Reduction of GHGs in Buildings—Indian Affordable Houses

Abstract

There has been a continuous increase in GHGs in the atmosphere due to massive development, in which construction sector plays a major role. It is estimated that building construction, operation and demolition consumes about 30–40% of primary energy and release about 40% of GHGs globally. There have been many guidelines, protocols, directives to reduce energy in buildings for reduction in emission of GHGs. In developing countries like in India, a massive construction programme is going on to provide houses for all, in which about 2 million houses are being constructed annually. These houses are constructed with basic construction materials and they do not consume much energy in its operations due to poor affordability of its users. Embodied energy of construction materials used in construction and energy used in operational phase contributed a major part in its LCEA, as energy in construction, demolition and recycling is insignificant. In this paper, embodied energy of affordable houses has been analysed with various construction materials and it is found that few construction materials have a great potential for reduction of enormous primary energy without increase in construction cost.