Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By
Suryaveer Patnaik
CUN110301110
December, 2014
In the tropical zone, commercial buildings are plagued with the problem of over-heating, which
they generally deal with air conditioning and other similar energy consuming technologies. Over the
time we have forgotten the importance of traditional methods of cooling a building, rapid construction
and insensitive designing are some of the major reasons of why these methods are not applied in
commercial buildings. There are certain myths regarding passive cooling technologies which need to
be clarified for it to be widely used in commercial buildings.
The following study analyses the Passive Cooling Techniques as means to attain energy
efficiency in commercial buildings and concludes the most effective technique that must be applied in
commercial building.
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Contents
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................. 2
1. Introduction. ...................................................................................................................................... 5
1.1 Background.................................................................................................................................. 5
2. Objectives. ......................................................................................................................................... 6
3. Methodology...................................................................................................................................... 7
5.1 Case Study I: RETREAT: Resource Efficient TERI Retreat for Environmental Awareness and
Training, Gurgaon. .......................................................................................................................... 16
5.2 Case Study II: Torrent Research Centre, Ahmedabad (Key Case Study) ................................... 18
8. References. ...................................................................................................................................... 23
9. Acknowledgement. .......................................................................................................................... 24
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1. Introduction.
1.1 Background.
The energy demand is growing every day, and the capacity to meet these requirements are
falling short. Energy efficiency in buildings should not be treated as a trend anymore, but a compulsory
design criteria. Energy efficient building design includes techniques which help in reduction of energy
demand on the central energy
supply grid, in turn reducing the CO
emissions. Every energy efficient
building has an indirect effect on
central grid.
Therefore, every commercial building should strive to achieve some degree of independence in
terms of energy requirements.
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systems can significantly reduce the energy use of these systems. Some buildings also use zone
heating and cooling systems, which can reduce heating and cooling in the unused areas of a
building. In commercial buildings, integrated space and water heating systems can provide the best
approach to energy-efficient heating.
It is easier to design energy efficient features into new buildings, however existing
buildings comprise approximately 99% of the building stock. This sector thus provides the greater
challenge for implementation of energy efficiency as well as the greater opportunity for overall
energy efficiency gains. Although energy efficiency initiatives for existing buildings can be
demonstrated to be cost effective, there has been limited success in convincing large organizations
and building owners to undertake energy efficiency projects such as retrofits, and retro
commissions.[2]
Energy efficient buildings do not cost necessarily more to build than normal buildings, if
they are well maintained and manage energy effectively, they are set to be very reliable,
comfortable and as productive as a normal building.
2. Objectives.
The following study was conducted with
following objectives:
SOURCE :
HTTP://POWERHOUSESERVICE.COM/RESOURCES/ENERGY-
EFFICIENCY/WHOLE-BUILDING-APPROACH
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3. Methodology.
There are 2 major components of this study, i) Identification of reaseach topic.
understanding energy efficiency systems in buildings, ii) 01 Data Collection
4. Literature Review.
4.1 Energy Efficiency in Buildings.
The building stock includes, residential, commercial, institutional, and public structures.
Opportunities to minimize energy requirements through energy efficiency and passive renewable
energy in buildings encompass building design,
building materials, heating, cooling, lighting,
and appliances.
The development of practical electric motors, largely by Nikola Tesla, occurred toward the
end of the 19th century. This enormously expanded applications for mechanical power. The
invention of innumerable small machines and labour saving devices made "energy" a ubiquitous
commodity by the beginning of the 20th century. Unlike the development of mechanical
equipment, the development of electrical equipment was largely based on theory. All practical
electrical motors are efficient, when compared with combustion-driven machinery. However, the
efficiency of applications served by inexpensive alternating-current motors is often limited by the
fact that these motors are single-speed devices. Efficient variable-speed motors were developed
early, but they had serious cost and maintenance limitations. [6]
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Until the early 1970s, there was a popular conception of continually diminishing energy
prices. For example, nuclear power advocates spoke of electricity that would be "too cheap to
meter." As a result, efficiency ceased to be a major concern of the engineers who designed energy-
using equipment, and efficiency faded as an issue with the public and the government.
FIGURE 5. PRESENT CARBON EMISSION MAP OF THE WORLD, WITH INDIA BEING THE SECOND HIGHEST. (SOURCE:
DISTANTBODY, EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG,2009)
The above image is one of the major reason for integrating energy efficient design into
buildings. India is among the leading carbon dioxide producers, after United States of America. To
effectively reduce carbon emissions, there is a need of effective integration of building design,
Energy Efficient Techniques, Green building design and sustainable development. Reduction in
carbon dioxide emission can only be significantly affected if all these mentioned methods work in
cohesion.
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building. Climatic severity and occupancy hours are best allowed for by dividing annual energy use per
unit area by a factor that is constructed on the basis of climate or occupancy hours.
