Quantitative research of incentive effects of heat-metering policy on energy-saving behavior in Tianjin

To promote energy efficiency and emission reduction, the Chinese government has invested large amounts of resources in heat-metering reform over the past decade. However, heat-metering, which can reduce energy consumption by 15% at least in developed countries, is still not well known in China. This paper quantitatively analyzed the arousal effect of heat-metering policy on occupancy behavior regarding energy saving utilizing statistics method based on measured data of heating energy consumption of approximately 20000 users from 2008 to 2012 in Tianjin. The statistical data showed significant difference on energy consumption between users based on metering and based on area. The energy-saving rate in the heating season increased significantly from 4.11% in 2008–2009 to 10.27% in 2011–2012 as the implement of the heat-metering policy. The difference in energy-saving according to various outdoor temperatures showed that the energy-saving of occupancy behavior was more significant in a warm season than in a cold season. It also showed that the impact of heat-metering policy would be more pronounced in generally insulated buildings (15.55%) than in better insulated units (6.45%). Besides, this paper proposed some feasible suggestions for the formulation and implementation of heat-metering policy in northern heating areas of China. © Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014.