TERM 1 RESEARCH PAPER

JANUARY 2021

Exploration of the
prospect of passive
design for residential
sector in the composite
climate of delhi
Passive and Low Energy design strategies

Vasheena Mittal

M.ARCH SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT DESIGN 2020-2022 || AA SED, ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
AUTHORSHIP DECLARATION FORM

AA SED ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

PROGRAMME: MSc / MArch SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN 2020-21

SUBMISSION RESEARCH PAPER 1

Exploration of the prospect of passive design for residential sector in

the composite climate of Delhi – Passive and Low energy design
PAPER TITLE strategies

NUMBER OF WORDS
(excluding footnotes and
references) 3216 words

STUDENT NAME: VASHEENA MITTAL

DECLARATION:

“I certify that the contents of this document are entirely my own work and that any quotation or paraphrase
from the published or unpublished work of others is duly acknowledged.”

Signature: Vasheena Mittal

Date: 15-01-2021
ABSTRACT

Overheating in buildings is usual. This

research paper undertakes a study on how we
can keep residential buildings cool without
conventional air-conditioning: improving
comfort and productivity while reducing energy
costs and carbon emissions in the hot climate
of New Delhi, India. The paper focuses on the
need for passive design strategies for the
residential sector of India, highlighting the
major influx of energy requirements in the near
future. It provides a general grounding in how
to avoid or minimise air-conditioning. It studies
about the prospect of the application of
passive cooling strategies in New Delhi
climate. It demonstrates, through a detailed
climate analysis and study of passive design
strategies in accordance with the Delhi
climate, that residential buildings in Delhi can
use passive design to reduce the increasing
energy loads.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT..................................................... 3

1. INTRODUCTION......................................... 1
1.1 Why passive cooling? .................................. 1
1.2 Impact of heat waves .................................. 1
1.3 Why residential sector? ............................... 1
1.4 Methodology ............................................... 1

2. ENERGY DEMAND IN RESIDENTIAL

SECTOR ......................................................... 1
2.1 Residential energy consumption scenarios . 2
2.2 Energy use projections per household by
2050................................................................... 2

3. CLIMATIC CONTEXT OF NEW DELHI ..... 2

3.1 Quantitative Analysis .................................. 2
3.2 Qualitative analysis ..................................... 3
3.3 Conclusion ................................................... 4

4. PASSIVE COOLING AND ITS

APPLICATIONS ............................................. 4
4.1 Introduction ................................................. 4
4.2 Environmental heat sink: scenario in Delhi . 5
4.3 Conclusions .................................................. 7
4.4 Existing cooling systems: Comparative
analysis .............................................................. 8

6. FUTURE RESEARCH ................................ 8

7. CONCLUSION ............................................ 8

8. REFERENCES ............................................ 8
 1.4 Methodology
1. INTRODUCTION
The paper is structured in two main parts. In
the first part, a previously done analysis on the
1.1 Why passive cooling?
energy consumption in residential sector, and
In March 2019, India became one of the first
its dependency on air conditioning is studied
countries in the world to launch a national
followed by a background and a review of the
roadmap to meet its burgeoning cooling needs
composite climate of Delhi from literature.
– The India Cooling Action Plan. This research
paper is an effort to contribute to this important In the second part, an overview of natural
development. cooling and its applications is studied from
literature. Furthermore, the applicability of
1.2 Impact of heat waves
these design principles in composite climate of
India’s cooling needs are rapidly growing. With
Delhi is reviewed. The paper also studies a
heat waves sweeping across cities in India,
comparative analysis of existing cooling
rapid urbanization and a growing population,
techniques employed in Delhi.
the need for cooling solutions is more urgent
than ever. India’s cooling demand is projected The combination of the results would possibly
to grow by eight times in the next 20 years indicate whether the practical application of
(ICAP, 2019). Adding to this pressure, the passive and low energy design principles is
demand for air conditioners (ACs) is rapidly feasible in the composite climate of Delhi,
increasing. Under a business as usual India.
scenario, room ACs will add 800 GW to the
peak demand by 2050 (ICAP, 2019). This will 2. ENERGY DEMAND IN RESIDENTIAL
lead to a significant increase in the energy SECTOR
demand for cooling, stress on the electricity
grid and higher emissions, in addition to the India’s domestic energy consumption has
release of HFCs, which are high Global increased from 80 TWh in 2000 to 186 TWh in
Warming Potential (GWP) gases. 2012, and constitutes 22% of total current
electrical consumption (Central Electricity
1.3 Why residential sector?
Authority, 2013). An increase of 400% in the
India has strived to provide “home for all” since
aggregate floor area of buildings and 20 billion
it gained independence in 1997. The country is
m2 of new building floor area is expected by
currently experiencing one of the fastest
2030 (Dr Satish Kumar, USAID ECO - III
growth rates in new buildings globally, mainly
Project, 2011). Furthermore, due to the
in the residential sector. The objective of this
persistent increase of Indian GDP, user
study is to explore passive design strategies
procuring power is prophesied to grow leading
for the design of the residential sector, where
to greater use of household appliances.
overall energy use is projected to grow by
Consequently, domestic electrical demand is
500% to 800% by 2050 (ICAP, 2019).
anticipated to rise abruptly in the approaching
Globally, mainly in the residential sector.
decade (Fig 1). This growth of residential floor
Energy demand from residential buildings is
space (Fig 2), collectively with expectations of
expected to rise sharply in the coming
improved domestic comfort, will require a
decades, due to the combined growth of:
surge in electricity production, leading to a
population, urbanization, and GDP and
momentous boom in harmful emissions.
consumer purchasing power. This will lead to a
dramatic increase in the demand for improved
domestic comfort. Very aggressive energy
efficient design principles and low energy
strategies focused on better building
envelopes can play a key role in mitigating
energy consumption from residential buildings.

