Energy Conservation Building Code

The Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC), was launched by Ministry of Power, Government of India in May 2007, as a first step towards promoting energy efficiency in the building sector.

The ECBC was developed by an Expert Committee, set up by India’s Bureau of Energy Efficiency, with support and guidance from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and significant inputs from various other stakeholders such as practicing architects, consultants, educational institutions and other government organizations.

The successful implementation of the code requires development of compliance procedures (compliance forms and development of field-test compliance forms and procedures), in addition to building capacity of architects/designers/builders/contractors and government official in States and Urban and Local Bodies (ULBs). It is also dependent on availability of materials and equipment that meet or exceed performance specifications specified in ECBC.

BEE with the support of USAID ECO- III Project is promoting ECBC awareness and voluntary adoption through training and capacity building programmes, pilot demonstration projects, and identifying steps for compliance check and monitoring of ECBC. ECBC User Guide was developed to support ECBC implementation by providing detailed guidance to the users on how to comply with the Code. Four ECBC tip sheets on Energy Simulation, Building Envelope, Lighting Design and HVAC are also available and provide useful information on Code compliance at the system level and through Whole Building Performance approach that require knowledge of energy simulation to model the proposed building.

The ECBC provides design norms for:

Building envelope, including thermal performance requirements for walls, roofs, and windows;
Lighting system, including daylighting, and lamps and luminaire performance requirements;
HVAC system, including energy performance of chillers and air distribution systems;
Electrical system; and
Water heating and pumping systems, including requirements for solar hot-water systems.

The code provides three options for compliance:

Compliance with the performance requirements for each subsystem and system;
Compliance with the performance requirements of each system, but with tradeoffs between subsystems; and
Building-level performance compliance.

During the development of ECBC, analysis conducted through energy simulation indicated that ECBC-compliant buildings may use 40 to 60% less energy than similar buildings being designed and constructed at that time.