heat gain through windows for an un-insulated base�â� � case model, insulated 'model, retrofitted model and ECBC compliance model. The study reveals that the Embodied Energy is almost 24% of the Operating Energy, for a life span of 50 years. The Operating Energy per sqm. is reduced by 18.9% by substitution of traditional brick infill with aerated concrete blocks. The same substitution also results in a reduction of 19.2 % in the Embodied Energy. Besides this, other comparisons also reveal a significant reduction in solar heat gain from exterior windows in heating & cooling loads and in CO2 production.