Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur

Building: CESE IIT Kanpur

Location: Kanpur, India
Floor area: 17,500 Sqm

Architect: Kalvinde Rai and Chowdhury Architect

and Planners
Energy Consultant: TERI (The Energy and
Resource Institute)

Significance: Five Star GRIHA Rating

Rated by: Green Resource Indian Habitat and Assessment (GRIHA)
Year: 2008
Score: 93/100
Annual energy savings: 18.5 lacs
About the Project:
The facility houses laboratories, seminar rooms, and discussion rooms for various
disciplines of environmental sciences. Given the function of the building, it was
decided that it should be designed in an environment friendly manner

This facility is meant to focus on research in various areas of environment that is

air, water and the impact of human interference with the objective of solving
problems. The location of building was selected between nursery and aerospace
building. There are several features like eco friendly products in construction,
energy efficient features, power saving sensors, use of non-conventional energy
sources such as the solar, passive cooling techniques and proper landscape are
the basic features of the building. The building is designed to be environment
friendly.

Key Highlights
ƒ The building is fully complaint with the ECBC (Energy Conservation Building
Code).
ƒ Sustainable site planning has been integrated to maintain favorable micro
climate.
ƒ The architectural design has been optimized as per climate and sun path
analysis.
ƒ Energy efficient artificial lighting design and daylight integration.
ƒ Energy efficient air conditioning design with controls integrated to reduce
annual energy consumption.
ƒ Passive strategies such as an earth air tunnel incorporated in the HVAC design
to reduce the cooling load.

Glass solution for day-lighting and energy efficiency strategy

High light transmission allowing natural daylighting with minimum artificial
requirements during daytime. Saint Gobain’s Advanced thermal Insulation Low-e
glass 6mm Planitherm Mint Green with 12mm air gap and 6mm Clear Planilux
glass was specified and glazed to give a very low solar factor and U-value to
provide an energy efficient solution
ƒ Visual light transmission 62%
ƒ Solar Factor SF 0.36
ƒ U value 1.8W/SqmK
Energy Consumption – Design

Base building EPI = 240 kWh/m2 per annum

Envelope optimisation

EPI = 208 kWh/m2 per annum

Lighting optimisation

EPI = 168 kWh/m2 per annum

HVAC optimisation

EPI = 133 kWh/m2 per annum

ECBC compliant CESE building,
IIT Kanpur
Controls

EPI = 98 kWh/m2 per annum

Base Case Energy Consumption 240 Kwh/Sqm

ƒ Envelope Optimization 208 Kwh/Sqm (13.3%)

The Architecture design optimized as per the climate of Kanpur. The Sunpath
analysis of the building was conducted to strategically design the opening area
and location. It also helped in designing the external shading depth for the
opening designed which block any direct solar radiation yet allowing daylight into
the interiors. The building envelope was chosen such that it meets the ECBC
compliance. The project prime focus was to reduce the energy consumption with
no compromise to occupants' thermal comfort.
The major wall area is along the east
west axis by which the wall area is
exposed to north and south direction

The building plan was designed with

little disturbance to ecosystem.

The surrounding trees were used as a

sound barrier.

The use of high insulation external envelope such as:

ƒ Cavity wall with insulation
ƒ Insulated and shaded roof
ƒ Energy efficient advanced thermal control low-e planitherm mint green PLT TG
Double glazing and shading for windows

Has reduced the cooling requirements when the HVAC sizing was taken into
consideration.

ƒ Lighting Optimization 168 Kwh/Sqm (19.2%)

Efficient window design, with external shading device achieve glare free natural
daylight inside the laboratory space of the building

Use of energy efficient lighting system integrated daylight dimmers control the
use and need of lighting requirements during daytime operation

Integration of Natural lighting sensor with artificial lighting system

ƒ HVAC Optimization 168 Kwh/Sqm (20.8%)
Use of energy efficient building materials such as
o Cavity wall with insulation
o Insulated and shaded roof
o Energy efficient Advanced Thermal control Low-e Planitherm Mint Green
PLT TG Double glazing and shading for windows

Significantly reduces the heat gain entering the building and hence the cooling
requirements for cooling the heat through envelope.

Use of variable frequency drive for Air handling units significantly reduced the
running cost for cooling requirements

ƒ Controls 98 Kwh/Sqm (26.3%)

Use Daylight sensors which turns off the artificial light when the living space is
illuminated by daylight
Use of occupancy sensor

So, we infer that the right selection of glazing for the building envelope
significantly affects and brings down the energy consumption of the building. The
Judicious use of Saint Gobain’s Planitherm Mint Green PLT TG [Advanced Thermal
insulation Low-e] for Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering, IIT
Kanpur has reduced the energy consumption in
ƒ Envelope Optimization
ƒ Lighting Optimization
ƒ HVAC optimization
ƒ Controls