IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v86y2015icp295-302.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

North–South debate on district heating: Evidence from a household survey

Author

Listed:
  • Guo, Jin
  • Huang, Ying
  • Wei, Chu

Abstract

There has been a long debate on whether South China should supply district heating for the residential sector, a system that is widely used in North China. The major concern is that it may further accelerate China's energy demand. Using a unique urban household level dataset, the China Residential Energy Consumption Survey (CRECS), we investigate residential energy consumption for heating and examine the energy intensity and energy cost of distributed heating in South China and district heating in North China during the 2012 heating season. Our results show that the total energy consumption for distributed heating system users in southern cities is significantly lower than for users of district heating systems in northern cities. However, when accounting for the heating area and heating season, the distributed heating households in the South consumed 32% more energy and paid 189% higher cost per unit area and per hour, but had lower comfort than district heating users in the North. These findings suggest promoting the district heating market in appropriate areas in South China. This not only can improve residential welfare, but also can indirectly reduce energy consumption and financial burdens.

Suggested Citation

  • Guo, Jin & Huang, Ying & Wei, Chu, 2015. "North–South debate on district heating: Evidence from a household survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 295-302.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:86:y:2015:i:c:p:295-302
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.07.017
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421515300288
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.07.017?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zheng, Xinye & Wei, Chu & Qin, Ping & Guo, Jin & Yu, Yihua & Song, Feng & Chen, Zhanming, 2014. "Characteristics of residential energy consumption in China: Findings from a household survey," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 126-135.
    2. Chen, Xia & Wang, Li & Tong, Lige & Sun, Shufeng & Yue, Xianfang & Yin, Shaowu & Zheng, Lifang, 2013. "Energy saving and emission reduction of China's urban district heating," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 677-682.
    3. Cai, W.G. & Wu, Y. & Zhong, Y. & Ren, H., 2009. "China building energy consumption: Situation, challenges and corresponding measures," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2054-2059, June.
    4. Wei, Bing & Wang, Song-Ling & Li, Li, 2010. "Fuzzy comprehensive evaluation of district heating systems," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(10), pages 5947-5955, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Shaohui & Guo, Qinxin & Smyth, Russell & Yao, Yao, 2022. "Extreme temperatures and residential electricity consumption: Evidence from Chinese households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    2. Chen, Qiu, 2021. "District or distributed space heating in rural residential sector? Empirical evidence from a discrete choice experiment in South China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 148(PA).
    3. An, Zidong & Binder, Carola & Sheng, Xuguang Simon, 2023. "Gas price expectations of Chinese households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Huo, Tengfei & Xu, Linbo & Feng, Wei & Cai, Weiguang & Liu, Bingsheng, 2021. "Dynamic scenario simulations of carbon emission peak in China's city-scale urban residential building sector through 2050," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    5. Shen, Lu & Dou, Xiaobo & Long, Huan & Li, Chen & Chen, Kang & Zhou, Ji, 2021. "A collaborative voltage optimization utilizing flexibility of community heating systems for high PV penetration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    6. Jia, Jun-Jun & Ni, Jinlan & Wei, Chu, 2023. "Residential responses to service-specific electricity demand: Case of China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    7. Yang, Tianrun & Liu, Wen & Sun, Qie & Hu, Weihao & Kramer, Gert Jan, 2023. "Techno-economic-environmental analysis of seasonal thermal energy storage with solar heating for residential heating in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    8. Wang, Xia & Fang, Yuan & Cai, Weiguang & Ding, Chao & Xie, Yupei, 2022. "Heating demand with heterogeneity in residential households in the hot summer and cold winter climate zone in China -A quantile regression approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    9. Zhang, Yichi & Xia, Jianjun & Fang, Hao & Zuo, Hetao & Jiang, Yi, 2019. "Roadmap towards clean heating in 2035: Case study of inner Mongolia, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    10. Lake, Andrew & Rezaie, Behanz & Beyerlein, Steven, 2017. "Review of district heating and cooling systems for a sustainable future," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 417-425.
    11. Yannan Gao & San Sampattavanija, 2022. "Air Quality and Winter Heating: Some Evidence from China," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 12(4), pages 455-469, July.
    12. Yannan Gao & San Sampattavanija, 2023. "Central Heating Policy and Population Migration in China: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 13(4), pages 312-319, July.
