Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885

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Energy & Buildings

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Exploring key factors impacting cooling usage patterns of Chinese

urban household based on a large-scale questionnaire survey
Shan Hu a,∗, Da Yan a,∗, Bing Dong b, Jiasha Fu c
a
Building Energy Research Center, School of Architecture, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
b
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University, United States
c
Research Institute of Economics and Management, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: With rapid urbanization and climate change, the demand for cooling in Chinese urban residential build-
Received 18 September 2019 ings is creating a great challenge for the energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction targets of
Revised 9 January 2020
China. However, there is lack of information to track the changes in cooling patterns of Chinese urban
Accepted 16 February 2020
households and little research to reveal factors relating with cooling behavior. This has become barri-
Available online 20 February 2020
ers for China’s green and efficient action plan on cooling. Therefore, this research conducted a national-
Keywords: wide online questionnaire survey across China, and try to explore the cooling usage pattern change in
China building energy use urban households and factors impacting this change. By comparative analysis, correlation analysis and
Cooling Jonckheere-Terpstra test on surveyed result, conclusions concerning changes in cooling patterns and the
Occupant behavior essential influential factors were obtained. Single-split AC has replaced fans to be the primary cooling
Questionnaire survey appliance in urban residential buildings. Cooling usage behavior distribution in urban Chinese household
Building energy policy
is “part time part space mode”, but has shifted from less intensive ones to more intensive ones. But
most importantly, cooling usage behavior is correlated with cooling device choice. Policy implications
to promote efficient split ACs and energy saving behavior in urban residential buildings were provided
accordingly.
© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
1.1. Background
The global energy use for building space cooling is growing
faster than any other end users in building sector, and has more
than tripled between 1990 and 2016 [1]. There is no doubt that
global energy demand for space cooling will continue to grow for
decades [1]. Policy interventions on cooling energy efficiency are
urgently needed especially in emerging economies like China.
China has seen the fastest growth in cooling demand in build-
ings over the last two decades, increasing at 13% per year since
20 0 0 and reaching nearly 400 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity
consumption in 2017 [1]. Improving indoor thermal comfort level
with income growth of Chinese urban household put forwards to
great challenges for China’s future cooling development path. Ac-
cording to Internal Energy Agency (IEA), the total cooling capacity
of China will increase to as high as 5410 GW and the consump-
∗
Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: hushan@tsinghua.edu.cn (S. Hu), yanda@tsinghua.edu.cn (D.
Yan), bidong@syr.edu (B. Dong), fujs@swufe.edu.cn (J. Fu).
tion of energy for cooling will rise by almost 90% in the baselines
scenarios [1]. Slowing down this dramatic increase in energy con-
sumption and cooling related CO2 emissions are critical issues for
the Chinese government.
As the biggest end users, the Chinese residential demand for
cooling has increased dramatically due to urbanization and the oc-
currence of extremely hot weather over the past few years. Urban
residential building stock is one of the key drivers for space cooling
demand growth. According to an estimation by Tsinghua Univer-
sity, more than 10 billion square meters of residential buildings are
still to be built in urban China before 2050, reaching a total stock
of approximately 35 billion square meters [2]. Air-conditioner(AC)
ownership has also increased at 7% annually from 20 0 0 to 2017,
which is the second significant driving force of cooling demand
growth [3]. These two drivers has pushed the space cooling energy
usage in China’s urban residential buildings to more than tenfold
between 20 0 0 and 2017, with comparable growth in the energy-
related CO2 emissions [4]. From electricity supply side, building
cooling accounts for 60% peak power load during summer times,
putting great challenge to the grid [5].
Facing the great challenge, Chinese government has established
series policies including releasing the National Action Plan on Green

