Research on Building Energy Consumption and Sustainability Development in China —Heating Energy Consumption and Related Policies in North China

Abstract

China’s building energy consumption increased 2.5 times from 1996 to 2008, and it accounts for about 23% of the total energy consumption in the whole country. The energy consumption in the cities and towns in North China reaches nearly 4.5EJ, which is about 25% of the total energy consumption in buildings. District heating system is the most popular, with the heating floor area of about 7.5 billion m 2 . The co-generation system and the central boiler system are often used. These days the government pays much more attention to building energy saving, and the related policies and financial support for the promotion of renewable energy resources. In many cities, some small boilers have been replaced by the ground source heat pumps. In this paper the investigation of some geothermal heat pump plants in Shenyang is also introduced.