Energy Conservation in Buildings – a Review

Abstract

-The primary function of a building is to provide thermally comfortable environment to its occupants. A good indoor climate is important for the success of any building, not only because it will make its occupants comfortable, but also because it will decide its energy consumption, and thus influences its sustainability. A literature review of over 100 research papers, in four areas in the field of Energy Conservation in Buildings, i.e. (i) Climate Responsive Buildings, (ii) Analysis, Simulation and Modelling, (iii) Zero Energy Buildings and (iv) Thermal Comfort, were conducted in order to obtain a valid research topic. The findings of the literature survey is presented in this paper which include issue wise discussion, solution approaches used by various researchers, strengths, weaknesses and future scope of work in the four issues pertaining to energy conservation in buildings. Out of the several identified lag, it was felt that there was a dearth of field studies based thermal comfort research in India, which is essential for the correct definition of building codes. Proper building codes are required not only for providing comfort condition but also to conserve energy. Hence field studies based thermal comfort study was considered for further research study. Thus, this paper summarizes the researches about Climate Responsive Buildings, Analysis, Simulation and Modelling, Zero Energy Buildings and Thermal Comfort. It also concludes the methodology of these researches in above four fields, and gives further work suggestions.