Energy and Environmental performance of a green certified office building in the hot dry climate of India

Abstract

This paper applies a customised post-occupancy building performance evaluation (BPE) approach to evaluate the actual performance of a Platinum-certified green office building in the extreme hot dry climate of India from both technical and occupants’ perspectives. The in-use energy and environmental performance of the office building was examined using energy data on consumption and generation, monitoring of environmental conditions (temperature, relative humidity, CO2), along with occupant satisfaction survey. Total annual energy use of the building was measured as 100 kWh/m2/year with photovoltaic generation contributing 18kWh/m2/year. Although total annual energy use was found to be 42% less than the typical office benchmark, about 6% more energy was used than predicted. Indoor air quality was perceived to still but fresh and neither too dry nor too humid. Despite this, some spaces had relative humidity measurement over 70% for more than 50% of occupied hours. Daylight factor was consistently below 2% in many areas due to internal partitions; however, BUS survey (105 responses) results showed that 71% of occupants were satisfied with lighting quality, overall comfort and other variables. Such differences between measured and perceived indoor environment indicate the role of occupant adaptation in building performance.