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109885
0378-7788/© 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
2 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885
and Efficient Cooling in 2019 to improve cooling energy efficiency
in residential and commercial buildings [5]. However, experience
from developed countries indicates policy interventions only fo-
cus on energy efficiency improvement is not enough to curb de-
mand [6,7]. Researches indicate that more intensive cooling behav-
ior can lead to more than 3 to 10 times higher cooling energy con-
sumption in similar buildings with same type of cooling system
[8–11].therefore, encouraging less intensive, “part time part space”
cooling pattern and suitable building envelope, cooling technolo-
gies is also significant to achieve sustainable cooling approach for
China [4]. Researches to understand the current cooling pattern
status and to identify drivers of cooling pattern change would be
great help for Chinese policy makers to design and implement rel-
evant policies.
1.2. Literature review
Investigation of energy usage pattern in residential building is
particularly hard due to extreme variety of the building stock and
the lack of unified and organic sources [12]. Extensive studies have
been conducted concerning investigation methods [13–15], among
them questionnaire survey is one of the most common used tools
in residential buildings.
Many countries have conducted regular surveys on household
to collect energy related information, either by national statistical
agency, or by research institutes. US Energy Information Admin-
istration (EIA) has conducted a national survey every four years
from 1990, to collect data regarding the characteristics of residen-
tial housing, and detailed information about the behavior of resi-
dential end users, including the use of air conditioning [16]. These
continuous results provided comprehensive information about the
US residential cooling patterns and levels of energy consumption
[17]. Statistics Bureau of Japan conducted family income and ex-
penditure surveys regularly [18]. The Chinese national statistical
bureau carried out household census every five years, and informa-
tion concerning home appliance ownership has been provided via
this survey [19]. Cooling appliance ownership or saturations could
be collected through these national census or surveys. However,
none information about cooling device choice and behavior was
involved in national surveys due to various restrictions, making it
hard to observe cooling pattern trends.
To examine cooling patterns change and correlated demo-
graphic factors, researchers in US, Japan, United Kingdom have
conducted more specific surveys focusing on cooling behavior, and
recognized that the residential energy usage pattern is influenced
by family income, the number of people in a household, the ed-
ucation of family members, and features of residential buildings
[20–22]. Chinese researchers have conducted questionnaires sur-
veys on cooling patterns and energy consumption in city level [23–
34]. Results from these surveys indicate that the part-time part-
space behavior is the predominant behavior patterns. The weak-
ness of these researches is the lack of analysis between cooling
pattern and social and economic factors, so it is hard for policy
makers to directly apply their conclusions to policy making and
engineering design practice.
1.3. Research scopes
With the burgeoning economic development of China, and the
increase in household incomes, life style and the associated cool-
ing patterns have changed significantly and rapidly. Tracking the
changes in the cooling patterns of urban households, and under-
standing the key factors correlated with cooling pattern changes
are essential for China’s green and efficient cooling action plan im-
plementation and future policy making. However, there is currently
a significant lack of information to reveal the trends in the cooling
patterns, and factors related to cooling devices and behavior.
This research tries to identify the cooling pattern change and
explore key factors impacting this change using questionnaire sur-
vey methods. Four key questions were asked and answered for the
purpose of this study:
1 How is the cooling pattern of urban households changing over
time?
2 Which factors are correlated with the choice of cooling device?
3 Is cooling behavior independent of the choice of cooling de-
vice?
4 Which factors impact cooling behavior?
This study conducted a national-wide questionnaire survey in
urban China, and collected 10,599 valid samples from 23 Chinese
regions. Detailed description of survey methodology was illustrated
in later Section 2. According to comparative analysis with another
survey conducted in 2008, cooling pattern changes in urban Chi-
nese households were concluded in Section 3.1. By Pearson cor-
relation analysis and the Jonckheere-Terpstra test, factors corre-
lated with cooling pattern were also discussed in Section 3.2 to
Section 3.4. Then discussion of policy implications and limitation
were summarized in Section 4, and conclusions were put forward
in Section 5.
2. Method
2.1. Research approach
In this study, cooling usage pattern in household is defined as
two aspects: the predominant cooling device, and the behavior of
operating AC devices. The cooling devices discussed in this study
include the following categories: 1) none, 2) fans, 3) single-split
AC, 4) multi-split AC, and 5) centralized cooling system. The cool-
ing behavior in this study includes turning on and turning off of
