Capabilities In Green Buildings:

• Green Buildings
• What differentiates a Green Building from the others?
• Green Building Rating System
• Features of Green Buildings
• Capabilities of Blue Star in Green Building Projects
• Recommendations from Blue Star to earn points from HVAC under EA and IEQ credits
• The Blue Star Green Building Advantage

Green Buildings

Industrialization has caused a lot of damage to the environment and its repercussions will be borne by the generations to come. While there are some irreparable damages caused to the environment, there are several initiatives that individuals can take to preserve the environment. Green building is one such initiative.

A Green Building is an environmentally responsible establishment where care is taken to mimimise the damage to the surroundings as well as providing a healthy place to work in. A Green Building incorporates several green features. While the appearance of a Green Building is similar to any other building, the difference lies in the approach - which revolves around a concern for extending the life span of natural resources and provides human comfort, safety and productivity.

This approach apart from conserving the environment also results in reduction in operating costs like energy and water.

What differentiates a Green Building from the others?

Some of the salient features of a Green Building, which sets it apart from the rest, include

• Minimal disturbance to landscape and site condition
• Use of non toxic, recycled and environmentally friendly materials for construction
• Efficient use of water and water recycling
• Use of energy efficient and eco-friendly equipment thereby reducing energy consumption
• Use of renewable energy
• Excellent indoor environment quality for human safety and comfort
• Effective controls and building management systems

Green Building Rating System

Ratings of Green Buildings are based on a LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Rating System. There are six categories and each category carries points for rating. There are several parameters defined under each category and the greater the adherence to the laid out parameters, the higher the points gained. The points are aggregated across the six categories and based on the total points, the building may qualify either for basic LEED Certification or higher LEED certification levels such as Silver, Gold or Platinum status.

Categories:

Certification Levels:

Features of Green Buildings

Some features of Green Buildings covered under the above six categories to meet the pre-requisites and credit requirements are:

Sustainable Sites (SS)

• Reduce pollution from construction activities by controlling soil erosion, water way sedimentation and airborne dust generation.
• Channel development to urban areas with existing infrastructure, protect green fields and preserve habitat and natural resources.
• Reduce pollution and land development impacts from automobile use.
• Provide a high ratio of open space to development footprint to promote biodiversity.
• Limit disruption of natural water hydrology by increasing on site filtration (rain water harvesting and reuse of rain water for landscaping etc.)
• Reduce heat islands. (Thermal gradient differences between developed and undeveloped areas).

Water Efficiency (WE)

• Treat the grey water at site for reuse in toilet flushing and other custodial uses.
• Use 100% grey water as well as storm water for landscaping.
• Select native landscaping design and species that require less water to reduce or eliminate irrigation requirements.
• Use efficient toilet fittings to reduce overall water consumption.

Materials & Resources (MR)

• Provide dedicated spaces for proper collection, storage and disposal of recyclable materials and ensure recycling.
• Use reused, refurbished or salvaged materials to reduce consumption of virgin material for building construction.
• Utilize material with high recycle content to reduce negative environmental impacts.
• Use of material that are rapidly renewable (life cycle of 10 years or shorter) such as fiber boards, ecoboard, bamboo, linoleum etc.

Energy and Atmosphere (EA)

• Verifying and ensuring that the building and all the systems are designed, installed, commissioned and operated as intended.
• Independent commissioning of all building energy systems under the supervision of a Commissioning Authority (CXA).
• Designing the building project to comply with the mandatory provisions of ASHRAE 90.1. The building and its systems should also meet the prescriptive requirements or the performance requirements of Ashrae 90.1- 2004.
• Points ranging from 1 to 10 are awarded for increased levels of energy performance of 10.5% to 42% respectively. This performance increase is measured over the energy requirement of base line building as per 90.1 through whole building energy simulation.
• Incorporating an Integrated BMS with permanent installation of sensors and a monitoring system to measure and track key HVAC parameters such as temperature, humidity including air flow and IAQ. Also required is a zone wise control of these parameters, time scheduling of all building systems for all seven days in a week, interlocking with security system and occupancy sensors, amongst others.
• Developing and implementing a Measurement & Verification (M&V) plan to provide the building to measure and account for its energy consumption over time.
• Using renewable energy through technologies including solar, wind, geo-thermal, bio-mass, amongst others.
• Using green power from an external green power generating source.

