EDIFICES
BLUEPRINTS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
EDIFICES
BLUEPRINTS FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Authors
Prof. Rajan Rawal
Dr. Yash Shukla
With contributions from
Nagahari Krishna Lokanadham
Vivek Nair
Graphics and Layout
Index
Exemplar Edices
06
An Introduction
Vector Vibe
February 2020
Please cite this document as
Rawal, R., Shukla, Y. (2020). Exemplar Edices: Blueprints for a Sustainable Future. CEPT Research and
Development Foundation (CRDF), India and Danfoss, India.
Disclaimer
CRDF and Danfoss do not accept any responsibility for any possible errors in this compendium. The
contents are not guaranteed to be complete, correct, timely, current or up-to-date. The views/analysis
expressed in this document are purely based on the data provided by the building stakeholders at the
time of their nomination to ACREX Hall of Fame. All images are copyright to the respective owners.
© CEPT Research and Development Foundation (CRDF)
CEPT University, K.L. Campus, Navarangpura, Ahmedabad 380 009, India
© Danfoss Industries Private Limited
Plot No. A-19/2, SIPCOT Industrial Growth Center
Oragadam Village, Sriperumbudur 602 105, Kancheepuram District, India
12
24
40
Champions of Sustainability
Buildings from ACREX Hall of Fame
The Blueprint
Showing the Way Forward
Recommendations for
High-Performance Buildings of the Future
Printed on 100% recycled paper
FOREWORDS
The world is heading for tougher times with urbanization picking up pace and its
contribution towards energy footprint gaining with every passing day. With the
growing urbanization and fast depleting resources come a growing demand for
energy ecient and sustainable solutions, suitable for modern infrastructures.
The ACREX Hall of Fame is an eort to recognise iconic commercial buildings
that not only meets the above needs, but also raises the bar on Energy Eciency
and Sustainability and sets global benchmarks. We hope that the recognition
received by these projects will inspire others in the HVAC industry to adopt these
benchmarks.
We are delighted to partner with CEPT Research and Development Foundation
(CRDF) to bring together this compendium. In CEPT, we found a perfect partner
from the realm of academia and research that shares the same focus on commercial
buildings and brings in synergies as that of Danfoss. This collaboration between
academia and industry aims to bring forward the best practices in the industry.
We believe that this compendium will be a source of inspiration, and provide
guiding principles and valuable insights to stakeholders in the industry in making
their future projects greener and more energy ecient.
Buildings in India consume close to 40% of the nation’s total energy today. We
spend more than 80% of our life indoors in buildings – this number is about 90%
for Europe and North America. Thus, energy conservation in buildings becomes a
cornerstone of any sustainable development strategy and eorts. Further, more
than 40% of the energy consumed in a building is by the building HVAC system.
Therefore, to provide a focus on this aspect of sustainable development eorts,
ISHRAE in association with Danfoss India launched the ACREX Hall of Fame initiative
in 2015. This initiative recognizes iconic buildings with highly ecient HVAC
systems through a process of nomination and selection by an elite panel of jurists.
As part of an eort to provide learnings from the last 4 years of the program,
Danfoss India in collaboration with the CEPT in Ahmedabad instituted a study to
analyze the HVAC system data from the 26 buildings that were shortlisted for nal
consideration by the Jury. This report is a comprehensive presentation of this study
through illustrative graphics, charts and visuals.
I congratulate Danfoss India for commissioning this study and the team at CEPT
for undertaking this study. I am condent that the information presented in this
report will be of immense benet to builders, architects, HVAC system designers,
contractors and facility managers, and contribute to the growing trend of energy
ecient HVAC systems in buildings in the country.
Ravichandran Purushothaman
President, Danfoss Industries Private Limited
4 5
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
Sushil K Choudhury
Presidential Member - ISHRAE and Chair - ACREX India 2020
Exemplar
With great growth, comes a great need
“
for power. And now, more than any other
Edices
Blueprints for a
Sustainable Future
time in our planet’s history, we need to
act swiftly to save our future. As more and
more people spend time inside commercial
buildings worldwide, as well as in India, the
buildings have to maximise their energy
eciency. The best starting point to increase
the number of commercial buildings that
are high on sustainability is to replicate the
success that has already been achieved.