AC device, including a) a single-split AC; b) multi-split AC, and c)
centralized cooling system.
The overall research method is illustrated in Fig. 1. First, the
questionnaire survey was designed, sampled, and conducted in
2015, valid samples were collected and processed for further anal-
ysis. Secondly, comparative analysis was taken between survey in
2015 (here and after S2015) result with a previous similar survey
in 2008 (here and after S2008), to get cooling pattern trend over
time. National and regional statistical data regarding cooling pat-
tern were also used to support the result. Then, non-parameter test
and correlation analysis were done in S2015 to explore factors im-
pacting cooling pattern change. Finally, a discussion of the implica-
tions for policy was carried out, with suggestions for the sustain-
able development of cooling in China’s urban residential buildings
as a conclusion.
2.2. Questionnaire design and sampling
In order to understand the space cooling usage behavior of
households in a holistic way, the survey is designed with content
and coverage area as shown in Table 1. According to previous re-
searches, cooling behavior is defined as six types:
a) None: never turn on space cooling;
b) Hot On Sleep Off: turn on space cooling when extremely hot,
turn off space cooling before sleep;
c) Hot On Leave Off: turn on space cooling when extremely
hot, turn off space cooling when leaving room;
d) Warm On Leave Off: turn on space cooling when warm, turn
off space cooling when leaving room;
e) Occupied On Leave Off: turn on space cooling of occupied
room, turn off space cooling when leaving room;
 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885
Fig. 1. Research approach of this study.
Table 1
Items of the questionnaire sheet.
Item Content
Family Region, family income, family type, family
number, education of family member…
Building Building type, building construction year,
building floor area
Cooling device No, fans, single split AC, multi-split AC,
centralized cooling system
Cooling behavior None; Hot On Sleep Off; Hot On Leave Off;
Warm On Leave Off; Occupied On Leave Off;
At home On Leave Off; All on.
Satisfaction Satisfaction or dissatisfaction, reasons of
dissatisfaction
Awareness Energy saving awareness, attitude toward
energy usage behavior
f) At home On Leave Off: turn on space cooling of whole apart-
ment when at home, turn off space cooling when leaving
room;
g) All on: keep space cooling on all summer.
The awareness of energy saving and the satisfaction for the
cooling device from 2015 were also included in this work, to ex-
plore potential policy interventions guiding green life style and
energy saving behavior. The level of awareness concerning energy
saving was proposed with a Likert scale question with five aspects:
traditional culture, educational background, media propaganda, en-
ergy cost, and the social norm. The detailed description of these
five aspects is in Table 2.
The success of survey research is dependent on the represen-
tativeness of the sample with respect to the target population. Ac-
cording to samples size at a 99% confidence level, surveys was con-
ducted in all 31 regions across China with minimum target sam-
ples number of 200. This survey was implemented online by a pro-
fessional survey company. The quality of samples and results was
guaranteed by a series of quality control mechanisms and process
tracking options. For instance, Samples with answer times longer
than 3 h or shorter than 300 s were eliminated. The survey stared
in autumn of 2015. After two months’ implementation, 11,287 re-
spondents across China were collected in total, and 10,599 valid
3
samples in 23 regions were adopted in this research. Samples in
each regions are listed in Table 3.
Table 3.
2.3. Data analysis
2.3.1. Data pre-processing of S2008
To compare historical trend of cooling pattern, another survey
conducted in Beijing household in 2008 was used. Totally 940 valid
samples from 10 0 0 respondents were collected in this survey (here
and after S2008). The questions and answers for the cooling pat-
tern in S2008 were designed as in Table 4. In order to conduct a
comparison of these four survey results, the results of S2008 were
converted into the same format as that used for S2015. The cor-
respondence between the results of S2008 and S2015 are listed in
Table 5.
2.3.2. Comparative analysis on S2008 and S2015
Then the comparison of the distribution of cooling behavior in
Beijing households was conducted on S2008 and S2015, to ascer-
tain the change in cooling pattern over time. S2008 and S2012
are representative samples of Beijing’s urban household popula-
tion, and the change of Beijing urban households could be used
to reflect the general cooling pattern change across Chinese urban
households. Since the family income level has increased quite a
lot from 2008 to 2015 in Beijing, the cooling behavior distribution
comparison was conducted both in total samples and by different
income levels individually.
2.3.3. Pearson correlation analysis on S2015
To find out whether there is a connection between income
and cooling behavior, correlation analysis was conducted on S2015.
Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC), also referred to as Pearson’s
r, is the most widely used correlation statistic for measuring the
degree of a relationship between linearly related variables. In this
study, potential variables investigated include family income, type
of building, year of building construction, floor area, and the device
used for cooling.
4 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885