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)

• Minimizing exposure of building occupants, indoor surfaces, and ventilation air distribution systems to environmental tobacco smoke.
• Controlling construction impacts on IAQ through a construction IAQ Management Plan during the construction phase. Includes a variety of good house keeping procedures and protection of all HVAC ducts material from deposition of dust.
• Flushing indoor air to purge all contaminants for a period of two weeks after construction and prior to occupancy by using MERV 8 filters in the AHUs.
• Reducing indoor air contaminants that are odorous, and harmful to occupants. (specify paints with VOC content < 50gms/ltr, use of low emitting carpets certified by CRI)
• Providing lighting system control by individual occupants or by specific groups.
• Providing a verification process for assessment of thermal comfort over time.
• Using day lighting designs such as windows, skylights to bring in natural light and reduce artificial lighting during day time.

Innovation in Design (ID)

• Recognize any design for exceptional performance above the requirements set by LEED-NC Green Building Rating system.
• Have a LEED Accredited Professional in the project team.

Capabilities of Blue Star in Green Building Projects

With over six decades of experience in providing expert cooling solutions, Blue Star understands the dynamics and intricacies involved in the design and execution of Green Building projects. Blue Star has complete knowledge of the Green Building certification process and can advice its customers on all aspects in the areas of Energy conservation and Indoor Air Quality related to HVAC so that the building qualifies for LEED certification.

Energy Efficient Designs of HVAC Systems

The objective of the HVAC system design in a Green Building is to keep the cooling loads low and design an energy efficient HVAC system. This can be best achieved by active involvement of Blue Star's design engineers with the architect and HVAC consultant at the design stage itself. To start with, one needs to reduce the area of exposed glass on the high solar load side of the building. Selecting glass with a right balance of light transmissivity, low heat transfer coefficient and first cost is also important. Energy efficiency can be achieved by careful selection of the individual equipment like chillers, pumps and AHUs with efficiencies to suit the design intent and integrating them for the best output. A well planned air distribution network to provide uniform cooling and achieve thermal comfort across all spaces is also necessary.

A good Building Management System is generally an integral part of many Green Buildings. Blue Star can facilitate in the selection and installation of a suitable Building Management System that would integrate well with the HVAC system to achieve optimum usage of various equipment and save energy.

Modern Installation practices

Blue Star is the only company to have well formulated installation methods for professional management of project sites. Blue Star is also one of the very few companies that invests heavily in training all its engineers and associate manpower for quality installation work. One of the focus areas from a Green Building point of view is quality of ducting work. In a bad ducting installation there is a possibility of more than 10% of air escaping from ducts leading to enormous waste of energy. Blue Star makes use of high quality machine made ducting manufactured by its strategic alliance partner, Rolastar Limited to have efficient, leak proof as well as aesthetic duct installations.

Energy efficient products

The building blocks of Blue Star's solutions are its products. Blue Star offers the most comprehensive range of airconditioning products in the country. All products have been designed on the energy-efficiency platform, and offer a host of advanced features. Blue Star's R&D has been focusing on energy efficient technologies for the past several decades and it is no wonder that Blue Star has been a pioneer in launching several path-breaking innovative energy efficient products. These include the scroll technology, the tandem scroll technology, hiper and hisen packaged airconditioners and more recently the screw chillers and VRF systems.

Blue Star offers a complete range of R134A chillers. Apart from incorporating an eco-friendly refrigerant, these chillers are also extremely energy efficient. Blue Star is also the first company in the country to manufacture VRF systems with the digital scroll technology indigenously. These systems incorporate the eco-friendly R410A refrigerant and save substantial power, apart from their ability to handle harsh Indian summers.

Energy saving auxiliary devices

Blue Star offers several auxiliary energy saving devices which help in substantial power savings. Blue Star has strategic partnerships and tie-ups with many leading manufacturers such as Danfoss, Sterile Air and Ecospec to offer the most optimal solutions to conserve power. On offer are variable speed drives for air handling units and chillers to obtain excellent part load efficiencies, heat recovery wheels in the fresh air path to reduce the total load on chillers and UVC Emitters to improve heat transfer, thereby saving power costs.

Energy Management Cell

Blue Star's Energy Management Cell comprises qualified Energy Auditors and Energy Managers accredited by Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). This cell undertakes comprehensive energy audits which start with identifying the consumption and end after executing the recommendations from the audit. This Cell even audits all energy consuming devices such as lighting, pumping, cooling towers and many more.

Water Management Services

Traditionally, organizations use harsh chemicals for treating water in cooling towers. These are corrosive and harmful to the environment. Blue Star offers a revolutionary water treatment system which is chemical-free, saves water and also enhances the life of the system. Using electromagnetic waves, this system not only decreases the scale formation but also removes existing scale and arrests multiplication of bacteria by altering their DNA.

Indoor Air Quality Management Services

Research reveals that indoor air can be upto 10 times more polluted than outside air. Studies prove that in the long run, poor indoor air quality affects both health and productivity, which translates into increased absenteeism and lower productivity. It is therefore, not surprising, that indoor air quality is a critical parameter in Green Building certification.

Blue Star has deep understanding of indoor air quality management and has the ability to control variables such as suspended particulate matter, dust, harmful biological contaminants, bacteria, chemical vapours and odours. Blue Star offers a complete range of air management services including fresh air management, energy recovery ventilators, duct cleaning, UVC emitters and air balancing and leakage detection.

Recommendations from Blue Star to earn points from HVAC under EA and IEQ credits

EA and IEQ offer scope to earn maximum number of points from the HVAC perspective. There are several recommendations and suggestions that the Blue Star team can offer in this respect. These include

• Select building materials and equipment to minimize total energy consumed.
• Select glass with low heat transmission coefficient but high light transmissivity
• Use of equipment like Chillers, Condensing units and PACs with high COP (exceeding efficiency criterion laid down in ASHRAE 90.1)
• High delta T chilled water systems with delta T upto 16 Deg.F to increase the overall energy efficiency of chilled water production and distribution.
• Incorporate variable speed pumping systems
• Use heat recovery for spaces served by AHUs with high outdoor air component
• Use of thermal energy storage systems in places where there are existence of pre-determined load peaks (significantly higher than the average peak demand) and off peak grid energy rate is considerably lower than the peak time rate.
• Dedicated TFAs for ventilation needs of multiple spaces with differing ventilation needs
• Have demand control ventilation for high occupancy spaces. Use of Co2 sensors in spaces that have varying people density loads
• Incorporate Variable Air Volume systems to reduce air quantity and load during unoccupied hours/low load time, as well as for public/common spaces
• Optimum sizing of ducts and pipes to balance the energy cost and first cost
• Plug leakages in ducts and plenums by sealing of all the joints. Leak test the ducts based on the static pressure rating.
• Use of eco-friendly refrigerants in all HVAC equipment
• Pulse powered chemical water treatment
• Co-generation plants where natural gas is available for electricity generation of building use and the waste heat from thee process to run absorption chillers
• Use of BMS to improve energy efficiency. Helps in optimizing the run time of equipment at desired levels of efficiency to maintain bldg inside temp, humidity, air quality etc within set limits.
• Design the Building mechanical ventilation system to comply with Ashrae 62.1 which governs a number of HVAC system attributes including
  • Placement of intakes Vs exhausts
  • Reduced face velocities at coils to increase heat transfer efficiency and reduce condensate entrainment
  • Ensure good duct work quality, workmanship, duct sealing, functionality of dampers, duct cleanliness and testing.
  • IAQ monitoring and Controls to check Co2 and VOCs
  • Increase outdoor air ventilation rates to all occupied spaces by at least 30% above the minimum rates reqd. by Ashrae 62.1
  • Provide thermal comfort system control for individual occupants or by specific groups to maintain 75 deg F and around 55% RH.

The Blue Star Green Building Advantage

While Green Buildings are likely to cost more, they make a strong statement about its occupants' desire to conserve nature and energy. Apart from a green image, organizations can save upto 40% in power as compared to a conventional building. What's more, the high indoor environmental quality results in better health and productivity of employees, the benefits of which cannot be quantified.

Blue Star has partnered in several Green Building projects which include Technopolis in Kolkata and Wipro Technologies in Gurgaon to name a few. The projects in the construction stage are Infinity Bench Mark and The Hub in Kolkata, and Microsoft 3rd phase building in Hyderabad.

Blue Star's strong capabilities in green building projects coupled with its expertise in the science of cooling, make it an ideal partner for organizations that are planning green buildings. Blue Star has all that it takes to help you achieve your objective of going green.