Estimating the size and feasibility of combined passive/low energy cooling systems for Indian office buildings.
The India Cooling Action Plan (2019) predicts that the space cooling in buildings will increase up to 74% by the year 2038. Use of conventional refrigerant based systems affects the environment due the global warming/ozone depleting potential of the refrigerants. One way forward to cater to this ever-increasing cooling demand, is the usage of passive or low energy cooling systems. Such systems employ natural resources such as earth, air, sky and water as heat sinks and are less energy intensive. The current topic focuses on estimating the size and feasibility of the combined passive/low energy cooling systems, namely evaporative cooling, comfort ventilation, radiant cooling & earth cooling for representative floor plates of Indian office buildings. The assessment will be carried out for four climate zones of India namely Hot and Dry, Warm and Humid, Composite and Temperate. The detailed study will evaluate the cooling energy use intensity ratio of these passive/low energy cooling systems against conventional air-conditioning systems. Also, the study will explore the extent to which these passive/low energy cooling systems can replace the conventional air conditioning systems in each climate type.