Figure 1. India’s moderate efficiency scenario projected

1
energy consumption of India's buildings in 2030 and 2050;
percentages represent the ratio of residential and
commercial buildings. Source GBPN (2012).

Fig 4. Pattern of energy consumption in a residential

building (source: Department of energy)

Figure 2. Total energy consumption vs. constructed floor 2.2 Energy use projections per household
area from 2005 to 2030. (Source: GBPN 2014) by 2050

2.1 Residential energy consumption

scenarios
Projection scenarios indicate that electricity
consumption is expected to rise by more than
eight times under the business-as- usual
scenario (Fig 3). As stated by the ICAP, under
the business-as- usual scenario, the annual
electricity use per household is predicted to
increase from 650 kWh in 2012 to 2750 kWh
by 2050. Using a very aggressive policy
strategy, the increase in household electricity
Figure 5. Projected scenarios for energy use per
consumption could be cut to 1170 kWh per
household 2050. (Source: GBPN 2014)
household in 2050.(ICAP 2019)
3. CLIMATIC CONTEXT OF NEW DELHI

The Composite Climate3 of Delhi (India) was

chosen for the research. Located at 28°36'N
and 77°13'E, it portrays significant seasonal
over the year.

3.1 Quantitative Analysis

The climate of Delhi can be mainly classified
into 4 seasons (Table 1):

1 Summers (April - June)

Figure 3. Projected scenarios for energy use by 2050.
(Source: GBPN 2014)
The Climate Works Foundation study on
“Reducing GHG Emissions in the Building
Sector in India” (Climate Works Foundation,
2010) indicates that the residential sector
accounts for 21% of total electricity
consumption.
2 Winters (November - February)
With an average temperature of about 29 -
33 ° C and relative humidity (RH) ~ 30 - 40
percent, this season is mainly HOT and
DRY. The season's early months show
broad fluctuations in daily minimum and
daily maximum temperatures, which
gradually stabilize.
Temperatures of 12-19°C and high
humidity levels are recorded in Winters (60
-70% ). The daily minimum temperature

2
 will drop significantly to approximately 6-8
° C. A substantial amount of solar radiation
exists.

3 Monsoon (Wet Season: July - mid

September)
This season is marked by a high amount
of humidity in the air (69 - 75%) resulting
in moisture. Although it provides relief from
the heat of the summer, temperatures ~ 30
- 32 ° C and about 85 - 95 % RH, it gives
Figure 6. Global Radiation and Cloud Cover for Delhi.
very unpleasant conditions. Data source: Meteonorm

4 Mild Season (March and October)

Sandwiched between the months of
extremes, temperatures of the order of 22
- 25 ° C and RH ~ 45 - 60 percent are
reached in these months. During this time,
the ambient conditions are comfortable.

