Department of Civil Engineering

U18CE702C

Sustainable Materials and Green Buildings

Dr. A. Suchith Reddy (CE2)

 U18CE702C Sustainable Materials and Green Buildings

Course Learning Objectives (LOs):

This course will develop students’ knowledge in /on
LO1: concepts of sustainability and governing principles
LO2:green and sustainable building materials
LO3:energy and carbon reduction in buildings
LO4:building performance towards sustainability

Course Learning Outcomes (Cos):

Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to…
CO1: infer the significance of sustainability in construction engineering
CO2: appraise and select sustainable building materials
CO3: interpret the energy and carbon reduction strategies
CO4: rate and propose sustainable building
Daylighting
Key Ideas for Daylight Feasibility

Windows must see the light of day.

A high-density urban site may make daylighting difficult if the windows will not
see much sky.

Glazing must transmit light.

A strong desire for very dark glazing generally diminishes the capacity to daylight
in all but very sunny climates.

Install daylight-activated controls.

To save energy, lights are dimmed or turned off with controls. Automated lighting
controls in a daylit building can have other cost-saving applications (occupancy,
scheduling, etc.) and benefits.

Design daylight for the task.

If the occupants require very bright light, darkness, or a highly controllable
lighting environment, tailor the design to meet their needs.

Assess daylight feasibility for each portion of the building.

Spaces with similar orientation, sky views, ground reflectance, and design can be
treated together. Within a single building, the feasibility and cost effectiveness of
daylighting may vary greatly.
Daylighting is the controlled admission of natural light, direct
sunlight, and diffused-skylight into a building to reduce electric
lighting and saving energy.

A daylighting system is comprised not just of daylight apertures,

such as skylights and windows, but is coupled with a daylight-
responsive lighting control system.

When there is adequate ambient lighting provided from daylight

alone, this system has the capability to reduce electric lighting
power.

Further, the fenestration, or location of windows in a building,

must be designed in such a way as to avoid the admittance of
direct sun on task surfaces or into occupants' eyes.

Alternatively, suitable glare remediation devices such as blinds or

shades must be made available.
The components are required for every daylighting system or design, one or more of the
following are typically present:

•Daylight-optimized building footprint

•Climate-responsive window-to-wall area ratio
•High-performance glazing
•Daylighting-optimized fenestration design
•Skylights (passive or active)
•Tubular daylight devices
•Daylight redirection devices
•Solar shading devices
•Daylight-responsive electric lighting controls
•Daylight-optimized interior design (such as furniture design, space planning, and room surface
finishes).
Design Recommendations

During the design process, the following design strategies should be understood and
explored:

•Increase perimeter daylight zones-extend the perimeter footprint to maximize the usable
daylighting area.

•Allow daylight penetration high in a space. Windows located high in a wall or in roof
monitors and clerestories will result in deeper light penetration and reduce the likelihood of
excessive brightness.

•Reflect daylight within a space to increase room brightness. A light shelf, if properly
designed, has the potential to increase room brightness and decrease window brightness.

•Slope ceilings to direct more light into a space. Sloping the ceiling away from the fenestration
area will help increase the surface brightness of the ceiling further into a space.

•Avoid direct beam daylight on critical visual tasks. Poor visibility and discomfort will result if
excessive brightness differences occur in the vicinity of critical visual tasks.

•Filter daylight. The harshness of direct light can be filtered with vegetation, curtains, louvers,
or the like, and will help distribute light.

•Understand that different building orientations will benefit from different daylighting
strategies; for example, light shelves-which are effective on south facades-are often ineffective
on east or west elevations of buildings.
Daylighting
General Daylighting
1. Provide a daylighting scheme that will work under the range of sky conditions expected at
that location.
2. Orient the building on an east west axis.
3. Brighten interior surfaces.
4. Organize electric lighting to complement daylighting.
5. Provide daylight controls on electric lighting.
6. Commission the daylight controls.

Perimeter Wall Daylighting

7. Provide perimeter daylight zones.
8. Extend windows high on perimeter walls.
9. Provide light shelves on south-facing windows.
10. Minimize direct-beam sunlight penetration into work spaces.
11. Choose the right glazing.
12. Arrange interior spaces to optimize the use of daylighting.

Roof Daylighting
13. Provide roof apertures for daylighting.
14. Optimize skylight spacing.
15. Consider extending skylight performance with trackers.
16. Use reflective roofing on sawtooth clerestories.
17. Diffuse daylight entering the building through roof apertures.

Core Daylighting Provide a central well or atrium for daylighting

Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
What is indoor
environmental quality?
Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ)
encompasses the conditions inside a
building—air quality, lighting, thermal
conditions, ergonomics—and their effects
on occupants or residents.

Strategies for addressing IEQ include those that …….

• protect human health,

• improve quality of life, and
• reduce stress and potential injuries.

Better indoor environmental quality can enhance the lives of building occupants, increase
the resale value of the building, and reduce liability for building owners. 
Why is this important for buildings?

Since the personnel costs of salaries and benefits typically surpass operating costs
of an office building, strategies that improve employees’ health and productivity
over the long run can have a large return on investment.

IEQ goals often focus on providing stimulating and comfortable environments for
occupants and minimizing the risk of building-related health problems.

To make their buildings places where people feel good and perform well, project
teams must balance selection of strategies that promote efficiency and
conservation with those that address the needs of the occupants and promote
well-being. Ideally, the chosen strategies do both: the solutions that conserve
energy, water and materials also contribute to a great indoor experience.
What are common sources of indoor air contaminants?

•People smoking tobacco inside the building or near building entrances or air uptakes

•Building materials such as paints, coatings, adhesives, sealants, and furniture that may emit volatile
organic compounds (VOCs), substances that vaporize at room temperature and can cause health
problems 

•Combustion processes in HVAC equipment, fireplaces and stoves, and vehicles in garages or near
entrances 

•Mold resulting from moisture in building materials

•Cleaning materials

•Radon or methane off-gassing from the soil underneath the building

•Pollutants from specific processes used in laboratories, hospitals, and factories

•Pollutants tracked in on occupants’ shoes

•Occupants’ respiration, which increases carbon dioxide levels and may introduce germs

The best way to prevent indoor pollutants is to eliminate or control them at the sources. The next line of
defense is proper ventilation to remove any pollutants that do enter. Both approaches need to be
considered at all phases of the building life cycle.
IEQ is comprised of a combination and interaction among four main factors that affect health
and comfort:

1.Thermal comfort – the operative temperature that people experience. This includes energy
transfer that a person experiences via convection (air temperature), conduction (temperature or
surfaces they physically are in contact with), and radiation (radiative energy transfer from
surrounding surfaces).

2.Indoor air quality (IAQ) – as the name suggests this is the standard of the air we breathe
inside buildings. This is a complex issue, and governs the concentration of pollutants in the air
(such as radon, carbon dioxide, ozone, etc.), as well as the bacterial load, and presence of
pathogens or allergens.

3.Visual comfort – all aspects pertaining to what and how occupants see, such as the colour
and strength of lighting, the colour and design of walls, as well as views out of the building.

4.Aural comfort – all aspects pertaining to what occupants have to hear, including ambient
noise from outside the building, and noise levels inside from machines, people, 
the ventilation system, or any other source.
Acoustics Transmission