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Energy-saving rules

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-13 15:09

The regulations adopted by the State Council at the weekend on energy-saving in civilian buildings and public institutions are a further step in pressing ahead with the country's general strategy of sustainable development.

With the construction area of civilian buildings increasing by 1.8 to 2 billion sq m annually on the average and energy consumption in this area accounting for 27.5 percent of the total energy used nationwide, the potential for energy-saving in this sector can make a great difference to China's overall energy strategy.

The country adopted energy- saving standards for civilian housing in the 1980s and they have been revised several times in order to save more energy.

A house designed and constructed exactly in line with the standards can save at least twice as much energy as its counterpart that is built otherwise.

In 2004, only 20 percent of the new houses had reached the required standards for energy- saving and the percentage reached 71 last year.

What makes the situation worse is the low efficiency of the heating system for civilian housing and the energy used for heating makes up about 50 percent or more of the total energy consumed by residential housing or office buildings. But on the average only about 45 to 70 percent heating provided by the central heating system is effective in warming up a house. That means the rest 55 to 30 percent heating is wasted because of the deficiency in house construction and the heating system.

The waste of energy is even more serious for public buildings, whose consumption of electricity is usually four times as much as that of residential housing.

The regulations that are to take effect on October 1 have specifications for the responsibility of designers, real estate developers, housing quality supervisors and even leaders of public institutions for saving energy in both residential and office buildings.

Lack of policy incentives has long been a handicap in prompting real estate developers to use energy-saving technology and materials in building houses. These regulations contain stipulations that governments at all levels must encourage the use of energy-saving technology and facilities such as solar energy or bio-energy by offering policy incentives such as an exemption of taxes.

The regulations also stipulate that energy-saving by public institutions will be audited by relevant auditors to make sure that leaders of public institutions have actually taken measures to reduce the energy they use.

Hopefully, their implementation will further promote the awareness among the general public about energy-saving, which will also push real estate developers to build energy-saving houses.