The climate data gives few immediate clues

about the potential passive design strategies.
These are highlighted them in Table 1 and in
figures 6 to figure 8. From the point of view of
cooling, the research primarily focuses on the Figure 7. Monthly values of DBT and RH for Delhi with
summer period. These studies suggest that potential passive strategies highlighted. Data
Source: Meteonorm
environmental / climatic parameter is
demanding certain passive design strategy.
Table1 - Climatic Data for Delhi, India. Source: Meteonorm

Figure 8. Monthly values of DBT, daily max. and

daily min. temperatures. Data Source: Meteonorm

1 High levels of global radiation with 3.2 Qualitative analysis

low cloud cover = need for There are certain seasonal characteristics that
shading may help to understand the occupant’s
2 High day time temperatures, low behavior and thus the success of the chosen
RH value = potential for passive design strategies. At this stage, it is
Evaporative Cooling important to introduce the following terms:
3 Excess Humidity with low diurnal
temperature swings = need for 1. Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT):
Dehumidification Combined effect of solar radiation and
4 Large Diurnal swings (early high Dry Bulb Temperature (DBT) can
summer months) = Potential for lead to building surfaces behaving as hot
Night Time cooling

3
 radiating plates. Faris (1981), during his
visit to India states his experience as:
“A conventional mattress facing a radiating
ceiling (in Delhi) becomes an unwelcoming
"hot pad”. The MRT can be twice as
important as the DBT, depending on the
climate and 'clo' values (Szokolay, 1987).”
2. Air Changes per Hour (ach):
With high MRT values, the building
interiors need to be flushed with large
volumes of air. This helps in reducing the
radiation gains and to the remove excess
heat. Desert coolers work on a similar
strategy with a combined effect of
evaporative cooling.
Summer months with high temperatures and
restricted natural ventilation can make the
interior spaces highly uncomfortable. As
mentioned earlier, night time ventilation cannot
be adopted as a cooling strategy during later
summer periods. This period is also
characterized by fast moving and dust carrying
dry winds called the 'loo', which can cause
heat stroke to the occupants. Months of July
and August bring with them huge rainfall and
resulting water logging which become
breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other
insects. Lately, significant increase in the
mosquito count has been one of the reasons
why people avoid opening their windows to
allow free air movement.
3.3 Conclusion
 Use of Night time ventilation is limited to
early months of summer (March - April).
During the months of May to August, the
diurnal swing is stable with high night time
temperatures.
 Day time ventilation for months May to June
may be limited due to dusty winds (called
'loo') and for months July August due to high
mosquito count.
 Months of April, May and June, with low
values of RH provide potential for
evaporative cooling. July and August offer
high RH levels with high temperatures and
dehumidification is necessary to provide
comfort.
 Combined effect of DBT + Solar radiation =
high MRT values demand high Air exchange
rates (ach) for flushing of absorbed heat.
 Ground temperatures offers a significant
cooling potential that can be achieved by
means of direct or indirect means of ground
coupling.
 The winter months of November and
February have daily max. Values of the
order of 26°C; and from author's experience
of the climate, the need for external heaters
is limited to 15 - 30 days in the whole year.
Thus the climate mainly demands cooling.
 High levels of global radiation suggest
shading as a necessary design element.
The composite climate of Delhi reaches its
extremes in respective seasons. In such a
climate, the architecture should provide all the
relief possible primarily in terms of cooling.
Since the climate presented similar challenges
to our predecessors who had much less
resources and technology available to them,
the climatic parameters were understood using
origins from the past.
4. PASSIVE COOLING AND ITS
APPLICATIONS
4.1 Introduction
Passive Cooling is the dissipation of heat from
the building to a lower temperature
environmental heat sink, using systems that
consume negligible energy (Alvarez,
Maldonado, Santamouris, & Yannas, 2000).
Since cooling can also be understood as the
absence of heat gains, therefore architectural
design supported by other passive strategies
is clearly the 1st line of control. But as seen
before, it by itself is not sufficient for the
climate of Delhi.
Passive cooling by coupling the building with
the heat sink can happen in 2 ways:
a) Direct Coupling
Where the heat sink provides cooling by being
in direct contact with the building
4
 b) Indirect Coupling

Where a working fluid (air or water) carrying

the cool air is exchanged between the building
interior and the heat sink.

There are 4 Environmental heat sinks that can

behave as sources of cooling.

Figure 10.Section through a traditional house in

Shahjahanabad showing radiative cooling. Source:
(Gupta, 1984).

The magnitudes from radiative cooling are

modest; so much so that in places receiving
high levels of solar radiation, the cooling
achieved in the entire night may be equal to
the heat absorbed in just one hour of the day.