    13. Yuan, Meng & Vad Mathiesen, Brian & Schneider, Noémi & Xia, Jianjun & Zheng, Wen & Sorknæs, Peter & Lund, Henrik & Zhang, Lipeng, 2024. "Renewable energy and waste heat recovery in district heating systems in China: A systematic review," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    14. Wang, Xia & Feng, Wei & Cai, Weiguang & Ren, Hong & Ding, Chao & Zhou, Nan, 2019. "Do residential building energy efficiency standards reduce energy consumption in China? – A data-driven method to validate the actual performance of building energy efficiency standards," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 82-98.
    15. Zhu, Lin & Liao, Hua & Burke, Paul J., 2023. "Household fuel transitions have substantially contributed to child mortality reductions in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhao, Jing & Duan, Yaoqi & Liu, Xiaojuan, 2019. "Study on the policy of replacing coal-fired boilers with gas-fired boilers for central heating based on the 3E system and the TOPSIS method: A case in Tianjin, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Wang, Xia & Feng, Wei & Cai, Weiguang & Ren, Hong & Ding, Chao & Zhou, Nan, 2019. "Do residential building energy efficiency standards reduce energy consumption in China? – A data-driven method to validate the actual performance of building energy efficiency standards," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 82-98.
    3. Massimo Filippini & Lin Zhang, 2019. "Impacts of heat metering and efficiency retrofit policy on residential energy consumption in China," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 21(2), pages 203-216, April.
    4. Mazhar, Abdur Rehman & Liu, Shuli & Shukla, Ashish, 2018. "A state of art review on the district heating systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 420-439.
    5. Zhang, Shaohui & Guo, Qinxin & Smyth, Russell & Yao, Yao, 2022. "Extreme temperatures and residential electricity consumption: Evidence from Chinese households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    6. Wei Wei & Ling-Yun He, 2017. "China Building Energy Consumption: Definitions and Measures from an Operational Perspective," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-16, April.
    7. Zhang, Li & Wu, Jing & Liu, Hongyu, 2018. "Policies to enhance the drivers of green housing development in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 225-235.
    8. Seyedmohammadreza Heibati & Wahid Maref & Hamed H. Saber, 2019. "Assessing the Energy and Indoor Air Quality Performance for a Three-Story Building Using an Integrated Model, Part One: The Need for Integration," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Hu, Shan & Yan, Da & Cui, Ying & Guo, Siyue, 2016. "Urban residential heating in hot summer and cold winter zones of China—Status, modeling, and scenarios to 2030," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 158-170.
    10. Zhang, Junyi & Teng, Fei & Zhou, Shaojie, 2020. "The structural changes and determinants of household energy choices and energy consumption in urban China: Addressing the role of building type," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    11. Zhang, Lipeng & Gudmundsson, Oddgeir & Thorsen, Jan Eric & Li, Hongwei & Li, Xiaopeng & Svendsen, Svend, 2016. "Method for reducing excess heat supply experienced in typical Chinese district heating systems by achieving hydraulic balance and improving indoor air temperature control at the building level," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 431-442.
    12. He, Guoqing & Zheng, Yun & Wu, Yong & Cui, Zhenhua & Qian, Kuangliang, 2015. "Promotion of building-integrated solar water heaters in urbanized areas in China: Experience, potential, and recommendations," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 643-656.
    13. Nguyen, Trung Thanh & Nguyen, Thanh-Tung & Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Wilson, Clevo & Managi, Shunsuke, 2019. "Energy transition, poverty and inequality in Vietnam," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 536-548.
    14. Zhaocheng Li & Yu Song, 2022. "Energy Consumption Linkages of the Chinese Construction Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, February.
    15. Zhang, Jiefeng & Bai, Zhipeng & Chang, Victor W.C. & Ding, Xiao, 2011. "Balancing BEC and IAQ in civil buildings during rapid urbanization in China: Regulation, interplay and collaboration," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 5778-5790, October.
    16. Lu Jiang & Xingpeng Chen & Bing Xue, 2019. "Features, Driving Forces and Transition of the Household Energy Consumption in China: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-20, February.
    17. Yuan, Jianjuan & Huang, Ke & Han, Zhao & Zhou, Zhihua & Lu, Shilei, 2021. "A new feedback predictive model for improving the operation efficiency of heating station based on indoor temperature," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    18. Yasuki Kadohiro & Shuo Cheng & Jeffrey S. Cross, 2020. "All-Day Energy Harvesting Power System Utilizing a Thermoelectric Generator with Water-Based Heat Storage," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-21, May.
    19. Sun, Jian & Fu, Lin & Sun, Fangtian & Zhang, Shigang, 2014. "Study on a heat recovery system for the thermal power plant utilizing air cooling island," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 836-844.
    20. Yongxia Ding & Wei Qu & Shuwen Niu & Man Liang & Wenli Qiang & Zhenguo Hong, 2016. "Factors Influencing the Spatial Difference in Household Energy Consumption in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-20, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:86:y:2015:i:c:p:295-302. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.