Promoting energy efficiency in residential buildings
Project description
Title: Energy Efficiency in Residential Building (EERB)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: India
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Power (MoP), Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE)
Overall term: 2016 to 2020
Context
In India, rapid urbanisation has created an unprecedented demand for construction, already accounting for more than 30 per cent of India’s total electricity consumption. Furthermore, the country’s building sector is expected to expand fivefold from 2015 to 2050, predicting that electricity consumption in residential buildings will increase -sevenfold from 2012 to 2032.
The residential sector is expected to become the largest consumer of electricity in the country with 36.5 per cent of total electricity consumed in 2032. India is now at a unique crossroads where two-thirds of commercial and high-rise residential buildings that will exist by 2030 are yet to be built. This means that implementing energy efficiency in buildings presents a unique opportunity to lock in energy and cost savings for the coming decades.
Objective
New buildings in India are more energy efficient. The country has an awareness for the saving potentials of energy saving technologies.
Approach
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Government of India aim to foster energy efficiency and savings in energy consumption, in order to improve environmental and climate conditions.
The programme supports the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in developing an Energy Conservation Building Code for Multi-Storey Residential Buildings (ECBC-R). It also promotes the implementation of this in selected states and municipalities using a mix of bottom-up and top-down approaches. To further encourage and improve an awareness of energy efficiency in the residential building sector, a labelling mechanism for residential buildings, a directory of energy-efficient building materials, a catalogue of replicable designs for energy-efficient residential buildings, and a Smart Home programme have been developed.
The energy-labelling programme can help consumers by providing direct, reliable and free information. The estimated energy-saving potential is around 388 BU by 2030, resulting in a reduction in carbon emissions of 3 million tonnes. Overall, the development of ECBC-R and its subsequent application in the labelling programme will lead to a win-win situation for developers and consumers. Energy efficiency not only achieves savings for both parties, but also leads to climate change mitigation.
The directory of energy-efficient building materials and its selection tool will provide users with a list of materials and their performance specifications. This can help consumers to make informed decisions and choose energy-efficient products for construction. It also provides manufacturers with an opportunity to enhance their visibility among businesses and industry by registering their products, displaying comprehensive information about them and being listed on the website.
The catalogue of replicable designs targets housing stock yet to be built and ensures conformity with best practices. This enables users, builders and designers to easily adopt energy-efficiency measures in their construction practices with immediate impact. The building designs thus developed will set an example for energy and environmental performance that goes beyond existing standards.
The Smart Homes programme investigates technologies which can be optimised for use in the automated control of houses, their systems and appliances to increase energy efficiency. The findings will flow into designs to be demonstrated in Smart Homes. Thanks to the availability of high-speed digital devices, affordable internet, smaller IoT devices/sensors (shifting complex computing functions to cloud-based computing) and the development of complex algorithms to control systems in line with user requirements and preferences (Artificial Intelligence) there has been a boost in the demand for Smart Home products and services.
Results
- Star labelling programme for residential buildings
- ANGAN (Augmenting Nature by Green Affordable New Habitat): three-day international conference on energy efficiency with more than 1,000 participants, 100 national and international experts, and 40 exhibitors
- National energy-efficiency code for residential buildings will be published by BEE
- Eco-Niwas website for building professionals hosting simulation tools for evaluating building performance
- Directory of energy-efficient building materials for India
- Catalogue of replicable designs for energy-efficient residential buildings
- 150 + Training, Workshops, Seminars, Webinars and Awareness sessions attended by more than 10000 participants from Architecture Colleges, Developers, Architects and Engineers and from Government Departments dealing with Housing
- EERB social media platform to share technical know-how on energy efficiency in residential buildings. (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube)