I Indoor ndoor and and Built uilt Environment Original Paper Strategy to control indoor temperature for redevelopment of slum dwellings Vishakha V Sakhare 1 and Rahul V Ralegaonkar 2 Abstract The present paper focuses on developing a strategy to control the indoor temperature in slum dwellings under redevelopment. The proposed framework aims at improving the building planning and appropri- ate selection of construction materials along with controlled cost with respect to currently adopted practices. The proposed strategy is elaborated with a case study in Nagpur, India. A single storey, four-room model was planned as per the National Building Code of India. The performance of the model building was evaluated by using energy simulation software TRNSYS. The cellular light-weight bricks used in the construction were made with bio briquette ash (BBA), which is a locally available waste material. Instead of using the conventional reinforced cement concrete (RCC) roof, aluminium and sawdust were suggested as a reflecting-cum-insulating material. To improve the temperature control in model homes, installation of a reflecting-cum-insulating material was conducted, consisting of alumin- ium and sawdust, over the conventional RCC roof. The model building constructed with these new materials was compared with that built with conventional fly ash bricks and RCC roof. Results show that the proposed model building improved the efficiency of indoor temperature control by 23% and, at the same time, reduced the cost by 13%. The present concept will contribute to the redevelopment of slum dwellings to deliver cost-effective dwelling units that provide occupants with acceptable thermal comfort. Keywords Strategy, Slum dwelling, Planning, Material, Indoor temperature, Cost Accepted: 5 May 2017 Introduction Due to urbanisation, developing permanent engineered houses for ever increasing slum dwellers is a major chal- lenge. Aziz and Shawket 1 investigated the parameters required to create vernacular urban spaces through a proposed strategy for the slum upgrading projects. The strategy included three phases: planning, fac¸ades and urban image adjustment. 1 Solar radiation contributes to the heat gain in buildings. In order to control heat gain inside buildings, climate responsive planning and design are necessary. Judicious selection of building characters, such as orientation, shape and roof type, helps to improve indoor temperature control. Studies on the optimal building shape for passive solar design and energy efficiency have been conducted by several groups. 2–4 Tang et al., 5,6 Hadav and Yaghoubi 7 analysed the indoor air temperature performances of different roof types and concluded that the roof shape could contribute significantly to lowering the indoor temperature. Various masonry products were developed and used for improving the functional performance of buildings. In addition to conventional masonry products, such as fired clay bricks and fly ash (FA) bricks, newer light-weight, thermally insulating products have been 1 Department of Civil Engineering, BITS, Pilani, Rajasthan, India 2 Department of Civil Engineering, VNIT, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India Corresponding author: Rahul Ralegaonkar, VNIT, SA Road, Nagpur, Maharashtra 440010, India. Email: sanvan28@yahoo.com Indoor and Built Environment 0(0) 1–13 ! The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/ journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1420326X17712107 journals.sagepub.com/home/ibe