Thermal Characteristics and User Regulation of Household Heat Metering for Residential District Heating Systems in Northern China

Ao Luo, Chunyang Li, Jianjun Xia () and Pengyue Cheng
Additional contact information
Ao Luo: Guangzhou Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd., Guangzhou 510030, China
Chunyang Li: Inner Mongolia Fulong Heating Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., Chifeng 024005, China
Jianjun Xia: Building Energy Research Center, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Pengyue Cheng: Chengteh Heat Group Co., Ltd., Chengteh 067000, China

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-16

Abstract: Heat metering is an important measure of China’s heating marketization reform as well as an energy-saving policy implemented in buildings nearly 20 years ago. However, this policy has not achieved the expected results due to various reasons. It is important to note that although northern China is dominated by large apartment buildings, resulting in unique thermal characteristics and user behavior, the measured results of these characteristics are not common. In this study, data from cities in northern China were obtained using household heat meters and field testing. Based on the three levels of station, building, and household, the effects of location, heat outages, and users’ regulation behavior on energy consumption were analyzed. The results show that different locations lead to a considerable difference in heat consumption among users, and an outage leads to a significant increase in consumption by surrounding users. For typical buildings in northern China, it is challenging to realize energy savings with district heating systems based on user behavior, and household metering and charging are not fair and reliable. Adjusting the heat meter unit from the household to the building was suggested.

Keywords: northern China; heat metering; heat user behavior; district heating system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/3/579/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/3/579/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:3:p:579-:d:1326175

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().