Objectives

As in most countries, but especially in India, the design, engineering, construction and operation of buildings are carried out by different entities in different stages of their lifecycle.

This project will fill the gap created by current practices and nature of contracts that do not allow a feedback loop between the operation and design stages. The project will thus enable a continuous improvement process for building energy and comfort performance by demonstrating a strong collaboration between academia and industry to uncover actual performance.

The project will begin by setting up and testing a methodology for measuring and understanding actual building performance in India. This will include field measurements, occupancy surveys, discussions with design teams, review of design documents, and analysis. This methodology will add a hands-on component for real building study that is currently missing in pedagogy of engineering/architecture colleges.
The project outreach and dissemination includes other academic institutions as well as the industry.
Using train-the-trainer programs, the project intends to move the learning of the CEPT-OBU partnership to other academic institutions in India.
The BPE case studies are intended to build trust in the industry, which is currently shy of exposing themselves to liability risk resulting from actual building performance.
By demonstrating a positive impact of the case study findings, both in terms of finding ways to improve performance and benefit owners where the actual performance fall short of expectation, and in terms of recognizing commissioning and operation practices that allow building performance to exceed design expectations, the project will encourage a future strengthening of the relationship between the industry professionals and researchers in academia.