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This paper investigated the effects of gender, age, seasonal differences and exposure of occupants to heat absorbed in the roof, on their thermal responses in naturally ventilated apartments. A simple linear regression was conducted to estimate the comfort temperatures and comfort range of the surveyed subjects. A year-round study, involving over 55 apartments and 71 subjects, had collated a data-set of 852 in total. The findings revealed that females are more sensitive to the environmental changes as compared to the male subjects, although both categories have shown a negligible difference in the neutral temperatures. Similarly, the elderly were found to have a narrow comfort range and high thermal sensitivity. The slope of the regression (indicating the thermal sensitivity) was observed to be higher in the summer (0.23/℃) and monsoon period (0.31/℃) and lower in the winter period (0.15/℃). The exposure to temperature near the roof was shown to have exhibited some significant impact on the thermal perception of occupants.

Construction industry is one of the largest consumers of the natural resources and responsible for substantial amount of CO2emission in the world. The purpose of this paper is to carry out comprehensive literature review on the low embodied energy materials and techniques used in the existing and / or new buildings in India. The paper also compares the conventional building materials and techniques, with alternative ones to assess their superiority. An investigation into the energy consumed by the building materials and techniques is computed to find out the embodied energy requirements to prove superiority of innovative construction techniques over traditional materials.

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