The progress on fire sensing technologies has been quite substantial in recent years due to advancements in sensing, information and communications technologies. In this paper, the authors have discussed the fire sensing technologies and what is essential for the discrepancies in the development of hardware and algorithm. The review presents an overview of the existing stateof- the-art practices in the area of fire sensing and control system and it is focused mainly on the excellent capability to detect fire, reduce the detection of false positives, the ability to notify the occupants, passes the information and status of the fires to the fire department, and automatic control capability of the occupants’ safety and controlling functions. The major elements of the fire moment like surrounding heat, flame, smoke, and gases level are discussed with their merits, demerits, measurement benchmarks, and measuring the span of the parameters. The reasons and controlling parameters of the fire in commercial and residential buildings are also discussed. Research articles on fire sensing technologies although acknowledged the above concerns. However, importance of robust systems that address all or most of the above-stated benchmarks still remains a challenge and partially addressed. To address the gaps, a modified fire sensing and control system concept has been proposed.

The need for hot water in residential buildings requires a significant energy potential. Therefore, an efficient water heating system is important to achieve the goal of saving high-grade energy. The most simple and cheapest solar water heater is a flat plate solar collector (FPSC), which can increase the thermal energy of fluid by absorbing solar radiation. The performance of FPSC is comparatively low due to the dilute nature of solar insolation. Therefore, advancement of FPSC is being undertaken to improve the performance and achieve size reduction. In past, several techniques have been exploited to improve the performance of FPSC, which are presented in the present paper. These techniques include surface modifications, use of nanofluids, solar selective coating, and applications of a mini/macro channel, heat pipe, and vacuum around absorber. Surface modification on the absorber/absorber tube techniques are exploited to transfer the maximum possible solar energy to working fluids by increasing the heat transfer rate. Insertion of wire mesh, coil, and twisted tapes in the flow has great potential to increase the Nusselt number by 460% at the expense of a large pressure drop. Selective coating of Cu0.44 Ti0.44 Mn0.84 helps to absorb up to 97.4% of the incident solar energy, which is more significant. Many nanofluids have been exploited as heat transfer fluids, as they not only increase the performance but also reduce the fluid inventory. So, these techniques play a very prominent role in the performance of FPSC, which are discussed in detail. Summaries of the results are presented and recommendations proposed.

Many countries in the Global South have hot and dry climates with large diurnal temperature variations, which leads to large demand for space cooling—which is likely to increase with climate change. A common approach to dampen the indoor temperature fluctuations and thus reduce cooling energy demand is the use of thermal mass. However, the use of lightweight structures in many cities (e.g., high-rise structures, or for earthquake protection) precludes the use of traditional forms of thermal mass. Therefore, phase change materials (PCMs) are being widely developed as thermal energy storage systems for building applications. However, challenges such as leakage of PCMs in liquid state and their low thermal conductivity, still limit their applications in buildings. In this paper, we review the potential of Form or Shape-Stabilized Phase Change Materials (SSPCMs), which are developed by incorporating the PCM into a supporting matrix to prevent leakage in liquid state whilst improving thermal conductivity. We review different methods of preparation and the resultant thermal properties and chemical stability. We find good evidence in the literature for SSPCMs to reduce PCM leakage in liquid state, dampen indoor temperature fluctuations, and potentially alleviate peak energy demand by shifting peak loads to off-peak periods.

In recent years Asian Nations showed concern over the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of their civil infrastructure. This study presents a contextual investigation of a residential apartment complex in the territory of the southern part of India. The LCA is performed through Building Information Modelling (BIM) software embedded with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) of materials utilized in construction, transportation of materials and operational energy use throughout the building lifecycle. The results of the study illustrate that cement is the material that most contributes to carbon emissions among the other materials looked at in this study. The operational stage contributed the highest amount of carbon emissions. This study emphasizes variation in the LCA results based on the selection of a combination of definite software-database combinations and manual-database computations used. For this, three LCA databases were adopted (GaBi database and ecoinvent databases through One Click LCA software), and the ICE database was used for manual calculations. The ICE database showed realistic value comparing the GaBi and ecoinvent databases. The findings of this study are valuable for the policymakers and practitioners to accomplish optimization of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions over the building life cycle.

Buildings are accountable for waste generation, utilization of natural resources, and ecological contamination. The construction sector is one of the biggest consumers of resources available naturally and is responsible for significant CO₂ emissions on the planet. The effects of the buildings on the environment are commonly determined using Life Cycle Assessments (LCA). The investigation and comparison of the Life Cycle Ecological Footprint (LCEF) and Life Cycle Energy (LCE) of five residential buildings situated in the composite climatic zone of India is presented in this study. The utilization of resources (building materials) along with developing a mobile application and a generic model to choose low emission material is the uniqueness of this study. The utilization of eco-friendly building materials and how these are more efficient than conventional building materials are also discussed. In this investigation, the two approaches, (a) Life Cycle Energy Assessment (LCEA) and (b) Life Cycle Ecological Footprint (LCEF), are discussed to evaluate the impacts of building materials on the environment. The energy embedded due to the materials used in a building is calculated to demonstrate the prevalence of innovative construction techniques over traditional materials. The generic model developed to assess the LCEA of residential buildings in the composite climate of India and the other results show that the utilization of low-energy building materials brings about a significant decrease in the LCEF and the LCE of the buildings. The results are suitable for a similar typology of buildings elsewhere in different climatic zone as well. The MATLAB model presented will help researchers globally to follow-up or replicate the study in their country. The developed user-friendly mobile application will enhance the awareness related to energy, environment, ecology, and sustainable development in the general public. This study can help in understanding and thus reducing the ecological burden of building materials, eventually leading towards sustainable development.