It’s a myth that you pay a fortune if you go in for a ‘green building’ and that it would take ages before you reap its benefits. Many in the construction industry were surprised on Saturday when developers and ‘green’ consultants from across the country revealed that you actually require a little bit of architectural common sense and a will to save on power to gain from a green building and that it costs as much as a conventional building.
Experts who had gathered at the Green Building seminar claimed that a green building will only exceed the cost of a conventional building by a maximum of 3 to 5 per cent. Not to mention that the building will give you an annual saving of 35 to 40 per cent on power, with efficient use of daylight and cutting on heat with intelligent architectural designs, proper glazing and shading devices while reducing dependence on air
conditioning.
“If I were to quantify the savings of green building, it would be like this: The northsouth building orientation
saves you 1 per cent, a china tile roof installation which is common these days saves you 2 per cent, an efficient wall insulation will give you a saving of 2 per cent and most of all, a 60 per cent wall and 40 per cent glass building facade will help regulate heat and entail savings of 19 per cent. A lot of developers have a fascination for complete glass facades with improper shading that only forces them to use indoor lighting. There are cheaper shades available that allows natural light to come in, keeping out the heat. This reduces your dependence on artificial cooling needs and lighting,” said co-chairman of Indian Green Building Council Ashish Rakheja.
Another startling example of a green building cited at the seminar was a ‘green’ factory of Cummins Generator Technologies (CGT) at Ranjangaon in Pune. The Rs 30-crore facility commissioned recently is estimated to save, over the next 10 years of operations, more than 14 million kw of power.
The company has built a wind tower that sucks in the air and carries it to the shop floor, thereby providing natural ventilation that reduces ambient temperature, claimed the company’s managing director Pradeep Bhargava. Bhargava said the construction of walls is done using bricks made from fly ash and high efficiency glass has been used for windows and sky lights. The natural gradient of the plot of land is used to minimise the need for excavation and optimal landscaping followed to reduce irrigation needs by 50 per cent and to control storm water run off, he said.
Leave a Reply