Solar Passive Silkworm Rearing House

Minni Sastry, TERI, Bangalore, and V.V.N.Kishore, TERI University

Background
Silkworm rearing is an activity carried out by economically weaker section of the society in
rural India as one of the means of livelihood. The process of growing silk worms is called
rearing and this is carried out in a rearing house. Healthy silkworm growth is highly dependent
upon the environmental conditions inside the rearing house. Some farmers adopt local
techniques for maintaining desired temperature and humidity; however, conditions deviate
from what is required for healthy yield. Thus a study has been carried out by TERI with support
from MNRE to design and construct a solar passive silkworm rearing house which could
achieve desirable temperature and humidity inside the house without any active mechanisms.
The house has been designed and constructed. The next step is to monitor the house to check its
performance for one complete year. Based upon the results from this project, new construction
of silkworm rearing houses by the rearers will get benefited.

Design Requirement of Solar Passive Silkworm Rearing House

The rearing house comprises of three rooms. Rearing room (11mx6m), chawki room
(2.4mx1.8m) and ante room (2.4mx3.97m). In the chawki room larvae remain for 8 – 10 days
before getting transferred to the adult rearing room. In the chawki room the temperature
required is 26 to 28deg. C. Relative humidity in chawki room can vary from 75% to 90%. The
sample rearing house in this project has been designed for 200DFLs (Diseases Free Layings).
Larvae from chawki room are transferred to adult rearing room where rearing is carried out for
15 – 18 days. Temperature requirement inside the rearing room is 23 deg. C to 25 deg.C. It is
also required to maintain Relative Humidity between 70% to 80%. The ante room is required for
storing of leaves. There is no specific requirement for temperature and relative humidity in the
ante room, however, it is preferred to maintain at low temperature and high ante room,
however, it is preferred to maintain at low temperature and high humidity to maintain
freshness in leaves.

Examples of Existing Silkworm Rearing

Houses in South India
The architectural design and structure of the
rearing house have direct impact on the
environment inside the house. Further, to evaluate
the solar passive concepts it was crucial to study
the existing rearing houses. For this purpose
surveys were carried out in existing rearing houses
in the three states, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and
Tamil Nadu. A survey covering59 rearing houses was carried out before designing the solar
passive silkworm rearing house.
Figure 1: Dry grass covered on roof top and wet gunny bags
covered on windows to maintain lower temperatures inside
the house

Figure.2: Wet gunny bag in corridor to enhance cooling Figure 3: Roof top covered with coconut leaves to achieve
through evaporation of water desirable environment inside the house

Figure 4: False ceiling with thermacole to provide roof Figure 5: Coconut leaves shading door and windows of the
insulation and reduce heat ingress rearing house

It was evident from this study that farmers were already following some good practices;
however, these were not enough, as they still face failure of complete silkworm crop. While
designing the new solar passive silkworm house, the good practices already practiced by
farmers were taken into consideration.

Proposed Solar Passive Silkworm Rearing House

Design
Following are the solar passive design features integrated
in the house:

1. Orientation
The house has been designed with long façade of the
house oriented towards North – South. Solar radiation
analysis was carried out and it was observed that North
South are favourable orientations. East and West walls are fully shaded to cut down the direct
solar heat gains. Figure 6: Shaded West façade of the newly constructed solar
passive silkworm house in SSTL campus in Bangalore

Figure 7: Floor plan of the solar passive rearing house

2. Building envelope
External walls of the house are insulated with 50mm
thermacole, roof of the house is also insulated through
75mm mineral wool. There are no windows provided
in the house. For natural ventilation ventilators and
solar chimney is provided. For minimum natural light
that is required by silkworms, north light is provided
in the house.

Figure 8: View of the newly constructed solar passive silk

worm rearing house in SSTL campus, Bangalore
3. Natural ventilation
Natural ventilation will be achieved inside the house
through stack effect. Ventilators are provided on
North and West orientation which act as inlet points.
The rearing room has pitched roof sloping towards
South orientation. Alternate section of this pitched
roof is connected to a solar chimney which helps to
enhance ventilation during summers inside the room
due to stack effect. These alternate sections of the Figure 9: Ventilators provided with shutters to operate
rearing room are similar to solar collectors, where differently in different seasons in the new silkworm house
the metal deck is painted black on the outer side,
insulated from below, and after an air gap of 100mm,
clear poly carbonate sheets are fixed. Air can enter
space between GI sheet and clear polycarbonate through opening which is provided in the GI
sheet. This provides a path way for air to move from room to the outside.

4. Evaporative cooling
When the outside temperature is high and Relative Humidity (RH) is low, evaporative cooling
is proposed in the house through khas khas pads which will be watered to keep them wet. The
pads will be custom made according to the size of the ventilators.

5. Radiant Cooling & heating

One section of the roof of the rearing house is flat metal deck with water bags. Water is stored
above the metal deck in black colour plastic bags. Movable insulation is provided above the
water bags either to expose them to the sky or cover them. During summers, when cooling is
required, the water bags will be exposed to the night sky to cool and will be insulated from sun
during the day time. The cooled bags are in direct contact with the metal deck, thus roof acts as
a cooling element to the space below
 Figure 10: Section showing metal deck where water bags and movable insulation is placed

During winters, the water bags will be exposed to the sun during day time and covered by
insulation panel during night time.

6. Trombe wall
The South wall of the house comprises of three trombe walls. Trombe wall comprises of a
glazing or clear polycarbonate sheet facing the sun and a brick wall which is painted black from
outside. There is a gap of 100 mm provided between the wall and clear polycarbonate sheets,
which act as a passage for air to move. The black colour helps in absorption of radiation. Solar
radiation which penetrates through the glass is absorbed by the wall, raising its external
temperature and at the same time temperature of the air.
 Figure 11: South elevation with trombe walls

There are two openings provided in the wall one at lower level, second at higher level, during
winters both openings are open. Cool air enters the trombe wall from opening at lower level.
Air gets heated rises up and flows inside the room from the upper level opening.
During summer season, trombe wall openings are closed.

Simulations & Analysis

TRNSYS software was used to predict the thermal performance of the proposed solar passive
rearing house. In this section temperature and RH profile achieved in the house on typical days
from each season are summarised. The blue band shows the comfort band of silkworms.

1. Winter season, results from the month of January

In this month winter strategies are applied. Below is the graph showing temperature and RH
profile during 24 hours on 21st January, as obtained from TRNSYS software.

2.

Summer season, results from the month of April

Summer strategies are applied. Temperatures and RH obtained on a typical day 21st April, as
depicted by TRNSYS software are shown below
3. Monsoon season, results from the month of July
The house is operated on natural ventilation mode, without any additional strategies. Graph
below shows temperature and RH inside the house on a typical day on 21st July as depicted in
TRNSYS software.
Future work
The construction of the house has almost completed, except for some minor improvements and
changes that needs to be carried out on site. After completion rearing of silkworms will be
carried out in the house through out one year. During the rearing internal temperature and RH
will also be monitored for one complete year. Monitoring will help judge the performance of the
solar passive silkworm house. The results of performance of the house will be disseminated to
the farmers so that they could also replicate the design to achieve high yield and improve their
livelihood.

Reference:
1. Interim Report, Development & Demonstration of Solar Energy Based Passive Silkworm
Rearing House submitted by TERI, March, 2010
2. Givoni Baruch, 1998, Climate Considerations in Building and Urban Design, Canada, John
Wilet & Sons.