World Bank Innovation Challenge Program: “Cool Roofs for Rural Poor: Saving Energy, Beating the Heat Affordably”

World Bank Innovation Challenge Program:  “Cool Roofs for Rural Poor: Saving Energy, Beating the Heat Affordably”.

Project Year: 2014

Funding Agency: World Bank

Awarded:  Rs. 25.07 Lacs

Objectives:

  • Identification of one building with two identical rooms in the rural/per-urban areas close to Hyderabad and Nagpur each.
  • Obtain permission from building owners to conduct the experiment.
  • Assessment of the buildings to identify the ideal locations to install measuring equipment and measure the performance of the roof for one week to ensure that they perform similarly.

  • Applying cool coatings over the roof for one of the rooms, retaining the other in its existing condition.
  • Installation of equipment for measurement. The equipment includes:
    1. Sensors
    2. Data loggers
    3. Weather station
    4. Uninterrupted power supply for the instruments

  • Monitoring the equipment during testing: One of the staff members will collect onsite data logged in the data loggers on a weekly basis.
  • Analysis of data to understand the effect of cool roof in reducing the indoor temperatures of the room with cool coating versus the one without cool coating.
  • Reporting the results:The results will help us determine the technical feasibility and scalable potential of this opportunity in the rural regions across the country.
  • A workshop was set up with other cool roof experts and other stakeholders, to discuss the findings from this cool roof
  • experiment at Hyderabad and Nagpur.

R&D organisation and academic institutions

IIIT Hyderabad and VNIT Nagpur

Outcomes from IIIT Hyderabad –

The preliminary data collected from the cool roof experiments in April 2014 at ZPH School in Mucherla and VNHM School in Nagpur were analyzed to determine the effect of cool roof in reducing temperatures over traditional roof. Results of the performance of cool coating in ZPH School Mucherla has been analyzed and found that there is 2°C reduction in indoor temperature, 5.5°C reduction in underdeck temperatures, 14°C reduction in overdeck temperatures for the room coated with cool coating compared to the dark roof during the occupied hours. The maximum reduction in the indoor air, underdeck and overdeck temperatures for the room with cool coating are 4.3°C, 10.26°C and 21.7°C respectively, over the room with dark roof during occupied hours. It was observed that there is increase in the number of comfort hours for the room with cool coating.  Observing a typical day it was understood that the room with cool roof is always cooler than the room with dark room maintaining a minimum of 1°C and a maximum of 4.0°C temperature difference.

The data from VNHM School, Nagpur has been analyzed and was found that, on an average there is a 1.5°C reduction in indoor temperature, 4°C reduction in underdeck temperatures and 9.5°C reduction in overdeck temperatures for the room coated with cool coating compared to the adjacent classroom roof during the occupied hours. The maximum reduction in the indoor air, underdeck and overdeck temperatures for the room with cool coating are 3.3°C, 4.2°C, and 25.2°C respectively over the room with dark roof during occupied hours. Observing a typical day in VNHM School it was understood that the room with cool roof is always cooler than the room with dark room maintaining a minimum of 1°C and a maximum of 3.3°C temperature difference.