Experimenting best thermal insulation for building envelope
Student name: Mr Gagandeep Singh
Guide: Dr Arun Kansal
Year of completion: 2014
Host Organisation: Infosys Green Initiatives, Bangalore
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Punit Hemant Desai
Abstract: Solar radiation adds energy to the earth to the tune of about 1300 W/m2. When
energy of this intensity is incident on the building envelope, it heats up the envelope.
Depending on the envelope construction, a fraction of this heat is absorbed and
conducted into the occupied space inside the building. HVAC systems are then
needed to remove this heat (to “condition†the occupied space) from the space and
discharge it back into the environment. Larger the fraction of solar energy
transmitted into the building in the form of heat, more is the work to be done by the
HVAC system and results in higher energy consumption.
Heating of the indoor spaces during winters requires more energy than cooling the
same space during summer. In countries far from the equator where indoor spaces
need to be heated during winters, radiant barriers are often used in buildings to
contain the heat inside the buildings and reduce the heating load during the cold
winters. Infosys. Has pioneered the use of high reflectivity and/or low-emissivity films
in the envelope construction in climates such as in India to reduce the fraction of
solar radiation conducted into the indoor space.
Infosys has 10 campuses across India and 3 more in design and construction phase.
The climatic conditions at these various sites may permit more cost-effective building
envelope designs that will reduce both capital (total cost of construction) and
operating expenses (to condition the office space). Infosys is working to identify the
best performing composite wall design for their building envelopes.
