Impact of Building Materials on Heating and Cooling Loads for Social Housing in India

Abstract

To bridge the growing housing shortage, India plans to construct 10 million dwellings under the ‘Housing for All by 2022’ initiative. Since housing is responsible for 22% of the country’s energy consumption (in 2014), it is integral to ensure that the new housing stock reduces the need for energy-intensive air conditioning. This paper assesses the impact of building materials and technologies on the electricity consumption for heating and cooling in case of social housing. The simulations were run for seventeen building materials and technologies across five Indian cities representing all climatic zones of India. The results demonstrate that the use of AAC block work instead of conventional brick masonry for walling helps reduce the electricity consumption due to cooling of households by 24.7–29.6% across all climatic zones. The use of ferro-cement roofing channels instead of conventional concrete roof slabs reduces electricity consumption due to cooling by 47.4%. The insights provided by this study can help policymakers, designers and construction professionals make informed choices of building materials and technologies to reduce the need for air conditioning.