Therefore, we’ve created a compendium of
the most energy ecient and sustainable
commercial buildings of India that can be
used as a blueprint for the future. Read on to
follow in their footsteps.
7
A Time
for Change
With the dynamic proliferation of technology into our daily
lives, our buildings are bound to change synchronously.
The buildings of today are becoming increasingly complex
organisms to design and operate, their varied functions
call for the usage of non-congruous materials as well as
construction and operation strategies. In the process of
creating and living in these complex dwellings, our reliance
on energy in the form of electricity is the utmost. Despite
facilitating our daily lives by leaps and bounds, it is the same
energy which is pushing our planet to the brink of a ‘climate
catastrophe’.
The energy supplied to our grids, largely by fossil fuel-based
plants, comes at the cost of incessant greenhouse gas
emission into the atmosphere. In the context of buildings,
these direct and indirect emissions are not limited to energy
usage alone but spread out to every resource utilized in the
making of a building. This includes the emissions associated
with extracting, manufacturing, procuring, installing, and
disposal of any materials used in a building.
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EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
Therefore, in order to be truly
‘sustainable’, the buildings must be
well-designed using low-embodied
energy materials and methods, and
ultimately operated judiciously by
the occupants.
Passive design strategies are one of the most eective and
inherently aordable emission reduction methods. These
strategies have been popularly romanticized to not require
active methods of conditioning at all, which is incorrect. Instead,
a passively-designed building judiciously uses the form and
fabric of the structure to take the maximum possible advantage
of the natural forces of the sun and wind. This includes spatial
strategies like the stack eect, night ventilation, cross-ventilation,
etc., along with construction strategies like appropriately
placed thermal masses, cavity walls, exterior shading, etc. These
strategies, coupled with ecient active conditioning devices,
lead to reduced emissions, without compromising on the
occupants’ comfort.
It is important to categorize the buildings not just on their
function or morphological typology, but also on their mode of
operation. A building can be operated on – natural ventilation,
mixed-mode ventilation, and active air-conditioned ventilation.
Naturally ventilated buildings completely rely on the outdoor air
to oer cooling to the indoors using passive design strategies,
without using any mechanical cooling.
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EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
Air-conditioned buildings maintain the
indoors separated from the outdoors and use
active heating/cooling devices to maintain
comfort conditions, irrespective of the
outdoors. The balance lies within the mixedmode buildings, which can be operated in
the two aforementioned modes.
Mixed-mode ventilation can be further
classied as temporal mixed-mode, spatial
mixed-mode, and concurrent-mixed
mode. Temporal mixed-mode allows the
variation between natural ventilation and
air-conditioning with respect to time – the
time of day which experiences excessively
high outdoor temperature can be allocated
to air-conditioned operation of the building,
while during the time when the outdoor
temperature remains moderated, the
same space can be operated in a naturally
ventilated mode.
Spatial mixed-mode allows specic zones
of the building to be air-conditioned while
keeping the other zones naturally ventilated,
and concurrent mixed-mode keeps a zone
conditioned using natural ventilation and airconditioning simultaneously. This indicates
that the path to devising an energy ecient
ventilation strategy for a building is
non-linear.
Energy ecient or high-performance
buildings use less energy in comparison to
conventionally designed buildings by the
means of including sophisticated features
from the envelope to the individual
building systems.
Therefore, it is not one, but a multitude of
subsystems, materials, operation strategies,
and equipment, which might require a
relatively higher initial investment, but
ensure energy savings in the long run.
The variety of occupants’ walks of life,
economic backgrounds, and acclimatization
patterns provides each of them a unique
denition of what thermal comfort really
is. In a case this diverse, providing a linear
solution by drawing boxes around specic
indoor climatic conditions is bound to cause
user dissatisfaction. Building operation
codes and models should not recommend
the operation of an air-conditioner when
the outdoor air temperature is within the
comfortable band. The thermal comfort
models devised for subjective respondents
representing a specic region, should not be
chosen for regions with a drastically dierent
climatic context.
