PRINCIPLES OF GREEN BUILDING:-
The fundamental principles persist, from which the method is derived are,
1. Sitting and structure design efficiency
2. Energy efficiency
3. Water efficiency
4. Materia efficiency
5. Indoor Environmental quality Enhancement
6. Operation and Maintenance Optimization
7. Waste and Toxic reduction
GOAL OF GREEN BUILDING:-
There are a number of motives for building green, including environmental, economic, and social benefits. However, modern sustainability initiatives call for an integrated and synergistic design to both new construction and in the retrofitting of existing structures.
1) Green building brings together a vast array of practices, techniques, and skills to reduce and ultimately eliminate the impacts of buildings on the environment and human health.
2) It often emphasizes taking advantage of renewable resources, eg. using sunlight through passive solar, active solar, and photovoltaic techniques.
3) Using plants and trees through green roofs, rain gardens, and reduction of rainwater run-off, natural cooling effect can be obtained.
4) Using wood as a building material, or using packed gravel or permeable concrete instead of conventional concrete or asphalt
to enhance replenishment of ground water.
5) On the aesthetic side of green architecture or sustainable design is
the philosophy of designing a building that is in harmony with the natural features and resources surrounding the site.
6) There are several key steps in designing sustainable buildings: specify 'green' building materials from local sources, reduce loads, optimize systems, and generate on-site renewable energy.
GREEN MATERIALS:-
1. Bricks that don't need mortar:-
It is a sustainable alternative to conventional bricks. Interlocking Hydra form blocks, manufactured from fly ash or local soil, sand (40%) and cement (5-10%) can now be manufactured in site. These blocks along top and sides and so do away with the need for mortar or other adhesive to a great exten no burning is involved in producing them.
2. Modular Carpet Tiles:-
What do you do when the synthetic carpet on your office floor catches a gashing stain? Throw it away and go in for a fresh new carpet? Well, if you had opted for modular carpet tiles, you could have just removed the offending patch and replaced that portion alone, saving both office overheads and eco points by reducing waste. Take Interface FIOR's carpet tiles, for instance. Like ceramic tiles, their synthetic carpets now come in pieces and can be removed and replaced piecemeal. Like modular furniture, it allows you to build your designs from bits and pieces.
3. Light Pipes:-
How do you use the sun to light up the spaces in the inner reaches of your house or office and minimise electricity and other lighting costs? Well, one option would be the use of light pipes that conducts ambient sunlight to the desired location, such as the Sky Shade light pipes.
4. Intelligent Electricity:-
Here comes a web-based solution that allows individual customers to measure, analyse, control and save electricity all that, over the web on Connectgala.com. Connectgaia units containing inlet and outlet connectors, GPRS and Zigbee antennas, and sensors are installed on the consumer's network. The unit draws information about the power consumption in the premises, at different areas or locations It allows access of metered electricity data, and also allows the customer to remotely manage electrical consumption on his premises over the web, even though he may be on the other side of the globe.
5. Green Paints:-
Paints can have a major impact on the overall aesthetics of a space, sometimes, sometimes more than even flooring and furnishings because of the enormous square footage of coverage.
Green paints provide clean air, also reduced Ozone depletion. Total cost of green paint may be same as any high quality paint, but O&M cost is less.
6. Wood:-
Wood is a product of trees and sometimes other fibrous plants used for construction purposes when cut or pressed into lumber and timber such as boards, planks and similar materials and used in building just about any type of structure in most climates.
7. Pervious concrete:-
It is a open cell structure allows water to pass through. First it is used in residential walls in Europe when sand and other fine aggregates were not readily available.
-Primary use as a pavement
-Parking areas
-Sidewalks and pathways
-Residential roads, alleys and drive ways
-Shoulders and medians
-Under overpasses and bridges
When rain falls, much of it will flow off impermeable surfaces into storm drains. creeks, rivers, low areas. With pervious concrete, this water is captured and contained.
-Used to recharge the ground water
- Provides natural filtration.
8. Autoclaved aerated concrete block (AAC BLOCK):-
AAC blocks are about 50% lighter than clay bricks of equivalent size. This translate into less dead weight of building and allows entire structure to be lighter therefore reducing amount of steel, and concrete used in structural components like beams, columns and roof / floor slab.
Environmental impact-
Manufacturing of AAC blocks and panels does not consumes high amount of energy. Moreover since AAC blocks are light weight, it saves energy required for transportation and leads to reduced co2 emissions by transport vehicles. AAC blocks are made from fly ash, industrial waste product generated by thermal power plants, it offers a low cost and sustainable solution for today and tomorrow. AAC blocks are requisite for green buildings.
