GRIHA Rating For Existing Buildings- Enhancing Resource Efficiency In EBs

Whilst there is a lot of focus on making the new construction resource efficient and sustainable, the potential opportunities to save energy and water in the existing building stock remain largely unexplored. In this article, Ar. Namrata Mahal and Ms Shabnam Bassi talk about the need for transforming existing buildings through ‘GRIHA for Existing Buildings’ that has been developed by the GRIHA Council as a cohesive tool to evaluate performance of the existing building and at the same time provide solutions for energy and water efficiencies, enhanced thermal and visual comfort, and reduced operational and maintenance costs.

- Ar. Namrata Mahal and Ms Shabnam Bassi

Given that electricity consumption in the building sector, accounting both residential and commercial, is approximately 33 per cent and is growing at a faster pace, lot of interventions and policy measures have been put in place to improve energy efficiency in existing buildings (EBs) (mostly commercial) as well as new construction. The energy saving potential in EBs by 2021, is estimated to be around 8,700 million kWh and 74 lakh tonnes of CO 2. Few of the doable measures, which are frequently in discussion, are installing energy-efficient LED lighting for internal and external use, energy-efficient water pumping system, cool roof technology to reduce the energy load, and so on.