Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) based optimum wall composition with respect to thermal transmittance and thickness for different commercial pockets of Tier-1 city in temperate climatic zone of India

A surge in the commercial sector especially in the Tier-1 cities has been identified across the country. Due to the demand for an increase in the commercial spaces, there is a scope for increased investments in these sectors. The study presented in this paper tries to focus on maximizing the selling price of properties in commercial sectors by suggesting the thinnest possible optimized external wall that eventually results in increased carpet area of the building. The wall combinations to be optimized will be compliant to the Energy Conservation Building Code, 2017 of India, with respect to the thermal transmittance (u-value). To achieve the same, geographic information system-based study of tier 1 city, from temperate climatic zone of India, specified in the ECBC 2017, has been studied to find the various commercial pockets in the city. Three material library of different materials, which can be used for the inside finishing of the wall, main block/brick element of the wall and exterior finishing of the wall, has been taken into consideration based upon availability in the country. The various wall compositions achieved, as the result of an evolutionary optimization is made compliant with ECBC 2017 standards to obtain the best possible optimized external wall solution. The increase in the percentage of carpet area/ sellable area as a result of optimization of the external wall was used to calculate the percentage increase in the profit per square metre area of construction. As a final result of the optimization, the selling price of the commercial building is maximized.