In order to help mitigate the eects of the
climate catastrophe from the viewpoint
of buildings, it is important for us, as a
society, to evaluate, create the ideal thermal
comfort models, and replicate the same
so as to reduce energy footprint. This
includes the evaluation of unconventional
building design, construction, and
operation practices, and bringing them to
the mainstream as scientically validated
approaches to making energy
ecient buildings.
The communication
about such approaches
should revolve around the
environment and economics
and specically target
three facets
We must arm ourselves with the validated
““
tools of science to tackle the climate crisis,
for our buildings must respond to the
changing times, and the times to come
are indisputably sustainable.
Enhancing occupant
behavior and well-being
Reduction
in load
Reduction
in consumption
12 13
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
Champions
of Sustainability
Buildings from
ACREX Hall of Fame
“
This compendium presents a brief
analysis of the twenty-six (26) exemplary
buildings shortlisted as nalists to the
ACREX Hall of Fame between 2016 and
2019. The objective of the compendium
is to extract key ndings from the
selected buildings and develop a
valuable resource on high performance
buildings for designers, consultants,
and facility managers.
15
Finalists 2016
MANDI HOUSE METRO STATION
New Delhi
Inductee
Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport
MUMBAI
AVANI RIVERSIDE MALL
Howrah
16 17
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS
Hyderabad
ADVANT NAVIS IT PARK
Noida
Finalists 2017
PAHARPUR BUSINESS CENTRE
New Delhi
ITO METRO STATION
New Delhi
RAMANUJAN IT CITY
Chennai
JW MARRIOTT
Mumbai
18 19
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
RBEI
Coimbatore
CARBSE, CEPT UNIVERSITY
Ahmedabad
Finalists 2017
INDIRA PARYAVARAN
BHAWAN
New Delhi
Inductee
IGATE GLOBAL
Pune
Infosys EC53 (M & C Building)
BENGALURU
IDC2 RELIANCE
CORPORATE PARK
Navi Mumbai
20 21
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
GAIL JUBILEE TOWER
Finalists 2018
Noida
Inductee
INFOSYS SDB11
Pune
Reliance Corporate IT Park
DLF MALL OF INDIA
Noida
TSI WAVEROCK
Hyderabad
DEENANATH MANGESHKAR HOSPITAL
AND RESEARCH CENTER
Pune
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EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
NAVI MUMBAI
Finalists 2019
Inductee
RADISSON BLU ATRIA
Bengaluru
AVASA HOTELS
Hyderabad
ITC MAURYA
New Delhi
ITC Grand Chola
C H E N N A I
SIR H N RELIANCE FOUNDATION
HOSPITAL & RESEARCH CENTRE
Mumbai
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EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
The Blueprint
Showing the Way Forward
“
The selection of nominees was
“
based on the performance data
from the buildings, as a mandatory
requirement for the application
process for all the years. Further, the
jury of ACREX Hall of Fame, made up
of a committee of esteemed members
from the industry, implemented a
rigorous evaluation process on all the
submitted building applications.
27
Distribution of Sectors
The maximum number
The visual shows the distribution of the sectors amongst
the nalists nominated to the ACREX Hall of Fame between
2016 and 2019.
of buildings that qualied
as nalists, were from
Information Technology,
Hotels, and Oce Spaces
2
1
7
Information
Technology
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EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
5
Hotel Oce Hospital Mall
4
2
2
Metro Data
Centre
1
1
Institution
1
R&DAirport Educational
Measured
Data Centers are one
1699
Energy
Performance
Index
Energy Performance Index (EPI) is an important
metric to compare the energy performance
between buildings. EPI is calculated by dividing
the annual energy consumption of the building
by total building area. Visual shows the measured
Energy Performance Index of the nalists
categorized by their respective sectors. Airports,
metro stations, and malls show an average
measured EPI of 254, 532, and 155 kWh per m
respectively. Hospitals, hotels, and oces show
an average measured EPI of 144, 88, and
104 kWh per m
2
respectively.
