The future of green construction

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Along with the economic growth, there would be an increase in resource consumption and associated environmental impacts. Pursuing “green” is the only way to address these challenges.
IGBC had made rapid strides in the green building sector and has been successfully applied for more than 2,700 buildings with footprints of more than 2.25 billion sq. ft.
Major product and equipment manufacturers have realised the need for becoming greener. Green products, equipment, technologies and services will have wider applications and demand in the future.
With the growing demand of green buildings, there is need to have knowledge enhancement of green products like EPS concrete blocks.
Jaipur-based Premier Bars Pvt. Ltd. (Unit II) has introduced thermal insulated concrete blocks under the brand name “PAVCON”.
Pavcon’s EPS block is a factory-made precast concrete polystyrene masonry sandwich-blocks of size length 400 mm, height 200 mm, and thickness 200 mm consisting of two outer leaves of normal weight concrete, sandwiching a polystyrene core. The precast concrete portion of sandwich block is made of 53 grade OPC cement with normal weight aggregates, ad mixer, water and sand made by automatic vibro compact technology using planetary batch mixing, weigh batching and having automatic moisture measurement and correction system.
The thermal insulation core of the sandwich block is of expanded polystyrene. The polystyrene core is having the same length and height of the overall concrete dimensions with thickness at any point not less than 60 mm. The polystyrene density is not less than 35 kg per cubic metre. The average compressive strength is 7.5 N per sq.m. of an individual sample. Sandwich blocks are intended to be used as thermal insulating blocks for the construction of infill, non-load bearing, masonry walls and building. The U-value of the wall made out of the block shall be in the range of 0.41 to 0.45 W per sq.m. The density shall be below 1,350 kg per cubic metre.
“The EPS blocks are environment-friendly and provide efficient thermal barrier. The energy modeling and simulation analysis by a BEE Energy Auditor shows that Pavcon EPS blocks reduce the cooling load through exterior wall conduction by 64.68 per cent as compared to conventional 230 mm thick clay bricks,” said H S Bhati, the company’s brand manager.
Explaining the features of EPS blocks Mr Bhati added that these blocks do not required any special mortar or extra additives for finishing purposes, besides providing strong sound and thermal insulation these blocks come with a fire rating of 6 hours and do not allow water and moisture to penetrate. “These blocks are relatively bigger (?) in size and proved time savers when compared to the normal clay bricks,” he said.
EPS blocks are in size 8-inch (200 mm) thickness as compared to 9-inch (225 mm) brick wall; thereby increase in carpet area to the tune of 4.34 sq. ft. considering a room size of 15 ft x 12 ft). Thus more space is available to the end user. Mr Bhati informed that due to these unbeatable attributes, EPS blocks are slowly but steadily becoming popular among the green construction fraternity.
Currently the company is supplying these blocks to a few renowned projects such as Manipal University, Jaipur, along with some hospital projects and many HNIs.
The company has variants of such products in its portfolio that included stone finished concrete blocks, solid and hollow engineered concrete blocks, high strength and designer landscaping pavers for varied outdoor application.
The products are manufactured on a fully-automated German vibro compact technology with an installed capacity to roll out 1,500 nos. blocks per hour and deploying innovative material handling system.
“Our EPS Blocks can help the building to gain LEED points and green building certification. Many government agencies, corporate, builders and developers have taken leads in construction of green Building,” Mr Bhati concludes.__________________________________________EPS blocks are slowly but steadily becoming popular among the green construction fraternity.
H S Bhati, Brand Manager, Premier Bars Pvt. Ltd. (Unit II)—————————————————————–

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