LOW ENERGY AFFORDABLE HOUSING IN HOT AND HUMID CLIMATE.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
India is one of the fastest developing countries in the world resulting in increase
of building sector due to growth of economy and urbanisation. The housing
requirement has increase 6.79 million to 31 million in the past 5 years and is
estimated to reach a count of 70 million in the next 20 years (Low cost green
housing). The immediate development of housing and increase in living
standards has resulted in upsurge of environmental disbalance.
The focus of study is Sustainable affordable housing, green technologies,
material and system in the affordable housing in New Delhi, but the outcomes
may be beneficial for similar climatic conditions.
NEED FOR AFFORDABLE GREEN HOUSING
As discussed earlier, the building construction industry is a major contributor of
environmental pollution with high levels of energy consumption and carbon
emission all of this contributes to climate change. Housing is the single largest
sector in the county. Therefore, it is a sector with significant potential to not just
mitigate the negative impact of climate change of buildings and people, but also
reduces the impact of construction industry on the environment.
There has been much advancement in green technology in recent year. But
much of the high performance green building, often with high upfront cost. In the
context of India where huge segments of population lack access to essential
housing, this type of approach to addressing the climate change is largely
unaffordable and irrelevant. Hence, the housing for the nation has to have a
scalable impact by keeping low energy and affordability as a top priority.
SUSTAINABLE HOUSING
Sustainable development is defined as Meeting the needs of the present
generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their
needs. (Brundtland 1987). Therefore, Sustainable housing has the potential to
produce good quality housing at a price that is affordable both in the short and
long term. Thus, sustainable housing must aim at economic, social and
environmental sustainability from planning to implementation phase and at the
same time result in housing that is affordable, accessible and environmentally
less damaging. Sustainable strategies followed in India have been defined as
either eco-technical or eco-cultural (Guy and Farmer, 2001). These technically
complex or primitive approaches to a low carbon building do not address the
social and cultural issues that underpin sustainable built environments.
Energy: Buildings are highly energy intensive through their life cycle consuming
about 40% of the world's primary energy supply globally (Bardhan S.,2012). Type
of energy source, whether renewal or fossil fuel based, will significantly affect the
environmental quality of any city. We need to avoid a focus on mere target such
as physical coverage, and move to an outcome-oriented energy provision that

takes into consideration demand-side parameters such as availability, reliability

and efficient consumption (Rehman , Kar et al..2012]. To promote growth and
also mitigate climate change, building will need to shift energy sources, improve
energy efficiency. There are clear opportunities for simultaneously improving
health and cutting greenhouse gas emissions through coherent policies on
building regulations and household energy supply.

Fig : Break up energy and power demands of residential buildings

METHODOLOGY
4.1 STUDY OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION IN A TYPICAL RESIDENTIAL HOUSE
IN INDIA
Study of a 1 bhk apartment in New Delhi.

Fig: Housing Plan

As, a starting point for all the analysis a porotype block bas on typical housing
development in Delhi. It is three storey building with approx. 4 apartments per
floor. Each unit of an area 35 Sq.m. The typical materials used in the construction
of this unit is RCC Roof, RCC slab, Exterior and interior brick wall, plaster steel
door and window frames and glass windows.

Paramters
Number of floors

Value
3

Floor to Floor Height

Built up area of each
floor
External wall area
Total window area
Window size
Door area
Material
Brick
wall
with
plaster
Floor, concrete slab
Glazing, single, clear

3m
161 Sq.m
208 Sq.m
17.28 Sq.m
.2mx1.2mx0.9m
15.12 Sq.m

U-value
2.8 w/m2
3.5 w/m2
5.0 w/m2

Internal Gains
Infiltration
Lighting
Equipment

U-value
.2 Ach
5.0 w/m2
10 w/m2

Based on the architectural drawings and the specification, a detailed The first
step is calculation of embodied energy for each building component.
Embodied energy calculations in the appendix (in the next draft)

Fig: Embodied energy (in MJ)

