Residential building energy demand reduction in India (RESIDE)

The RESIDE (Residential building energy demand reduction in India) project will help support the improvement of living conditions for millions of Indian citizens through establishing the knowledge base to develop a residential building code for high quality, low-energy housing across all five climatic zones in India.

The project brings together an interdisciplinary team of architects, engineers, digital scientists, urban planners and behavioural researchers to assess all aspects of the residential energy use problem, including performance of the building fabric; in-home appliances including heating, ventilation and air conditioning; indoor environment and occupant behaviour.

RESIDE will undertake surveys and monitoring of energy consumption in 2000 homes spread across the five different climatic zones in India in order to build up a new, open access database for policy and practitioner communities in India and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. In 10% of these homes, we will also trial and evaluate a Smart Home Energy Management System, to be designed within the project, to enable householders greater control over their comfort and energy consumption.

These activities will be used to develop low-cost monitoring and post-occupancy evaluation protocols suitable for the Indian situation. This will not only improve Best Practice, but allow a framework by which consistent data can be collected and added to the RESIDE database. Using novel techniques developed by the project team for assessing the potential up-scaling of individual household measures and actions to a neighbourhood level, RESIDE will explore and establish protocols for assessing the potential for, and likely benefits of, widespread take up of energy efficiency and rooftop solar technologies at a community scale.

By engaging with a wide range of stakeholders involved in planning and construction throughout the project, and by undertaking an extensive review of policy experiences in similar countries, the RESIDE project will establish the key factors essential for consideration in the development of a new residential building code for India. Then, building on the extensive data collected through the project, and a set of co-design workshops, the project will develop a proposed framework for a new residential building code.

Through helping to reduce the currently predicted eightfold increase in residential energy consumption in India by 2050, the RESIDE project acknowledges the extensive benefits that may be accrued across the entire energy sector from the promotion of a new residential building code strongly grounded in evidence applicable to all five of India's climatic zones. Reduction in energy demand from this sector will lead to a more secure energy supply network and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

More specifically, the dual focus of the project is A) to build a strong, open access, evidence base on residential energy use, thermal comfort and energy efficiency measures (at individual dwelling and community scales) in order to support the development of B) proposals for a new residential building energy code grounded in rigorous research and national and international policy experiences. Key stakeholders will be engaged throughout the process to ensure the co-design of both process and outputs of maximum relevance and, therefore, impact potential.

Within the project we specifically recognise seven core groups of non-academic beneficiaries of the RESIDE project:
1) INDUSTRY involved in the supply and promotion of low energy technologies (Fenesta, Glass Academy), and home energy management systems (Schneider Electric, Bosch)
2) CENTRAL GOVERNMENT POLICY-MAKERS such as the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) and Ministry of Power (MoP) dealing with energy generation and emissions, as well as the Ministry of Urban Development (MUD), Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation
3) UTILITIES (electricity generators/suppliers) by the reduction of capacity risks
4) DESIGNERS/ENGINEERS/BUILDERS AND PROFESSIONAL BODIES (ISHRAE, IGBC)
5) MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE (MoEF) for achieving INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) emission targets.
6) CITY AUTHORITIES including housing development authorities (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Delhi Development Authority) on planning side and development of smart cities.
7) HOME-DWELLERS with reduced electricity bills for energy consumption and improved housing conditions.

As evidenced by the 16 Letters of Support, many of these groups (Indian Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers, Indian Green Building Council, Bosch, Schneider Electric, UN-Habitat, Development Alternatives, Barclays, Administrative Staff College of India and local educational institutions as survey partners) have already been engaged in the design of the project proposal.

Within the full 'Pathways to Impact' document, we set out how the RESIDE project will engage with all of these groups through five specific impact achievement strands:
1) Policy and practitioner focussed briefings and publications;
2) Specific workshop and engagement activities within five of the key work packages;
3) The provision of four 3-month knowledge exchange fellowships (placements);
4) Capacity building through using local educational establishments as survey partners;
5) Interaction with international networks and the hosting of a week-long international researcher workshop.

These engagement and knowledge exchange processes will ensure that project outputs will be of maximum value in setting out a low energy pathway for India's massive projected growth in residential building stock. The continual engagement of stakeholders through the project will help to ensure that the project acts as an independent broker between the potentially competing interests of different stakeholders, using the broad range of evidence to be collected to develop building code proposals that are realistic and acceptable to all relevant parties.