2
231
Hospital
179
Hotel
Data Centre
532
Metro
254
Airport
155
Mall
of the most energy-
intensive sectors
with an EPI of
approximately
2
1700 kWh per m
30
Educational
Institution
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
21
104
Oce
56
Information
Technology
40
R & D
kWh per m
2
Measured
Chiller eciency in the buildings,
Chiller Eciency
Another important performance metric in the air-conditioning industry is IKW
per ton of refrigeration used. Visual shows the measured IKW/ton of refrigeration
for each building sector.
0.56
Educational
Institution
0.73
R&D
1.28
Airport
1.31
Hospital
1.34
Metro
1.46
Mall
except for the Data Centers,
varies from 0.56 to 1.38 IKW/ton
4.77
Data Centre
1.27
1.20
Hotel
Information
Technology
1.38
Oce
32
IKW/Ton
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
Designed Vs Measured
Measured data shows
Peak Operating Capacity
The measured performance of buildings are often found to be dierent from the intended
performance aimed during the design phase of the building. The section compares the
designed performance of the ACREX Hall of Fame nalists with the measured performance.
Visuals compare the designed peak operating capacity and EPI over the years with the
measured performance.
signicantly lower actual
Peak Operating Capacity
compared to the
design parameters
34
Designed Peak
Operating Capacity
Measured Peak
Operating Capacity
87%
65%
Information
Technology
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
67%
Metro
69%
Hospital
Hotel
75%
Airport
92%
R&D
95%
Mall
97%
Oce
100%
Data Center
Designed Vs Measured
Measured EPI is 30-40%
Energy Performance Index
The analysis indicates that there is an average 30-40% decrease in the actual peak operating
capacity of the ACREX Hall of Fame nalists, compared to the designed peak operating capacity.
The graphs also indicate signicantly lower measured EPI compared to the designed EPI. Cursory
analysis indicates potential to reduce installed capacity and overestimation of the energy use
during operation. The analysis also highlights that the facility managers are conscious of operating
the building more eciently compared to the design estimates.
10%
Data Center
42%
Information
Technology
48%
Oce
53%
Mall
57%
Metro
65%
Hotel
78%
Airport
lower than the design in
most building sectors
106%
100%
Hospital
R & D
Designed Energy
Performance Index
36
Measured Energy
Performance Index
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
Key Strategies
used in Buildings
This section analyzes key strategies used by ACREX Hall of Fame nalists to achieve high
building performance. The key strategies used by the buildings have been divided into nine
categories – HVAC system, monitoring & control, lighting, renewable systems, Indoor Air
Quality (IAQ), envelope, daylighting, water saving, and miscellaneous.
Visual shows strategies implemented in the building. As seen in the gure, one or more
HVAC strategies have been used by all the ACREX Hall of Fame nalists to achieve high
performance. Furthermore, 72% of the nominees have reported one or more monitoring
and control strategies in their applications. The implementation of envelope, daylighting,
and water saving strategies have been found to be at 27%, 23%, and 17% respectively.
Some of the strategies, such as HVAC system strategies, have direct impact on the buildings’
energy-consumption while a few other strategies, such as water saving strategies, focus more
towards providing sustainable building design.
73%
100%
HVAC
Monitoring/Control
Lighting
Renewable
IAQ
Envelope
Daylighting
Miscellaneous
Water Saving
15%
19%
23%
27%
38
All the nalist buildings have
implemented one or more
HVAC strategies
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
62%
46%
46%
HVAC Strategies
used in Buildings
%
4
Vapour Absorption Machine
%
4
Heat Pumps
%
4
Desuperheaters
%
4
Twin Coils Air Handling Units
Visual shows the most common strategies used by the
nominees to reduce energy consumption by the HVAC
systems. High-Eciency chiller is one of the most common
measures used by the nalists to achieve energy-eciency.
The participation of Dedicated Outdoor Air System (DOAS),
heat recovery, and variable ow air handling unit have been
found to be at 54%, 46%, and 46% respectively.
