IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-12852-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dilution effect of the building area on energy intensity in urban residential buildings

Author

Listed:
  • Jingxin Gao

    (Chongqing University)

  • Xiaoyang Zhong

    (Leiden University, Einsteinweg)

  • Weiguang Cai

    (Chongqing University)

  • Hong Ren

    (Chongqing University)

  • Tengfei Huo

    (Hebei University of Technology)

  • Xia Wang

    (Southwestern University of Finance and Economics)

  • Zhifu Mi

    (University College)

Abstract

Urban residential buildings make large contributions to energy consumption. Energy consumption per square meter is most widely used to measure energy efficiency in urban residential buildings. This study aims to explore whether it is an appropriate indicator. An extended STIRPAT model was used based on the survey data from 867 households. Here we present that building area per household has a dilution effect on energy consumption per square meter. Neglecting this dilution effect leads to a significant overestimation of the effectiveness of building energy savings standards. Further analysis suggests that the peak of energy consumption per square meter in China’s urban residential buildings occurred in 2012 when accounting for the dilution effect, which is 11 years later than it would have occurred without considering the dilution effect. Overall, overlooking the dilution effect may lead to misleading judgments of crucial energy-saving policy tools, as well as the ongoing trend of residential energy consumption in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Jingxin Gao & Xiaoyang Zhong & Weiguang Cai & Hong Ren & Tengfei Huo & Xia Wang & Zhifu Mi, 2019. "Dilution effect of the building area on energy intensity in urban residential buildings," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-12852-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12852-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-12852-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-12852-9?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
    ---><---

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Yuanping & Hou, Lingchun & Cai, Weiguang & Zhou, Zhaoyin & Bian, Jing, 2023. "Exploring the drivers and influencing mechanisms of urban household electricity consumption in China - Based on longitudinal data at the provincial level," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 273(C).
    2. Rempel, A.R. & Rempel, A.W. & McComas, S.M. & Duffey, S. & Enright, C. & Mishra, S., 2021. "Magnitude and distribution of the untapped solar space-heating resource in U.S. climates," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    3. Xu, Feng & Li, Xiaodong & Yang, Zhihan & Zhu, Chen, 2024. "Spatiotemporal characteristics and driving factor analysis of embodied CO2 emissions in China's building sector," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    4. Vögele, Stefan & Poganietz, Witold-Roger & Kleinebrahm, Max & Weimer-Jehle, Wolfgang & Bernhard, Jesse & Kuckshinrichs, Wilhelm & Weiss, Annika, 2022. "Dissemination of PV-Battery systems in the German residential sector up to 2050: Technological diffusion from multidisciplinary perspectives," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    5. Abubaker Basheer Abdalwhab Altohami & Nuzul Azam Haron & Aidi Hizami Ales@Alias & Teik Hua Law, 2021. "Investigating Approaches of Integrating BIM, IoT, and Facility Management for Renovating Existing Buildings: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-30, April.
    6. Qingwei Shi & Jingxin Gao & Xia Wang & Hong Ren & Weiguang Cai & Haifeng Wei, 2020. "Temporal and Spatial Variability of Carbon Emission Intensity of Urban Residential Buildings: Testing the Effect of Economics and Geographic Location in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-23, March.
    7. Sun, Shuyu & Tong, Kangkang, 2024. "Rural-urban inequality in energy use sufficiency and efficiency during a rapid urbanization period," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).
    8. Gao, Jingxin & Duan, Changzan & Song, Jinbo & Cai, Weiguang, 2024. "Now or later: The long tail effect of household income on energy consumption," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    9. Duan, Haiyan & Chen, Siyan & Song, Junnian, 2022. "Characterizing regional building energy consumption under joint climatic and socioeconomic impacts," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    10. Pérez-Sánchez, Laura À. & Velasco-Fernández, Raúl & Giampietro, Mario, 2022. "Factors and actions for the sustainability of the residential sector. The nexus of energy, materials, space, and time use," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    11. Ke, Yanyan & Cai, Weiguang, 2023. "Breaking the “income-waiting dilemma” to decrease residential building carbon emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-12852-9. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    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.