Rating schemes are generally associated with certification. Certification means evaluating the
FIGURE 6. EXAMPLE OF ENERGY PERFORMANCE MODEL OF NAVY YARD. (SOURCE: A PILOT FOR MEASURING ENERGY
RETROFITS, RICHARD SWEESTER, PRESIDENT AT EXERGY.)
building in the design stage. Therefore the main aim of energy performance is to encourage the practice
of specifying materials, components and systems. The particular objective of an energy performance is
to specify what is required from the building in terms of a target energy consumption.
Figure 6 shows an energy performance model for an existing NAVY YARD, which has been
retrofitted with energy efficient systems. This is an example of how a building can be analysed for
energy consumption and help in reduction of the same.
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3. Useful Energy: This refers to the energy required for the performance of a given task.
This is usually applicable to space heating load evaluations and other efficiencies.
Passive cooling is a building design approach that focuses on heat gain control and heat
dissipation in a building in order to improve the indoor thermal comfort with low or nil energy
consumption. This approach works either by preventing heat from entering the interior (heat gain
prevention) or by removing heat from the building (natural cooling).
~Santamouris, M.; Asimakoupolos, D. (1996). Passive cooling of buildings (1st ed.). 35-37
William Road, London NW1 3ER, UK: James & James (Science Publishers) Ltd.
A passive solar design involves the use of natural processes for heating or cooling to achieve
balanced interior conditions. The flow of energy in passive design is by natural means: radiation,
conduction, or convection without using any electrical device. Maintaining a comfortable environment
within a building in a hot climate relies on reducing the rate of heat gains into the building and
encouraging the removal of excess heat from the building. [5] To prevent heat from entering into the
building or to remove once it has entered is the underlying principle for accomplishing cooling in
passive cooling concepts. This depends on two conditions: the availability of a heat sink which is at a
lower temperature than indoor air, and the promotion of heat transfer towards the sink. Environmental
heat sinks are:
Passive cooling techniques can be used to minimize, and in some cases eliminate,
mechanical air conditioning requirements in areas where cooling is a dominant problem.
Ventilation and evaporative cooling are often supplemented with mechanical means,
such as fans. They use considerably less energy to maintain comfort compared to refrigeration
systems. It is also possible to use these strategies in completely passive systems that require no
additional machinery or energy to operate.
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FIGURE 8. EXAMPLE OF A MECHANICAL
EVAPORATIVE COOLING SYSTEM. ( MATHEWS,
E.H., KLEINGELD, M, GROBLER, L.J.,
INTEGRATED SIMULATION OF BUILDINGS AND
EVAPORATIVE COOLING SYSTEMS, BUILDING
AND ENVIRONMENT, VOL. 29, 1994)
Direct coupling.
Indirect coupling.
A building can be indirectly coupled with the earth by means of earth ducts.
An earth duct is a buried tube that acts as avenue for supply air to travel through
before entering the building. Supply air is cooled by way of conductive heat transfer
between the concrete tubes and soil.
Insulation is of great value when a building requires mechanical heating or cooling and helps
reduce the space-conditioning loads. Location of insulation and its optimum thickness are very
important. In hot climates, insulation is placed on the outer face (facing exterior) of the wall or roof so
that thermal mass of the wall is weakly coupled with the external source and strongly coupled with the
interior. Use of 40 mm thick expanded polystyrene insulation on walls and vermiculite concrete
insulation on the roof has brought down space-conditioning loads of the RETREAT building in Gurgaon
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by about 15%. Air cavities within walls or an attic space in the roof ceiling combination reduce the
solar heat gain factor, thereby reducing space-conditioning loads. The performance improves if the void
is ventilated. Heat is transmitted through the air cavity by convection and radiation. [6]
4.6.4 Discussion.
The above list of passive cooling technologies are some of the ways a building can achieve
energy efficiency. These methods are time tested and proven to work for various climate typology. The
problem lies in the fact that these technologies come with a higher initial cost, which, unfortunately is
a barrier for many clients seeking a new commercial space. What they miss out on is the fact that
recovery time for building cost is as much as halved and even lesser than 3 years in some of the cases(for
a mid-sized project.)
For people to adapt and adhere to energy efficient building technologies, the long term
economic and environmental benefits need to be highlighted and showcased. For large scale
implementation of these technologies the mental setup needs to change and wider an approach to energy
efficiency needs to be adopted.
5. Case Study.
5.1 Case Study I: RETREAT: Resource Efficient TERI Retreat for
Environmental Awareness and Training, Gurgaon.
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h. Cost of various technologies: Rs 18.54 million.
To circulate the air in the living area, each room has been fitted with a solar
chimney and the warm air rises and escapes through this chimney creating an air current.
Cool air from the underground tunnels, helped by two blowers fitted in the tunnels, rush
in to replace the warm air. In winter, the cold air in the rooms is replaced by warm air from
the tunnels. (Ref. figure 10)
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5.2 Case Study II: Torrent Research Centre, Ahmedabad (Key Case Study)
FIGURE 11 TORRENT RESEARCH INSTITUTE, AHMEDABAD SITE PLAN. (SOURCE: AGA KHAN RESEARCH ARCHIVE)
The capital and running costs of air conditioning of non-domestic buildings in northern India
are very substantial, while building costs (compared with northern Europe) are low. A cooling technique
which maximises reliance on the building fabric and minimises reliance on mechanical equipment is
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therefore likely to be cost effective. Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling (PDEC) represents such
a technique.
