Sheshyon Innovations
Sheshyon Innovations Pvt Ltd was founded with an objective to function as the enterprise arm of HIAL. It will execute and upscale the products and services developed at and/or by HIAL’s different schools. HIAL’s students will get hands-on training at shesyon’s projects and thus have the opportunity to get paid based on their performance. This supports HIAL’s idea that the students will not have to pay tuition fees, but actually will have the option to earn while they learn. The performance of the enterprise will be real-life evaluation of the students involved in it. Ultimately, any profit generated by Sheshyon will be used to make HIAL sustainable in its operations.
Passive Solar Design – Enjoying the Gift called the ‘Sun’!
In an interesting contrast, the extreme cold climate of Ladakh and its high altitude is blessed with 300 sunny days every year. It receives the highest amount of radiation in the country which is about 7-7.5 kWh per square meter per day. With passive solar design strategies, this free energy can be used to meet space heating needs of the buildings with as high as 80 – 90% efficiency. This would not only mean saving hundreds of crores of rupees in foreign exchange but also help in maintaining energy security of the region, as well as reducing the burden of GHG and black soot emissions. Passive solar heating design strategies coupled with earthen construction techniques will put Ladakh on a fast track mode of achieving the PM’s vision of Carbon Neutral Ladakh, besides improving the living condition of the residents and bringing basic facilities like availability of year-round flowing tap water in the buildings. With this in mind, several organisations like LEDeG, SECMOL, HIAL and Sheshyon have been trying to promote this clean technology for decades. At Shesyon, we bring the experience developed over the last 30 years through extensive research on new construction materials and design to achieve new performance benchmarks initially unimaginable! To state simply, “we prefer to use the free earth below our feet and the free sun above our heads to design and construct comfortable living spaces for all.”
PSH Earthen Buildings – A Boon for the Occupant and the
Environment
Passive solar earthen buildings are simple, reliable, cheap, have a relatively longer system life and offer crucial basic facilities like optimum moisture control and year-round flowing tap water. The trick of the technology is in the effective design of the building and the correct use of different building construction materials. A passive solar building needs special designing skills and a trained site supervisor for flawless execution. Through several of our projects, we have demonstrated that much can be achieved using commonly available local building and insulating materials. The cost of Passive Solar buildings almost equals that of the conventional buildings. Even if they may sometimes cost 10% – 20% more but the operational cost of 10 years of keeping conventional buildings warm
equals the cost of construction a solar passive building. Also these buildings are naturally cool during the summer
because of the same design features which help in heating in winters.
Working Principle:
A PSH building often relies on three basic steps:
maximising solar gain through south orientation and building layout;
storing heat in building elements like walls and floors releasing heat at night; and
preventing heat loss through insulation and air infiltration all through the day In the PSH Earthen Buildings designed and built by us, the right ratio of the above is implemented in a cost
effective manner to attain indoor temperatures of more than plus 15 degree celsius when the outside can drop to
minus 15 degree celsius or even more in the peak of winter.