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Research on the status of green buildings, their drivers and barriers have received significant attention, however little has been done to develop an integrated strategy that will lead to the development of green buildings. The present study is a conscious effort in that direction. On the basis of exhaustive literature review a ‘Green Building Sustainability Model’ has been developed and structural equation modelling is employed to verify the research framework. The study clearly state that the intentions to maintain green performance levels and adopt green practices has to come from all levels of society. The conceptual model establishes hypothesized relationship amongst nine constructs: issues, challenges, government, corporate, developers, buyers, private bodies, strategic-mix and sustainable development and develop twelve hypotheses. The data is collected by means of questionnaire survey method. The empirical results reveal that collaborative efforts of government and other stakeholders (corporate, developers, buyers, and private bodies) play a significant role in developing a strategic-mix that would lead to sustainable development however government as a regulatory body plays the most important role in developing the strategic-mix that will lead to resource efficient future. The contributions of the paper lies in developing an original Green Building Sustainability Model’ and fill the research gap. Though model has been developed and empirically tested in India, it can be further tested on green buildings in other developing or developed countries. The model is generic and can be further tested for commercial and residential green building. The research results are of great relevance to the academicians, environmentalist, practitioners, policy makers and helpful to future research as reference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive cooling is a versatile technology through which energy demands to achieve the thermal comfort in a building can be minimized in places like India, where different climatic zones exist. This paper presents the outcome of various research works carried out in the field of evaporative cooling, nocturnal radiative cooling, and phase change material (PCM) based free cooling of buildings under various climatic conditions. Further, the developed empirical equations/correlations for determining the critical design parameters pertaining to the above said passive cooling technologies are summarized in order to provide a panoramic view. The achievable monthly and yearly average cooling potential through the implementation of direct evaporative cooling, nocturnal radiative cooing and PCM based free cooling system are estimated and reported for five selected cities (Chennai, Bangalore, New Delhi, Jaipur, and Jammu and Kashmir) in India, based on their corresponding weather data. It is inferred that Jaipur with hot and dry climatic zone has the highest yearly average passive cooling potential of 251 W m −2 , whereas Chennai with warm and humid climate zone has 127 W m −2 . In addition, concept of a novel hybrid passive system is presented along with the strategies required in the present scenario to promote passive building concepts. This comprehensive evaluation of cooling potential helps the researchers to select the appropriate passive cooling technologies based on the influencing parameters with respect to local climatic zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is divided into five major bioclimatic zones, out of which the composite zone covers more than 30% of the geographic area. The current bioclimatic classification and thermal comfort criteria delineated in the National Building Code do not adequately address the climatic diversity of the country. Moreover, existing climate analysis software tools fail to predict comfort potential for Indian conditions accurately. Henceforth, the main aim of this paper is to develop a bioclimatic analysis tool to investigate the comfort potential of different passive heating and cooling strategies for locations with a composite climate in India. Three sites, namely New Delhi, Bhopal, and Hyderabad, are taken up as case study cities. A modified comfort zone is proposed on the bioclimatic chart based on Tropical Summer Index (TSI). The comfort zone of the chart was extended to define the passive design zones based on the calculations of the effects of passive heating and cooling strategies. The effectiveness of three passive strategies, namely natural ventilation, direct evaporative cooling and passive solar heating is demonstrated through the tool. Results derived from the tool show that natural comfort potential can vary between 25 and 46% of the total time of a year depending on the location. Further predictions by the tool show natural ventilation to be an effective strategy for all three areas. The tool can also be used to provide passive design recommendations for different cities. The findings of the tool can have significant implications for the development of energy-efficient buildings by Architects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In tropical countries such as India, increasing the roof albedo helps to reduce the heat ingress through the roof. This further reduces air-conditioning energy consumption in conditioned buildings and increases comfort in unconditioned buildings. In order to help users determine the benefits of high albedo roofs under varying conditions, a simple calculator has been developed. Parameters such as location, building type, roof area, and surface properties of the roof are taken as inputs. Annual EnergyPlus simulations are performed for the given parameters and the results are displayed in both graphical and tabular formats. It also calculates the simple payback by comparing a given base case roof albedo with the proposed roof albedo. The calculator can perform comfort simulations for unconditioned buildings and simulates measures including a radiant barrier system and under deck roof insulation. The calculator also runs a parametric simulation between insulation thickness and roof albedo to find an optimum roof insulation thickness based on incremental internal rate of return. This paper presents the features of the cool roof calculator and the type of analysis that can be performed using the cached results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper presents life cycle energy (LCE) analysis of different types of residential buildings (one storey, two storey, and duplex and multi storey) in Indian context. A total of 10 houses’ designs were examined with energy saving features, e.g. thermal insulation on wall and roof, double pane glass for windows. One of these buildings was further examined to assess LCE performance with on-site power generation. Dynamic energy simulation tools DesignBuilder, e-Quest and EnergyPlus were used to assess energy performance of the buildings. LCE of the buildings is varying from 240 to 380kWh/m2 year depending on the type (envelope) of the building and climatic conditions. LCE savings of about 5–30% are observed with thermal insulation on wall and roof along with double pane glass for windows. It is found that net zero operating energy building can be achieved by on-site power generation from PV and wind turbine. LCE of the building for net zero operating energy is evaluated to be 71.24kWh/m2 year. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]