The Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, (IITH), one of the premier institutes in India, is all set to use the radiant cooling technology to provide ‘thermal comfort’ to students in the newly-built hostels on its new campus. All the ten hostels would be provided with this system and they would be ready for occupation by June end.
Radiant cooling system is not new to India and it was used by many kings while constructing their forts to provide thermal comfort. Even the Golkonda fort had this system and one can identify the remains of clay pipes used for this purpose.
Under this system, pex pipes made using polyethylene would be embedded on the roof top and bottom of the room and chilled water would be circulated through them. Each room would have an inlet pipe that pumps chilled water and an outlet pipe that allows flow of hot water back to chilling plant. This would keep the room temperature between 26 to 29 degrees Celsius thereby providing comfort at a cheaper rate. Even the hostel room windows are designed in such a way that light and air will flow freelybut at the same time avoids solar rays entering the rooms thereby preventing generation of any heat. One chilling plant is being established to circulate cool water in pipes for all hostel rooms. As many as 10 hostel blocks -eight for boys and two for girls - are being constructed.
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Each building, with six floors, would accommodate as many as 192 students and each floor has 32 rooms. IITH will be the first educational institution in India to use this technology, which was put in use by Infosys and Tech Mahindra at Hyderabad.
“We are trying to provide the most comfortable system at minimum price for students,” Prof. K.V.L. Subrahmaniam, Dean, Civil Engineering, IITH, told The Hindu .