Scenario in Delhi:

Night time cooling is enough to be used as an

effective strategy for cooling the occupants but
Figure 9. Environmental Heat sinks and their means of
coupling. Source: (Jain (2010)) not buildings and traditionally people took
advantage of it by sleeping on the terraces.
4.2 Environmental heat sink: scenario in Due to increased need of security and
Delhi increase in the mosquito / insect count in the
air, people do not use this strategy anymore.
There are a number of ways in which
Also the urban structure has reached high
environmental sinks have been used
levels of densification which has further
traditionally to provide cooling. Their
resulted in poor air quality and reduced heat
applicability depends on several
losses. But the practice of sleeping outdoors
factors like location, urban fabric, (in courtyards and on terraces) is still prevalent
user's perception, etc. In this paper, in villages of India.
summary of heat sinks and how their
applicability has changed in Delhi over 2. Natural Ventilation using Ambient Air
time is studied.
The use of ambient air for cooling depends on
the external temperatures. The usual skin
1. Radiative Cooling using the cool temperature is around 33 - 34°C; therefore
Night Sky decides the heat exchange between the body
surface with the circulated air. Figure 20
The low emissivity of the sky demonstrates the relationship between the
provides the ultimate continuous heat external temperatures and use of natural
sink for maintaining earth’s thermal ventilation for (Givoni, 1998).
equilibrium. Traditionally people took
advantage of night temperatures by
occupying terraces for sleeping. This
allowed for occupants' direct contact
with night sky and they could
successfully cool themselves rather
than cooling the building. Traditional
houses in Old city of Delhi work on a
similar concept (fig19).
5
Figure 11 Relation between outside temperature and
adopting natural ventilation. Source: Givoni (1998) Figure 12. Use of Khus/grass pads for evaporative
cooling. Source: Jain (2010)
Scenario in Delhi:

Ambient temperatures in Delhi, during the

summer months, reach values of the order of
45°C. Also towards the end of the summer
period, the diurnal fluctuations decrease
resulting in high night-time temperatures15.
With increasing population and associated
pollution, the air quality has considerably
reduced making it unsuitable for natural
ventilation (without adequate treatment).

Due to above reasons, use of ambient air for

cooling is limited to just 1 or 2 months in the
summer period. The remaining 4 months of
Figure 13. Conventional Desert Cooler. Source Cain,
extreme summer requires additional means of
Afshar, Norton, & Daraie (1974)
cooling.
Scenario in Delhi:
3. Evaporative Cooling using Water
Early summer months in Delhi, offer low RH
The process of evaporation involves cooling of values and thus great potential for evaporative
dry air by adding water / moisture to it. It is an cooling. Contemporary versions working on
adiabatic process since no system energy is above principle exist in Delhi in form of Desert
gained or lost; rather the sensible temperature coolers (fig.22) and PDEC systems (fig.23).
(of air) is reduced as it is compensated by
latent heat gain of water (Cook, 1989). Though
evaporative cooling developed in the hot and
dry regions of Persia and Egypt as the moguls
travelled from these regions to conquer India,
they brought this knowledge to Delhi. In India,
evaporative cooling was widely used in homes
in form of wetted Khus / Grass pads that were
hung from balconies. As the outside air Figure 14. Passive Downdraught Evaporative Cooling
system. Source: Jain (2010)
travelled via these pads, drop in temperatures
due to evaporation provided cooling to interior Desert Coolers present economical means of
spaces. The use of the same can still be found cooling and thus scores high in terms of
in semi outdoor spaces seeking economical popularity amongst all strata of people. While
solutions of air cooling.

