China building energy consumption: definitions and measures from an operational perspective

TL;DR

This paper clarifies how to accurately measure Chinese building energy consumption from an operational perspective, revealing it accounts for 15-16% of China's total energy use and addressing previous double-counting issues.

Contribution

It establishes a standardized accounting method for building energy consumption based on operational use, improving accuracy and consistency in BEC estimation.

Findings

Building operational energy accounts for 15-16% of China's total energy consumption.

Previous methods often double-count energy use by including central heat supply.

The proposed method clarifies discrepancies in BEC estimates.

Abstract

There is an increasing awareness of the significance of Chinese building energy consumption(BEC). However, something worth discussing is that estimate the building energy consumption adopting the definition of life cycle or operation. In the existing studies with various evaluation methods, the issue about the amount of energy consumed by China buildings has not been understood. In order to settle the disputes over the calculation of BEC, this paper establish an appropriate accounting method of building energy to present BEC situation in China and lay the foundation for building energy efficiency. Adopting the conception of building operational energy consumption, we find that the energy consumption of buildings just accounts for 15% - 16% of the final total energy consumption in China; by contrast, the previous calculations usually have double accounting through top-down approach if central heat-supply of buildings was given into additional consideration.