OPERATIONAL ENERGY CALCULATION- By simulation (Design Builder)- Plan to
start my simulation in the coming weeks.
4.2 STUDY OF AFFORDABLE MATERIALS OF CONSTRUCTION
2) the idea of self-reliant development, within natural resource constraints, (3)
the idea of cost-effective development, meaning thereby that development
should not degrade environmental quality, nor should it reduce productivity in
the long run, (5) the notion that people-centred participatory initiatives are
needed; human beings in other words, are the resources in the concept. From
this perspective the sustainable housing policy should incorporate three
objectives [22]: The first of these is that future policies must provide the basis for
household improvement. The second objective of the policies which could result
in sustainable housing improvement is concerned with the empowerment of poor
people. The third objective of such policies must be to psychologically give the
lower segment of the urban society a feeling of self-worth. Thus, in order to be

sustainable, housing initiatives must be economically viable, socially acceptable

and affordable, technically feasible and environmentally-friendly
A long list was compiled based on currently available technologies encompassing
both conventional and alternative practices for the following categories of
building components:
1.Walls Coating
WHITE PAINT: White Reflective paint applied to wall surface helps lower surface
temperature by reflecting the incident radiations.

Advantage: Energy efficient, enhance thermal comfort and cost effective

Challenges: Needs Frequent re application
2. Exterior wall
FLY ASH BRICK: Fly ash lime gypsum bricks are prepared trough blending flash,
lime and gypsum in suitable proportions and strengthened through hydration.
Portland cement is used as a substitute wherever lime is in short supply. The
bricks are dried in the sun and need water curing.

Advantages: Does not involve autoclaving or burning of fossil fuels, excellent

strength and durability, extensive uses by- products or industrial wastes.
Challenges: Uses of water at 500-1000m3 per million brick
HOLLOW CONCRETE BLOCKS: Hollow concrete blocks can be quickly assembled
are cost effective and are an environmentally sound option of wall material. It is
based on the principle of densification of a lean concrete mix to manage a
regular shaped uniform, high performance masonry unit. Its utilises waste and is
generated by stone crushers, quarrying and stone processing units.

Advantages: Light weight, thermally insulated, conserves top soil, reduces the
cost of mortar, low embodied energy and can be made on site.
3. Roofs
INSULATED ROOFS: Heat gains through roof surface is an important
component to the overall heat gain through building envelope in very hot
climatic zones. Insulating the external surface of roof is an appropriate strategy
for reducing heat gain and enhancing thermal comfort in such a climate.
Expanded or extruded polystyrene provided efficient and durable insulation for
roofs.

Advantages: Reduces operational energy by 10-15%; for unconditioned spaces,

it significantly enhances thermal comfort and Components are recyclable.
FILLER SLAB: A simply supported roof experiences compressive forces on the
upper part and tensile forces on the lower part. The filler slabs are a mechanism
to replace the concrete in the tension zone. The filler material thus is not
structural part of the slab.

Advantages: Reduced quality and weight of material, cost effective (15-25%)

while retaining the strength of the conventional slab, enhance thermal comfort
due to insulation properties of filler materials and low embodied energy

Challenges: Slab design requires complete structural engineering, requires

capacity building for its proper implementation.
4. Framing
RCC FRAMES: Rcc door frmaes and lintels are now used as a subsititue for wood
and ms frames, espically in low cost construction.

Advantage: Conserves precious natural resources- wood, cost effective, can be

pre-fabricated in bulk, saving transportation costs and excellent strength and
durability- more stability than wood and pvc.
PVC FRAMES: PVC frames consist primarily of waste sawdust and scarp
generated in production of wood and vinyl windows or post-consumer bottle
waste

Advantages: Uses recycled materials, reduces operational energy/ enhances

thermal comfort, excellent strength and durability- more dimensional stability
than both wood and PVC, replicable and scalable.
Challenges: expensive frames than the others.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Bansal, N.K (2007) Energy security, Climate change and sustianble
development in Mathur, J., Wagner, H.J AND Bansal, N.k, Science,
technology and society: Energy Security for india, Anamaya Publishers,
New Delhi, pg 15-23

2) Ministry of power govenmenet of inia (2010) Performance Based rating

and energy performance benchmarking commercial building in india.
www.powermin.nic.in
3) Bardhan S.,2012.Adopting environment responsive strategies for existing
buildings: A prescriptive study. International Journal of Sustainable
Development and Planning.
4) Rehman IH, Kar A, Banerjee M, Kumar P, Shardul M, Mohanty J, et al..2012.
Understanding the political economy and key drivers of energy access in
addressing national energy access priorities and policies. Energy Policy.
5) Choguill CL. Sustainable housing programmes in a world of readjustment.
Habitat International. 1994;18:111