Imagine a luxury resort on the Deccan plateau where the rooms are comfortably cool without the use of air-conditioners even in the blazing summers!
Arbor Road Estate (www.arborestate.co.in), near Wargal has accomplished just that. This boutique resort is a barren to bio-diverse story where a barren parcel of land was converted into a lush green luxury getaway. A 50-lakh litre rain water storage pond, 18,000 saplings across forests and gardens, a 20 KVA grid tied solar plant and various other initiatives make this a truly eco sensitive development.
A key challenge that the promoters faced was to achieve an acceptable indoor temperature without the use of air-conditioners.
The buildings are constructed with earth blocks made on site, the passive solar architecture has cavity walls, double glazed windows and cross ventilation. The large ducted swamp coolers located at the roof level bring in cool, fresh air into the rooms unlike the recycled air of air-conditioners. The piece de resistance is the pipes carrying chilled water laid below the finished floor which cool the room.
The indoor temperatures are, as a result, about 28℃ even when it is 45℃ outside; and they do this at just a third of the power used by air-conditioners. Best of all, because the floor is cooled, the room remains cool even during power outages!
Recently Luxlife, a UK based company awarded Arbor Road Estate the Best Eco-Conscious Luxury Resort 2024, Telangana (https://lux-life.digital/winners/arbor-road-estate/).