6
the PDEC system being highly engineered has
been of limited application.
Evaporative cooling when used in isolation,
under best case scenario, can deliver
temperatures of the order of Wet Bulb
Temperature (WBT). But WBT values in hot
climate like Delhi can be higher than the
required comfort temperatures. Thus an
auxiliary system needs to be used in
conjunction with evaporative cooling to provide
improved temperatures of comfort.
4. Ground Cooling using deep Earth
Temperatures
The undisturbed earth temperatures at a depth
of several meters are almost constant and
close to the annual average temperature
(Alvarez, Maldonado, Santamouris, & Yannas,
2000). Thus in summers, it is always cooler
than the ambient air temperatures (fig.24). The
amplitude of the sine graph at depth of about 3
- 4m is comparatively much stable than the
ambient, plus it may offer a time lag of several
months.
The other advantage of ground coupling is that
it serves both as Thermal mass and as a Heat
Sink. Therefore it first stops the heat to reach
the building and then cools the spaces by
indirect coupling.
Figure 15. Comparing of deep ground temperatures with
ambient DBT. Source: Jain (2010)
Scenario in Delhi: Although earth sheltering
seems to be climatically suitable for Delhi, it
has not been widely used in the past due to
reasons of security16. Recently several
projects have initiated the use ground coupling
in form of Earth Air heat Exchanger (fig.25).
Figure 16. Conceptual section through an EAHx and its
relation with building. Source: Jain (2010)
4.3 Conclusions
Various architectural, contextual and user
defined reasons account for choosing a
particular heat sink for cooling. The respective
reasons for each heat sink are as follows:
a) Radiative Cooling using Night sky can
achieve modest levels of cooling that are
sufficient to cool the occupants and not the
buildings. Changing lifestyles and other factors
have resulted in its limited application in Delhi.
b) Natural Ventilation can be used as an
effective cooling strategy for temperatures
below 33°C. Therefore its application is limited
to early month(s) of summers only.
c) Evaporative Cooling is well suitable for the
dry months of summers (April - June), but has
a limited applicability in humid months of July -
August.
With increasing DBT17, the WBT which marks
the maximum potential of evaporative cooling
is also increasing. Thus evaporative cooling
alone may be insufficient to provide adequate
levels of cooling.
d) Ground Cooling has had a constrained
application in Delhi due to various reasons. Its
application is still limited in terms of earth
sheltered habitable spaces. But lately it has
been widely used in Delhi as a cooling device
in form of Earth Air Heat Exchangers (EAHx).
Limited knowledge and research on the
subject still keeps the application of system to
7
few design projects. For more detailed study
on earth air exchangers, refer to Jain (2010).
4.4 Existing cooling systems: Comparative
analysis
As mentioned above, various cooling systems
have been developed in Delhi using heat sinks
either in isolation or in combination with other
sinks. Their success and failures are
discussed below in table 2.Comparison
between them reveals that the EAHx displays
a huge potential as an alternative source of
cooling.
Table 2. Comparison between prevalent cooling systems
in Delhi. Source: Jain (2010)
6. FUTURE RESEARCH
For future design exercises and to get more
insight into the how passive cooling works,
case studies of passive house in composite
climates can be studied. Also
7. CONCLUSION
We are living in an air conditioned
environment. The need to substitute AC’s
with passive cooling is the need of the hour.
Through this paper, we studied that
residential sector is growing abruptly and the
need for air-conditioning in the next 30 years
will be huge. This growth is owed to increase
in urbanization, income and purchasing power
of the society. To overcome this abrupt
increase, certain passive design strategies
need to be incorporated in the building
design. We studied Delhi’s composite climate
to explore this opportunity. Through intense
research and evaluation, it can be concluded
that there is a lot of potential for evaporative
cooling and ground cooling techniques in the
climate of Delhi. Further research, can be
undertaken to study the two techniques in
detail and their applications in Delhi.
8. REFERENCES
Koch-Nielsen, H. (2002). Stay Cool. A design
guide for the built environment in hot climates.
James & James Ltd.
Ford, B., R. Schiano-Phan, J.A. Vallejo (2020).
The Architecture of Natural Cooling.
Routledge.
Alvarez, S., Maldonado, E., Santamouris, M.,
& Yannas, S. (2000). Designing for Summer
Comfort. (S. Yannas, Ed.) European
Commission.
Ford, B., & Hewitt, M. (Summer 1996).
Cooling without Air conditioning - Lessons
from India. ARQ Volume 1, 60 - 69.
Givoni, B. (1998). Climate Considerations in
Building and Urban Design. USA: Van
Nostrand Reinhold. Givoni, B. Passive and
Hybrid Cooling Systems - A Position Paper.
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source for Buildings. In B. Givoni, Passive and
Low Energy Cooling of Buildings. Canada:
John Wiley & Sons.
Gupta, V. (1984). Indigenous Architecture
and Natural Cooling. In V. Gupta (Ed.),
Energy and Habitat
Jain (2010) Application of Earth Air
exchangers in New Delhi. (Shashank Jain)
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(September 1991). Proceeding of the Ninth
International PLEA conference (pp. 159 - 164,
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ICAP (2019) India cooling action plan
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Energy use and saving potentials. Global
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