Abstract
Abstract
Urban residential buildings make large contributions to energy consumption. Energy consumption per square meter is most widely used to measure energy efficiency in urban residential buildings. This study aims to explore whether it is an appropriate indicator. An extended STIRPAT model was used based on the survey data from 867 households. Here we present that building area per household has a dilution effect on energy consumption per square meter. Neglecting this dilution effect leads to a significant overestimation of the effectiveness of building energy savings standards. Further analysis suggests that the peak of energy consumption per square meter in China’s urban residential buildings occurred in 2012 when accounting for the dilution effect, which is 11 years later than it would have occurred without considering the dilution effect. Overall, overlooking the dilution effect may lead to misleading judgments of crucial energy-saving policy tools, as well as the ongoing trend of residential energy consumption in China.
Funder
the National Social Science Fund of China (19BJY065), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
General Physics and Astronomy,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology,General Chemistry
Reference62 articles.
1. Palmer, C. & Larson, B. M. H. Should we move the whitebark pine? Assisted migration, ethics and global environmental change. Environ. Values 23, 641–662 (2014).
2. Kaja, N. Review of built environment impacts on climate change, design strategies for reduction. Int. J. Civ. Struct. Environ. Infrastruct. Eng. Res. Dev. 2, 42–51 (2012).
3. Overpeck, J. et al. in Assessment of Climate Change in the Southwest United States: A Report Prepared for the National Climate Assessment (eds Garfin, G. et al.) 1–20 (Island Press/Center for Resource Economics, Washington DC, 2013).
4. Liu, Z. et al. Reduced carbon emission estimates from fossil fuel combustion and cement production in China. Nature 524, 335 (2015).
5. Mi, Z. et al. Chinese CO2 emission flows have reversed since the global financial crisis. Nat. Commun. 8, 1712 (2017).