Energy-efficient homes:

Moving towards more energy-efficient homes:

Given enough incentives, the concept can well take deep roots all over the world:

Every summer brings with it the usual dosage of power cuts in major cities, towns and villages. In a country like ours, where hydro-power has been thought of only recently. Many households, especially in villages, are compelled to go in for inverters and back-up batteries at exorbitant costs.

In a major policy initiative, the U.S. adopted strategies for ‘energy-efficient home’ as a major budgetary policy, as declared recently by the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. Why was it necessary? What is the position with regard to india’s housing policy?

According to the data on power usage available with the international energy agency (IEA), headquarters in paris, of which the U.S, U.K, France, Germany and other developed countries are used for domestic refrigerators, dish washers, ovens, lamps and other household devices, apart from room heating and cooling.

In India, lighting alone consumes more than half the power generated. And, only recently, a semblance of awareness was generated among users with respect to the energy saving, that too by substituting incandescent bulbs with costly fluorescent lamps.

Energy saving plans for houses in many cold countries start from the design stage-foundation, windows and doors. The supportive measures include quality construction materials, standardization of equipment and optimization of appliances. Some countries have stringent polices on appliances, mandating replacement of old electrical equipment and certification of products.

The carbon emissions from all appliances in domestic use too is regulated. The IEA has laid down international policy guidelines, including life cycles of major household equipment and their modernization.

Special incentives:

Some areas of incentives worth mentioning are:

Tax relief for R and D investments.

Special guidelines for high consumption establishments.

Concessions for usage of ‘green’ technology such as higher percentage of open space, gardens, solar systems, time-setting devices etc.

Application of energy security standards laid down by IEA.

Cost effective strategies to reduce projected electricity usage by the IEA from 24 per cent in 2010 to 33 percent by 2030 and switch over to other kinds of energy.

Supply of CFL lamps free of cost/at subsidized cost fro which some states including California organize annual/biannual lighting exchange and trade events through electricity companies at which a fixed number of CFL bulbs of different styles are exchanged for used incandescent light bulbs.

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