As severe summer-time heat waves become the norm in India, the use of air-conditioners and the resultant energy consumption is extremely high. According to this study, India will need to take urgent steps towards designing buildings that promote thermal comfort and reduce the use of air conditioning. This becomes more relevant now that the India Cooling Action Plan has highlighted the need for a for an adaptive thermal comfort model.

If urgent steps are not taken to address this, then the economic and environmental costs are huge. The challenge must be addressed with wide-ranging architectural design solutions, mixed use of cooling approaches (including less energy-intensive devices like fans and coolers) and improved energy efficiency of mechanical cooling methods. Else, India’s energy security and climate change mitigation efforts will be deeply undermined.