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Closing the door on energy waste in homes
Want to lead a greener life? Then start by replacing poorly fitting windows in your home, officials said yesterday.
Energy wasted from leaks around windows and doors makes up 20 percent of total home energy consumption in China, according to Ni Shouqiang, deputy director of the China Construction Structure Association.
Windows and doors are major weak spots in the thermal envelope of buildings, said Ni at the recent China International Festival of Windows and Doors in Gaobeidian, in north China’s Hebei Province.
Inefficiency increases the burden on public heating systems in winter and means extra use of air conditioning in summer, Ni said at the event dedicated to energy-saving, high-tech windows and doors.
Heating in northern China consumes a huge amount of coal, he said.
In Hebei, each resident needs an average of two tons of coal each winter — a major contributor to air pollution.
If the efficiency of windows and doors — totalling 11 billion square meters in China — reached the level required in Europe, it would save the equivalent of 430 million tons of coal every year, said the official.
“This would reduce energy use and pollution,” Ni said.
China builds 2.5 billion square meters of new structures each year, more than the total for all developed countries combined.
But energy-efficient windows and doors only account for 0.4 percent of those fitted, which means energy consumption caused by leaks and drafts in China is two to three times more than in developed countries.
China has standards of energy efficiency for windows and doors, but they are poorly implemented, said Wei Hedong, chief engineer of Hebei Orient Sunda, a Sino-German venture that manufactures efficient windows and doors.
Substandard products exacerbate the problem.
“Some developers just care about price, not quality, and con home buyers with false quality certificates,” said a window manufacturer in Hebei, who declined to be named.
Statistics from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development show China has more than 30,000 window and door manufacturers, most small enterprises using outdated machinery and techniques.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is expected to unveil revised standards for green buildings this year, a significant move in cutting energy consumption in homes.
“Energy-efficient windows and doors are fundamental to achieving our goal,” said Lin Haiyan, deputy dean of China Academy of Building Research.
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