Improving the resilience in urban environment by applied research for the development of a simple equation-based Energy Conservation Building Code for India

Abstract

This contribution presents the approach and methodology followed by the Building Energy Efficiency Project (BEEP) [1] to contribute to the improvement of energy efficiency and climate change resilience for multi-story residential buildings in the rapidly growing urban construction in India. As a consequence, the urban resilience will be improved at two levels: 1) the improved thermal comfort in non-air-conditioned apartments will reduce the health-related heat wave impact, 2) the cooling energy demand in air-conditioned apartment will be reduced by 20-40%. The impact of the Energy Conservation Building Code for Residential (ECO Niwas Samhita) was launched in December 2018 by the Indian Government. It has been estimated to reach a cumulative 100 Million tons of CO2 emission reduction by 2030. The Code was developed with the main objective to reduce heat gains between 20 to 40% through the building envelope by passive measures at no or marginal additional costs of construction.