Climatic Zone: Hot and Dry

Climatic Zone: Hot and Dry

Solar passive hostel, Jodhpur
A solar passive building for the hot and dry climate

General description
The solar hostel was put up as part of the research project undertaken by the Centre of Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Although energy conservation was stated as the objective, the design attempted to test and demonstrate suitable methods of providing thermal comfort in the hot and dry climate of Rajasthan.

Design features
Architectural design
The building had to be designed to house 14 double room suites for married students. The two-storeyed building has seven suites on the ground floor and seven suites on the first floor. Each suite is provided with a toilet (about 4 m floor area), one lobby, and a small courtyard. The ground floor that has seven double rooms is partially sunk into the ground to take advantage of the earths thermal storage and insulation effect. The wind tower, erected over the lobby of the first floor, is connected to the ground floor through the staircase and supplies cool air to the seven units. The hot room air exits by means of smaller chimneys over each room.

Materials and methods of construction

The protection of the roof and its treatment is important because it is a major source of summer heat gain. The roof has been insulated by providing small inverted terracotta pots over the stone slabs and filling up the intervening spaces with lime concrete.

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Solar passive hostel, Jodhpur

Climatic Zone: Hot and Dry Stone masonry has been used for walls because it is a local material and can provide good thermal mass to balance out diurnal temperature variations. The wall thickness varies from 0.30 m to 0.45 m. The wind tower helps to ventilate the heat out of the room during late evenings and nights. The design of the building has a set of rooms partially underground. This did not pose any major construction problems in Jodhpur because of its low water level. Toilets were also placed at the same level as these can be drained to the sewage system or decomposition tank/pit as the case may be. The partially underground configuration has a moderating influence on the temperatures, reducing the solar heat gain on the walls and cooling like a basement. For this building, an improved design of wind tower was made with built-in evaporative cooling to lower temperatures. The higher rates of airflow and the evaporative capacity of the new wind tower can be fully utilized at night in summer to cool the building mass to lower temperatures.

Passive solar design

The air being very dry, evaporative cooling in summer can prove to be very effective in Jodhpur. Unfortunately, as water is a scarce commodity in summer in Jodhpur, any system that depends upon water for cooling is bound to fail. The design, therefore, uses a favourable orientation, a massive structure, and an air gap in the roof for insulation, reflective external finishes, deep sunshades, and finally a wind tower for making use of the cool winds. An experimental evaporative cooling system using wires for water distribution has also been installed on the wind tower. Wind tower The prevailing direction for cool winds in Jodhpur is the south-west. Window apertures are difficult to provide in this orientation, as it is the least favourable from the point of view of solar radiation.

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Solar passive hostel, Jodhpur

Climatic Zone: Hot and Dry To overcome this problem, a wind tower concept was used. The tower facing the wind direction has been located over the staircase, thus minimizing costs. Cool air is provided to each room from this tower and normal windows or smaller shafts (towers) facing the lee of the wind have been provided to distribute the cool air throughout the building. The tower catches only the cool wind from the south-west, avoiding warmer air from other directions. Roof insulation The most commonly used building material in Jodhpur is stone sourced locally. Blocks of this light-coloured stone have been used for walls in the building. Large slabs of stone have been used for the roofing, staircases, partitions, and lintels over windows. The roof has been insulated by providing small inverted terracotta pots over the stone slabs and filling up the intervening spaces with lime concrete. Since very few manufactured materials have been used, this is a low embodied energy building. Window design Since the university is normally on vacation during the worst summer months, winter comfort is as important as summer comfort. South-facing windows have been provided in most of the rooms. To prevent heat loss during night, solid timber shutters have been provided in addition to glass ones.

Performance The results of monitoring in various rooms of the hostel show that internal temperature remains nearly constant around the day without much fluctuation on a typical summer and winter day, while the ambient temperature has a large diurnal variation.

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Solar passive hostel, Jodhpur

Climatic Zone: Hot and Dry

At a glance Project details

Project description Hostel containing 14 suites for married students, located at Jodhpur Architect Vinod Gupta Space Design Consultants K-38 Jungpura Extension New Delhi 110 014 Energy consultants N K Bansal and M S Sodha Project completion 1984 Client/owner University of Jodhpur Installed renewable energy system A common bank of solar water heaters has been installed to meet all hot water requirements.

Design features
o o Favourable orientation Low embodied energy by making minimal use of manufactured materials o o o o o o Heavy construction to balance out diurnal temperature variation Roof insulation by air gap Light-coloured building to reflect heat Wind tower with evaporative cooling for summer cooling Building partially sunken to moderate internal temperature South-facing window with deep sunshades to cut off summer sun and to let in winter sun o Solid timber shutters in addition to glass shutters to prevent heat loss during winter nights.

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Solar passive hostel, Jodhpur