The New Indian Express 25.03.2013
ECB code to be made mandatory for buildings
If you are moving into a new flat after April, you will have the choice of verifying the rating of the multi-storeyed apartment to know whether it is energy efficient or not. The buyers of flats can also check the ratings of the buildings whether they are energy efficient or not.
Commercial and multi-storeyed residential apartments will be given stars, to rate their energy efficiency. If you move into a five-star apartment, it means you save more energy. A single star is less in energy efficiency.
The new Energy Conservation Building (ECB) code is likely to come into force from April first week. Once it comes into existence, all the builders should invariably follow the ECB code. Architects will be trained to certify whether the new buildings are energy efficient or not and also give stars.
The ECB code is intended to minimise wastage of power in the present power-stressed times.
As per the ECB code, the builders should use only specified materials like electric wires and other equipment. For example, if a multi-storeyed apartment builder fixes a non-standard motor to draw ground water, it would be rejected. He should comply with the ECB code and only fix ISI motor hereafter.
Likewise, he should also use solar water heaters and should have recycling mechanism for water. If the water wastage is minimised, the use of power will also reduce as the inmates of flats need not draw ground water again.
The ECB code will be applicable even to sectors like municipal administration, industry, agriculture and domestic. However, independent houses will be spared from the ECB code, sources said.
As part of making energy efficiency and energy conservation (EE&EC) measures mandatory in all the major building complexes that are going to come up in the state, like shopping malls, skyscrapers, the State Energy Conservation Mission (SECM) is gearing up to notify the ECB code and make it mandatory, A Chandrasekhara Reddy, chief executive officer of the State Energy Conservation Mission has said.
The municipal officials have already conducted a meeting with the representatives of Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI), AP Real Estate Developers’ Association (APREDA) and Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). The builders informed that they would follow the ECB code but the guidelines should be in a simpler language so that they could understand them easily.
The government estimated that around 25 per cent to 40 per cent energy could be saved in the major buildings coming up, if they complied with ECB code. The major elements of the ECB code includes building envelope, solar water heating systems, lighting systems, energy consumption monitoring systems and others.
