August 2025
Rolling Back Insulation in Naturally Ventilated Buildings in India
An extensive work with hourly monitoring, a calibrated model, and future weather file simulations for the 4 climate zones of India for 9 different wall assemblies. This research creates evidence that reducing RETV values, particularly with insulation in walls, does not enhance thermal comfort in naturally ventilated buildings. And to improve thermal comfort in NV buildings, interior thermal mass is more beneficial. The results challenge the RETV requirements of Eco-Niwas Samhita, and are quite important for affordable housing where NV is the default method of space cooling.
August 2023
Energy Use Intensity benchmarks for mixed mode operation of net-zero energy buildings in India
This paper is a result of the work that we did in collaboration with NREL, where we tried to establish end-use level EUI benchmarks for NZE buildings for the different building types in SDI. While there were some work on the educational and office buildings done by EDS for the ECBC 2017 development, their method and modeling details were not in the public domain. Plus, NZEB level EUI benchmarks for residential buildings and resilience shelters were not available. At that time we worked with NREL where they were doing the modeling, and I was providing inputs. During that collaboration we learned that NREL could not/would not model the building for variable setpoints as per IMAC, and for mixed mode operations. So for the Construction Worker Housing which definitely needed a new approach to EUI, I undertook the work myself, and worked under the guidance of Rajan and Prasad, with review of the results also done by Sanjay Prakash.