Benchmarking Hong Kong and China energy codes for residential buildings

Mandatory energy codes to curb energy use of residential buildings have been formally launched in China for more than two decades but little has been publicized in literature. Similar codes are not available for residential buildings in Hong Kong, but most residential buildings in Hong Kong, especially public housing estates, are HK-BEAM certified to demonstrate their compliance with regulatory and basic design requirements. Given HK-BEAM is internationally recognized and there are doubts about the effectiveness of the China codes, how the energy efficiency of the HK-BEAM certified buildings compare with buildings in compliance with the China codes is of interest to most building designers and policy makers. This paper describes how the energy efficiency of a case study building in compliance with the China codes compare with the one in compliance with HK-BEAM. The energy simulation by HTB2 and BECRES reveal that the case study building in compliance with the China codes is 51.1% better in energy use. In the study, the relative impact of each compliance criterion on energy use and cooling load has been quantified by sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity values indicate that energy use is most sensitive to air-conditioning operation hours, indoor design temperature, coefficient of performance (COP) of the room air-conditioners (RAC) units, and the envelop characteristics. The results of this study indicate that a HK-BEAM certified building cannot satisfy the China codes requirements. This provides good reference to the policy makers, the building owners, and to the China and Hong Kong Governments when considering reciprocal recognition of building energy codes.     

住宅小区电子防盗的常用手段

介绍电子防盗系统及目前住宅小区内防盗系统的几个层次，着重对它们各自的适用场合、使用特点、应用情况作了分析。     

The demand for residential electricity in South Africa

This paper examines the residential demand for electricity in South Africa as a function of real gross domestic product per capita, and the price of electricity during the period 1978–2005. We make use of the bounds testing approach to cointegration within an autoregressive distributed framework, suggested by Pesaran et al. [2001. Bounds testing approaches to the analysis of level relationships. Journal of Applied Econometrics 16(3) 289–326]. Following the literature, we use a linear double-logarithmic form using income and price as independent variables in the empirical analysis. In the long run, we find that income is the main determinant of electricity demand, while electricity price is insignificant.     

The invasion of a large lake by the Eurasian genotype of common reed: The influence of roads and residential construction

The Eurasian genotype of common reed (Phragmites australis) is one of the most aggressive plant invading North American wetlands. There is, however, little published evidence on establishment patterns of populations along lakes of the St. Lawrence River–Great Lakes watershed. We tested the hypothesis that the recent invasion of Great Lake Saint-François (Québec, Canada) by common reed was facilitated by a dense road system and by an intense residence construction activity along lakeshores. A total of 345 and 2914 reed stands were mapped along lakeshores, and along the road system of the study area, respectively. The probability of finding a reed stand on a lakeshore increases with the proximity of the lake's outlet, and of a paved road, but decreases with the proximity of a residence built since 1990. It is likely that common reed first spread along the road system, and that wind dispersal of seeds then favored the establishment of populations on lakeshores. Our model does not support the hypothesis that residential construction facilitated the establishment of reed stands, probably because the recent residential construction boom occurred essentially in the southern part of the lake, where the number of roadside reed populations is much lower than in the northern part (lower seed rain). The invasion of Great Lake Saint-François shows that the spread of the plant is not restricted to major river or road systems. Large or small lakes, if submitted to intense diaspore pressure, can also be at risk.     

What people do when they say they are conserving electricity

Econometric practitioners must always make the case that existing data may be used to forecast future responses to price changes. In residential electricity markets this means providing assurances that either territories with different prices are similar enough to be used as a guide, or that households are still able to react to price changes with the same conservation measures they have in the past. This article presents the results of a conservation behavior survey conducted both concurrent with and immediately after the last California electricity crisis in 2000–2001. The survey used open-ended questions that provide some assurance that there are still conservation behaviors that may be performed, as well as raw data that may be used to construct new closed-ended questions. The prevalence of conservation behaviors is modeled with a forgetfulness process, necessary when using data from open-ended questions, and implemented with a generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator.     

Residential electricity consumption in New Member States and Candidate Countries

The European Commission-DG JRC has an ongoing research activity on assessing the electricity end uses and energy saving potential, with particular attention to the residential sector. Better equipment efficiency is one of the fastest and most cost-effective responses to limiting growing demand for electricity and at the same time to reduce CO₂ emissions [1].     

Delays in construction projects: The case of Jordan

The construction industry is a major player in the economy, generating both, employment and wealth. However many projects experience extensive delays and thereby exceed initial time and cost estimates. A host of causes of construction delays in residential projects were identified and classified according to Drewin’s Open Conversion System. The most common causes were evaluated by using both, the data collected in a survey conducted to residential projects consultant engineers, contractors, and owners, and interviews with senior professionals in the field. Most correspondents agreed that, financial difficulties faced by the contractor and too many change orders by the owner are the leading causes of construction delay. Severe weather conditions and changes in government regulations and laws ranked among the least important causes.     

21世纪的临终关怀医院

本文以临终关怀医院的重要功能组成——“住区”为切入点，结合具体案例，从色彩、空间、环境等方面解析21世纪临终关怀医院的设计。     

Energy,economic and environmental performance of heating systems in Greek buildings

The introduction of natural gas in the Greek energy market broadened the options in the field of space heating. Residents in five major Greek cities can choose from a variety of different fuels and systems for heating their houses or working spaces; 12 more cities will be connected to the gas network within the next 5 years. Considering that space heating is the major energy consuming activity in the Greek building sector and that the environmental constrains imposed by the Kyoto protocol will be met only with difficulty, if at all, a strategy concerning the developments in space heating seems to be necessary. This however presupposes an elaborate analysis of the overall performance of the alternative systems, taking into consideration the particular conditions of the Greek energy system and the ‘established’ way of designing residential and mixed-use buildings. The present paper aims to present the empirical comparative results related to the three most popular heating systems operated in Greek multi-apartment and mixed-use buildings, which use three different fuels, respectively: a central oil-fired boiler, a unitary gas-fired boiler and unitary heat pumps.     

对城市居住区环境设计现状的反思

在强烈的竞争中,我国居住区环境设计界存在着一定的过度设计现象,从不同的角度对这一现象进行了剖析,提出应根据居住区的本质,赋予居住区环境设计本应承担的功能,避免过度扩大其所承担的任务,从而有效限制由此产生的过度设计现象的蔓延.