A study conducted by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers, London, says a complete glass building consumes four times more electricity than a normal one.

As India faces acute power shortage and the global warming debate hots up, energy conservationists caution against the growing number of buildings with glass facades that are responsible for energy consumption much in excess of what a normal structure does.

Glass building are European in concept, designed to get in as much of sunlight as possible into a building. But in places like India where temperatures at times can be as high as 50 degrees Celsius, the glass walls help capture the sunlight and heat. So offices and houses in such glass-clad complexes end up using more air conditioning, directly resulting in higher consumption of electricity and in carbon dioxide emission.

(PTI)