THE GRIHA APPROACH

GRIHA is India’s National Rating System for Green buildings, which has been developed by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and endorsed by the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE). It was developed as an indigenous building rating system particularly designed to address the climatic requirements in the country, and it promotes the use of traditional architectural techniques and is synchronized with government policies and programmes. It provides an evaluation method to design, build, operate and maintain a resource efficient built environment. It can be applied to commercial, institutional, and residential buildings. It attempts to minimize a building’s resource consumption, waste generation, and overall ecological/environmental impact by comparing them to certain nationally acceptable limits and benchmarks. The unique characteristic of this rating system is a single window process from design to rating because of its compliance with all major environmental and building codes of India. In 2009, it was mandated that all central government and public sector unit buildings be built with a minimum of GRIHA 3- star rating. As of today, over 140 projects have undertaken GRIHA registration.

EMPRI's ‘Hasiru Bhavana’

Keeping in line with EMPRI's commitment to protect and improve the environment, both the Main and Annexe buildings are constructed incorporating the 'Green Building Concept'. The salient features are:

• Reduced carbon footprint while maintaining the ecological values of the site.
• The indoor built environment quality has been optimised in terms of visual and thermal comfort through adaptive climate design features.
• The energy demand has been reduced by adopting passive design features, efficient lighting fixtures and other appliances usage.
• Integration of renewable energy to reduce dependency on external grid.
• Adoption of Rainwater harvesting techniques
• Use of low energy intensive materials and technologies​

GRIHA award for “Exemplary Performance”

ADaRSH, (Association for Development and Research of Sustainable Habitats) an independent platform for the interaction on scientific and administrative issues related to sustainable habitats in the Indian subcontinent, supported by MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India) identified ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT AND POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE for its outstanding efforts and execution for compliance with GRIHA criteria and bestowed “Exemplary Demonstration of Passive Architecture Design Award” in their 6th annual conference, “The GRIHA Summit 2015”. EMPRI received the award for new Green building based on various criteria like Lighting, Air Circulation, Thermal Regulation, Energy Efficiency, Solar Photo voltaic cells, Rainwater Harvesting, Courtyards, and Additional windows and ventilation. The details are as follows:

• Adopted Passive Architectural design strategies
• Good Fenestration design for reducing direct heat gain and glare while maximizing daylight penetration
• Design of efficient artificial lighting system
• Use of Renewable energy on site

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IISc scientists develop solar cooking device

Scientists from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have developed a device whereby “solar energy can be directly brought to the kitchen” paving the way for the use of clean energy for cooking.

The hybrid device transfers solar energy to the kitchen using a solar thermal collector to store the solar energy. Explaining the functioning of the device, a release from IISc said: “The device transfers solar energy to a curved concentrating collector that absorbs the energy and increases the temperature of heat transfer fluid. The fluid is of a special kind whose temperature can go up to 300°C and is stored in a thermally insulated tank. A heat exchanger is positioned in the kitchen which transfers the heat from the fluid to the food that is meant to be cooked. A pump is used to regulate the heat transfer from the collector to the heat storage tank.”

While there are already solar cookers, a number of problems crops up - they can only be used during periods of clear skies, the rate of cooking cannot be controlled, etc, the release said.

Dr Prasanna U R, along with Dr L Umanand, from the Centre for Electronic Design and Technology, IISc, has developed the device. “This cooker can also be used indoors within the kitchen, reducing use of conventional energy. It can be used at any time of the day or night,” said Prasanna.
This device allows heat to transfer from the solar collector to the food meant to be cooked at an optimal rate. Despite the apparent advantages of the hybrid solar cooker, scientists say that certain challenges in the technology persist.

“People still need to design this device better so that everything can be installed at home cost effectively and quickly,” he said. 

Source:http://www.deccanherald.com/content/517528/iisc-scientists-develop-solar-cooking.html