APPRAISAL OF EMBODIED AND THERMAL ENERGY OF VERNACULAR RURAL DWELLINGS – ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA

This paper investigates native building materials used in a typical dwelling unit to understand the impact on the environment in terms of embodied and thermal energy. The dwelling unit designed and constructed using the local materials and local Artisans of Ravicherla, and estimated embodied the energy of 37.2% as compared to using conventional materials. Indoor air temperature found to be lower by 6-8 degrees lesser than the ambient air temperature 2 during summer. It has been analyzed that the local materials consume only about 37.32% of energy (1.09 GJ / m ) as 2 compared to a building with conventional materials which consumes about 2.92 GJ/ m . The indoor air temperature was o o found that the maximum temperature varies from 6 to 8 C as compared to an ambient air temperature of 45 C. The vernacular architectural practices provide an excellent solution to reduce the impact of buildings on ecology and environment with specific reference to Climate change.