The overall plan of the site is organized in a radiant circular formation and each building unit
consists of a covered courtyard building in itself which maximize the evaporative cooling by organizing
the stack effect.
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The program is organized in such a manner that laboratories and offices are arranged
on three levels on either sides of an open course. The air intake occurs in the top unit of the
open course. Passing through wetted cellulose pads, the cooled air is introduced to the working
spaces at each level and is exhausted out through the perimeter stacks. The building registered
an air change rate of 9 per hour on the ground floor and 6 per hour on the first floor.
Temperature difference between inside and outside can exceed 10 degrees during
summer time and in opposition to air conditioned laboratories, the space is comfortable without
fans and is neither stuffy nor smelly. However, the building units must be sealed to reach the
maximum efficiency, since manual adjustments are less relevant.
In 2004-05, a Post Occupancy Survey was carried out by Building Use Studies
at the behest of University of Technology, Sydney, Australia & Victoria University of
Wellington, New Zealand. This survey shows that the building, which was designed
for 150-175 occupants, is still seen as adequately comfortable when the number of
occupants has increased to more than 600, a 250 % increase.[9]
The process on the one hand minimized the impact of the external heat within the
building through adequate measures of insulating the buildings external fabric, and on the
other hand created an effective system of sealed evaporative cooling.
6. Key Discussion.
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal to reduce the
amount of energy required to provide products and services. ~ Wikipedia.org
The basic idea in applying passive technologies for cooling a building comes from creating a
low energy consuming building. After a review of all the aspects involved in passive cooling techniques
for a large scale building we can summarise the study as follows:
1. Though, energy efficiency is the need of the hour, it is not widely adapted.
2. Reasons for its failure in large scale implementation is
a. High initial investment, which is not desirable by major percentage of clients.
b. Failure to see the long term benefits of these technologies.
c. Many clients dont see passive technologies in line with the modern trend of
steel and glass construction and consider it backwards.
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d. A myth that passive technologies cannot be successful in large scale
commercial buildings due to high density of people it caters to.
For these barriers to be broken, the change will have to start right at the core.
We as individuals need to realise the need for reduction in energy use. For
change to take place in mass, the mind-set of the mass needs to change and
shackles of short term gains need to be destroyed.
3. Passive technologies if applied properly can have huge benefits, both economic and
environmental.
4. A ground work needs to be laid to successfully implement passive cooling technology
in a large scale building. Without study and proper program formulation, the applied
technology will not be efficient.
7. Key Conclusion.
Energy efficient design has become a trend and its awareness and importance is being realised
by professionals every day. The need to integrate energy saving design technologies in the
preliminary stage of the building design is extremely crucial, as it will be the determining factor in
overall energy saving and environmental conservation.
There are abundant technologies and methods to achieve energy efficiency in commercial
buildings, starting from intelligent designing and environmental sensitive planning to additive
technologies as passive cooling etc. The final aim of any technological or planning implementation is
reduction in overall energy requirements of the building. Taking a cue from the above studied buildings
we can safely say that passive cooling techniques are not limited to small scale construction, but can
also be scaled to fit any commercial building typology.
Though, the initial design and implementation cost of passive cooling techniques in commercial
buildings may be high, (Due to various analysis and model simulation procedure for sizing of
techniques) but the project breaks even with the cost of construction and starts giving profit in few
years. This in turn helps in the larger motive of reducing carbon emission due to building energy
demand.
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8. References.
8.1 Books / Journals / Reports.
1. George Baird, Michael R. Donn, Frank Pool William D.S.Brander, Chan Seong Aun, Energy
Performance of Buildings. Boca Raton CRC Press c1984.
2. Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) EM-4195, Energy Management Systems for
Commercial Buildings.
3. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, http://www.nrel.gov
4. Ayman Khalid Esaldig, Energy Efficiecny in Commercial Buildings, Faculty of
Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Energy Systems Research
Unit,University of Strathclyde, 2005,
5. Mohammad Arif Kamal, An Overview of Passive Cooling Techniques in Buildings: Design
Concepts and Architectural Interventions, , Department of Architecture, Aligarh Muslim
University,2012.
6. N. B. Geetha, R. Velraj, Passive cooling methods for energy efficient buildings with and
without thermal energy storage, Anna University, Institute of Energy Studies, 2011.
7. Representative designs of energy-efficient buildings in India. TERI, 2011.
8. Abhikram, Torrent Research Institute Post Occupancy review. 2007.
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9. Acknowledgement.
I would like to express my gratitude to the Chitkara School of Planning and Architecture which
gave me the opportunity to study and extend my knowledge and experience.
Special thanks are due to my guide, Ar. Abhishek Sharma for being so generous to me with
his time, patience, advice and valuable opinion.
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