High-eciency chiller is the
most common HVAC strategy
8% Low Pressure Drop Coils
8% Variable Primary Pumping
8% Low Velocity Coils in AHUs
8% Low Velocity DOAS
%
15
Low Approach Cooling Towers
%
19
Radiant Cooling / Chilled Beams
%
19
High Eciency Motors
%
19
Variable Cooling Tower Fans
%
19
Variable Condenser Flow
%
46
Variable Flow AHUs
used by the nalists
40
EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
%
46
Heat Recovery Wheels
54% Dedicated Outdoor Air System
%
62
High-Eciency Chillers
Recommendations for
High-Performance
Buildings of the Future
It is recommended to follow a three-stage approach
in designing energy-ecient buildings.
Stage 1
Minimize
Cooling Needs
In the rst stage, envelope, daylighting,
and lighting strategies should be used to
minimize heat load of the building. A few
nalists have demonstrated that good
thermal insulation in walls and roofs,
high-eciency glazing system such as
double-glazed system with low emissivity
coating, external shading systems, and
high-reectivity external coatings can
signicantly reduce envelope heat gains
of the building. A few buildings have
also used daylighting strategies, such as
design of separate daylight and vision
and reduce energy consumption of the
building. LED lights have been used
in several buildings to reduce energy
consumption. One of the buildings has
eectively used task lights to reduce
the requirement of ambient lighting
in the space. While natural ventilation
has seldom been used by the buildings
nominated to the ACREX Hall of Fame,
it could be an eective approach to
maintain comfort during favorable
outdoor conditions.
Stage 2
Ecient
Cooling Delivery
In the second stage, ecient ventilation
and air-conditioning system designs and
technologies should be used to deliver
cooling to the building with minimum
energy use. High-eciency water-cooled
chillers with good part-load performance
have been used by many of the buildings
to reduce cooling energy consumption.
Variable speed systems have been
extensively used in the air handling units
and chilled water plants to signicantly
reduce energy consumption of the
air-conditioning system especially during
the period of low cooling needs.
Many of the buildings have also used
Dedicated Outdoor Air Systems (DOAS) to
provide necessary outdoor air, as well as
to eectively use heat recovery systems
to reduce energy cooling systems. A few
buildings have also used radiant cooling
systems to reduce energy consumption
while improving comfort inside the
building. Segregation of sensible and
latent load delivery can be an eective
approach to reduce energy consumption
of the building.
windows, to increase visual comfort
43
Stage 3
Energy
Generation
In the nal stage, strategies should be
used to generate additional energy
through renewable sources. Several
nalists have used online photovoltaic
systems on the roof to generate energy.
Well-designed monitoring systems
supported by active management
strategies can provide a very costeective approach to reduce energy
consumption of the buildings. Many
buildings have installed monitoring
systems in the building to continuously
monitor energy consumption and system
performance in the building.
Most of the nalist buildings use constant
temperature setpoints to maintain
comfort inside the buildings. Past studies
have indicated that tropically acclimatized
occupants can be comfortable in elevated
temperatures with the use of increased air
velocity. Use of alternate comfort models,
such as adaptive thermal comfort model,
or maintaining a slightly higher setpoint
could provide signicant energy savings
in the buildings.
It is extremely important to maintain
indoor environmental quality inside
the building for better productivity and
the well-being of occupants. Indoor
environmental quality parameters should
be considered as an integral part of
the design and operation of exemplary
buildings of the future. Similarly, water
Integration of
Renewable Systems
High-Eciency HVAC
System Design
Envelope, Lighting, &
Daylighting Strategies
Stage 3
Stage 2
Stage 1
saving strategies, acoustic considerations,
as well as re safety strategies should also
be incorporated in future buildings.
45
With these recommendations as a
replicable blueprint, and the Hall of
Fame buildings as inspiration, the
stage is set for upcoming commercial
buildings to become an Exemplar
Edice themselves and take us into a
much more sustainable, healthy, and
bright future for everyone to work in
and conduct business.
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EXEMPLAR EDIFICES Blueprints for a Sustainable Future
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