Eco Niwas Samhita (ENS)

Objective

Eco Niwas Samhita (Part I: Building Envelope) has been prepared to set minimum building envelope performance standards to limit heat gains (for cooling dominated climates) and to limit heat loss (for heating dominated climates), as well as for ensuring adequate natural ventilation and daylighting potential. Part I – Building Envelope of ENS is designed in a simple-to-apply format, requiring only simple calculations based on inputs from the architectural design drawings of buildings. This can be used by architects and engineers and will not require any simulation software. 

Background

Out of the total electricity consumed in the building sector, about 75% is used in residential buildings. The gross electricity consumption in residential buildings has been rising sharply over the years. For instance, the consumption figure rose to about 260 TWh in 2016-17 from about 55 TWh in 1996-97. That is an increase by more than four times in 20 years. Projections show it rising to anywhere between 630 and 940 TWh by 2032. Among various reasons, increased use of decentralized roombased air-conditioning units in homes for thermal comfort is an important reason contributing to this rapid increase in the electricity use in residential buildings. The demand for air-conditioning will continue its exponential growth with improvement in household incomes and will become the dominant contributor of GHG emissions nation-wide owing to increased electricity consumption. This situation calls for an immediate energy conservation action plan.

Given the current and anticipated rapid growth in the residential building stock across India and the consequent opportunities as well as the necessity for energy conservation in this sector, the Energy Conservation Code for Residential Buildings is established by the Ministry of Power. 

Status/ Achievements

ENS cells shall be established in all states and UTs in 2021 to assist in the regional amendments and implementation of the residential Code. The Code is currently in the voluntary stage of adoption.

Target Beneficiaries

CPWD, Town and Country Planning, State PWDs, State Designated Agencies, UDD, Municipal corporations/ULBs, DISCOMs, Electrical Inspectorate, Architects, Engineers, Institutions/organizations, Builders, Developers

Partners

Implementation partners are CPWD, SDAs, State PWDs, UDD, Bilateral Agencies: SDC, GIZ

Website/Other information useful Links

  1. Eco Niwas Samhita 2018
  2. Eco Niwas Samhita 2021
  3. Code Compliance Tool
  4. Eco Niwas Web Tools: Advanced Tool for Performance Analysis and Optimisation Tool

  • Handbook of Replicable Designs for Energy Efficient Residential Buildings
  • ENS Solutions Sets and other publications
  • Case Studies
  • Presentations
  • Media publications
  • Study on Smart Homes
  • Study on Residential Thermal Comfort Equation