Heat has long been a part of life in India, but rising temperatures are making it increasingly difficult to find relief, even indoors. Homes that were once places of refuge are now trapping heat, affecting comfort, health and wellbeing. While air conditioners are often seen as the default solution, they remain inaccessible to many households and can further contribute to rising energy demand.
To address this indoor heat crisis, we conducted a Citizen Clinic on Cooling Solutions for Indian Homes. The Citizen Clinic format allowed us to collect questions and concerns from the community around probable cooling solutions for the spaces they inhabit. The questions focused on many aspects: proper ventilation design, cooling strategies apart from air-conditioning, structural changes, materials used for cooling, and potential policies for heat mitigation.
These questions were addressed by a panel of three experts: Deepak Gupta, an architect with 25 years of experience and founder of D+R Design; Sangeetha, a resident based in Chennai who has constructed ‘Midori’ Green home, her residence in Madipakkam, using climate conscious design; and Deepak Kumar, Partner at Mindwagon Sustainable Design with 21 years of experience in guiding projects towards sustainability goals in India and abroad.
The Citizen Clinic provided a much-needed platform for addressing community concerns in the backdrop of the national heat crisis. The panel demonstrated that creating cooler homes calls for not only technology shifts, but also thoughtful design, everyday practices and supportive public policy.
Making Breathable Homes
“What goes in, must come out.”
One of the recurring themes throughout the discussion was the importance of natural ventilation. As architect Deepak Gupta explained, effective ventilation depends on allowing hot air to escape naturally. Building on this, Sangeetha described how her own home has been designed to work with the climate rather than against it. Even when air conditioning is used, she keeps the upper vents open while closing the lower ones, allowing accumulated hot air to escape without compromising indoor comfort.
One of the crucial parts of a good ventilation system, suggested by Deepak Kumar, is also utilising mosquito-netted or louvered doors to allow for air to flow throughout the house, even during the night time.
Cooling Homes Without Extensive Renovation
Many people live in homes that are either rented or designed in a way that does not allow for structural changes. The panel therefore focused on practical interventions that residents can adopt within existing constraints. Drawing from her own experience, Sangeetha demonstrated how greening can become an effective cooling strategy.
For apartment residents dealing with large glass windows, external shading devices emerged as another practical solution. By preventing direct sunlight from entering the building envelope, shading can substantially reduce indoor temperatures before heat enters the home.
A Way Forward
While many solutions can be implemented at the household level, the panel agreed that India’s growing indoor heat crisis also requires systemic action.
The discussion raised a few policy recommendations that could help mitigate the indoor heat crisis. These included enforcement of the Energy Performance Benchmarks (EPBs) that restrict the amount of energy consumed by not only government buildings, but also residential households and commercial buildings. The government could also encourage climate-responsive homes by offering incentives for residents who actively green their properties through terrace gardens, tree planting or other cooling interventions. Finally, the Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) should become standard practice, encouraging architects, builders and homeowners to prioritise climate-responsive design from the outset.
The way forward must include systemically addressing heat, specifically indoor heat, as not only a seasonal disaster but an issue of urban governance. However, through this Citizen Clinic, we helped articulate how solutions to mitigate heat can also begin inside our homes.