DRI…in pursuit of Green living & Greener future

The initiative to go green has witnessed a steady growth globally with increasing number of people joining the bandwagon. There is a growing trend among MNCs to ask for the green quotient, which was the start of the green revolution, in the commercial real estate space in India. Although there has been a tremendous amount of activity in the commercial sector, the residential space is also not behind and showing a gradual growth.

Of all the green initiatives practiced across the globe, the increasing urge to construct green commercial buildings and residential spaces can be termed as a notable move towards a greener future. Like other countries, the concept of green buildings is gaining momentum in India. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), in association with the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), has come out with a "Green Homes Rating System", India's first green rating programme developed exclusively for the residential sector.

Green Homes are the need of the hour as they have so much to offer to the owners and the ecosystem. They help to save on operating energy and cost of water, depending on usage levels. The other aspects to note are increasing longevity of building, better health of users, higher levels of productivity and of course an image makeover for the owners. Even though a green home looks exactly like any other home from the exterior, the key difference lies in the materials and systems used towards the construction.

A green home creates delight as one enters, serenity & health when occupied and regret when departed. It is a successful integration of resource efficiency, environmental sensitivity and attention to human well being, thereby reducing human kind’s impact on the environment. Green Home can have tremendous benefits, both tangible and intangible. The immediate and most tangible benefit is in the reduction in water and operating energy costs right from day one, during the entire life cycle of the building.

Avani Residence
AVANI, a green home residence in Hyderabad, is designed and constructed considering all the appropriate green features and technologies. It is platinum certified under IGBC Green Homes rating.

Located on Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, South India Avani has picturesque location with a natural lake view on one side and the famed Golconda fort on the other. Designed to include both leisure and business needs of the owner, the house has an office, library, exhibition space, open sit-outs, courtyard, water body, swimming pool, Gazebo, open to sky toilets apart from

• Roof garden.
• Charging facility for electric cars and scooters.
• 100% covered parking.
• Rain water storage and reuse for landscaping.
• DRI Fresh Air systems called Energy Recovery Ventilators (ERVs) in the conditioned areas.
• Natural woolen carpets.
• Zero VOC paints.
• Biodegradable house keeping chemicals.

This is an eco-friendly building that brings the entire spectrum of colors grey, blue, orange and so on with each hue bringing out strikingly one nature-friendly element embedded in the house. It is grey as well as blue as the house uses harvested rain water and recycles used water eliminating the need for a water connection, it is orange when it glows in the sunlight that touches almost every part of it, including some sections of the cellar where it is guided through a sun pipe, it is red for the kind of life support system it is going to provide by having all sorts of trees for various creatures to live on and also for the use of recycled timber for almost all applications with the exception of cupboards, and bamboo flooring and it is violet for all the luxuries of nature the house brings to its occupants. With high ceilings and walls of either glass or perforated steel sheets drawing in the daylight from all sides and even bathrooms open to the sky, it's like one is almost living in the open nature.

The double-glazed glasses, however, do not allow the heat, inside. Solar panels generate enough electricity to run fans and meet other daytime requirements. Low VOC paints ensure indoor air quality. The lush lawns on various floors add the literal green to the house.

DRI is a fast growing HVAC&R company with a global footprint providing a complete line of desiccant based products and systems for Energy Recovery, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ), Fresh Air Treatment, Evaporative Cooling, Humidification, RH Control and Green Buildings. DRI is extremely proud to be a part of this prestigious pioneering project.

Green homes not only provide the better indoor air environment and improved health conditions but also provide energy efficiency. Elderly and children rely heavily on home care and green homes promise to improve their living standards. The benefits of green homes can be endless. Green homes have already started attracting the stakeholders in the market including architects, developers and home owners. With the stakeholders becoming active in the market for developing green home, this market is expected to grow at a good pace for many years to come.

Green Homes meet ASHRAE ventilation standards
To ensure adequate ventilation, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) says that the living area of a home should be ventilated at a rate of 0.35 air changes per hour or 15 cubic feet per minute (cfm) per person, whichever is greater.

Green homes comprise of ASHRAE recommended ventilation standards that help keep the air fresh. Nowadays, because of the extensive use of Air Conditioning at all living places, as well as the desire for privacy, people tend to make little use of windows for ventilation. Also modern homes are built tight to save energy. Tightly built homes may have insufficient ventilation at most times. Conditioned stale indoor air, inside air-tight in-vironment often suffers from increased pollutants from plush furnishing, wall paints, cleaning agents, VOCs and biological contaminants from occupants. All these factors create serious Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) problems.

The need for FRESH AIR Ventilation is very acute to live healthy in such air tight dwellings! Energy experts often quote the axiom, "SEAL TIGHT, VENTILATE RIGHT" as their recommended approach to house ventilation.

Ventilation is supply to and removal of air from a space to improve the indoor air quality. The idea is to capture, remove and dilute pollutants emitted in the space to reach a desired, acceptable air quality level.

For HVAC professionals, there is a big dilemma to champion best practices for IAQ in both new home designs as well as renovation of existing facilities. Providing fresh air for the occupants presents a tough challenge. The outdoor air at a higher design level needs to be conditioned to the level of the indoor design condition, which increases the air conditioning tonnage considerably. The recurring energy expense is another matter of concern.

Combining Energy Efficiency and Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)
DRI's Energy Recovery Ventilator (ERV) solves this problem without adding tonnage or significant increase in energy cost and gives the advantage -

• Better IAQ
• Energy Saving
• Humidity Control
• Helps in earning LEED Green Rating Points

DRI ERV provides the following benefits

• Replaces stale, polluted indoor air with fresher, healthier and oxygen rich outside air
• Ideal for tightly sealed modern homes
• Compact unit size allows it to be retrofitted with your existing air-conditioning system to enhance the indoor air quality

How does it work?
The heart of the Energy Recovery Ventilator is the EcoFresh desiccant coated energy recovery wheel, which slowly rotates between its two sections. In one section, the stale, conditioned air is passed through the wheel, and exhausted to the atmosphere. During this process, the wheel absorbs sensible and latent energy from the conditioned air, which is used to precondition the incoming Fresh Air in the other section, during the second half of its rotation cycle. Thus, you can have more Fresh Air at lower energy costs inside your conditioned space.


DRI has played a pioneer role in innovating various new Fresh Air HVAC Systems. DRI "Green" products help to optimize energy performance of Air Conditioning systems resulting in considerable reduction in installed tonnage, reduction in utility bills for entire life cycle, enhanced IAQ & productivity and reduced health risks. DRI has received 100% success rating under The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) evaluation programme for consecutive last seven years.DRI is an active participant in the Green Building Movement world-wide. DRI is working together with various green building councils and partners them worldwide to bring the best into modern construction practices. A founder member of the Green Building Councils (GBC) in India and Vietnam, DRI is the member of the GBCs in the USA, Philippines, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Emirates and Australia.