Table 2
Attitude towards energy usage behavior.

Which factors do you think will influence your energy use behavior?

Description Strongly Disagree General Agree Strongly agree

disagree

My energy saving behavior is a habit due to a traditional form of

thrift.
My education background and working environment developed my
energy saving lifestyle.
Various energy-saving propaganda tips and energy-saving activities
in social networks affect my habits.
Energy cost and energy price influence my energy consuming
behavior.
The information on my neighbor’s energy bill encourages me to save
energy.

Table 3
Sample number of Survey 2015.

Region Sample no. Region Sample no. Region Sample no.

Anhui 522 Henan 545 Shanghai 493

Beijing 660 Hubei 543 Shanxi 209
Chongqing 521 Hunan 527 Shaanxi 530
Fujian 525 Jiangsu 569 Sichuan 568
Guangdong 542 Jiangxi 228 Tianjin 509
Guangxi 241 Jilin 203 Yunnan 211
Hebei 527 Liaoning 522 Zhejiang 572
Heilongjiang 210 Shandong 622 Total 10599

Table 4 Table 5
Question and answers of cooling pattern in S2008. Correspondence between result S2008 and S2015.

Question: What’s the space cooling usage pattern in your S2008 S2015 Cooling behavior Cooling behavior name
home? Q2 Q3 Q

Q1 Cooling space: a a b B2 Hot On Sleep Off

a b c B3 Hot On Leave Off
a c# – – –
a gather all families in one room and use cooling for b a d B4 Warm On Leave Off
one room b b e B5 Occupied On Leave Off
b all rooms occupied are cooled b c f B5 At home On Leave Off
c all rooms are cooled no matter whether occupied c a,b,c g B7 All on

Q2 Turn on pattern: Note: # no samples had a response for this answer.

a turn on when room is occupied and feel hot

b turn on when enter room 3. Result and discussions
c turn on no matter whether room is occupied or not
3.1. Cooling pattern change over time
Q3 Turn off pattern:

3.1.1. Cooling device ownership growth and type change

a turn off before sleep, or set auto off timer
b keep AC on while sleeping
c never turn off during summer
2.3.4. Jonckheere–Terpstra test on S2015
The Jonckheere-Terpstra test is a rank-based nonparametric test
to determine if there is a statistically significant trend between
an ordinal independent variable and a continuous or ordinal de-
pendent variable. To test whether households with the different
cooling devices have a different distribution of cooling behavior,
Jonckheere–Terpstra test was adopted on the samples with single-
split AC, multi-split AC, and centralized systems. In this test, the
null hypothesis is H0 : the distribution of cooling behavior is inde-
pendent of cooling device. The J–T statistic was defined and cal-
culated. The asymptotic significance was calculated and compared
with the empirical significance, in order to finally reject or accept
the null hypothesis.
Beijing urban households was selected and analyzed in the
comparative study, to reflect the growth of AC ownership and
change trend of cooling device. First, key statistics regarding ur-
ban households cooling energy consumption from Beijing statistics
was extracted to reveal the general trend, including GDP per capita,
disposable income per capita, AC ownership, fan ownership, elec-
tricity per household, and housing area per capita [35]. In order
to make these data comparable, change of these items relative to
1996 value was demonstrated, as seen in Fig. 2. As China’s capita
city, the GDP, family income, AC ownership, and electricity usage
per capita in Beijing has increased dramatically. With the increase
in income, the number of urban families owning fans has remained
at an almost static level since 1996, while the number of AC units
grew more than tenfold, greatly exceeding the growth of GPD and
income. However, the electricity usage of urban household in Bei-
jing increased at a much slower rate. As the absolute ownership
value from statistics, the number of fans per one hundred house-
holds in urban Beijing was stabilized at approximately 120 units
in 2006; while the ownership of AC units started to increase from
152 in 2008 to 161 in 2015, as seen in Fig. 3.
 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885 5

Fig. 2. Increases of cooling appliance with the social and economic development in Beijing (1996 −2016).

Fig. 3. Change of cooling device ownership in Beijing urban families.

Regarding AC, the types of AC have also changed greatly, mainly
because of the appearance of centralized cooling systems and the
permeation of multi-split AC units after 2010. There were no sur-
vey results for the distribution of cooling devices in S2008. Accord-
ing to an AC market assessment report, multi-split AC was only
sold via the commercial market after 2010. It is estimated that
the percentage of families with multi-split AC accounted for less
than 1% in Beijing [36]. It is also known from real estate informa-
tion that there were no centralized cooing systems in Beijing’s ur-
ban residential buildings. After 2010, multi-split AC and centralized
cooling system started to appear in urban households, as AC man-
ufactures adjusted their sales strategy to target housing develop-
ers instead of the operators of commercial buildings. Although AC
ownership did not grow dramatically from 2008 to 2015, the per-
centage of family who use multi-split AC has grew to 6%, as seen
in Fig. 4. While centralized cooling systems such as ground source
heat pump systems were promoted with policy incentives, only 1%
of families used centralized cooling systems.
3.1.2. Cooling behavior distribution change
After pre-processing on results of S2008, a comparative analysis
of the AC behavior distribution was conducted, as in Fig. 5. Consid-
ering the growth in family income, the distribution of behavior as
associated with income level was also carried out individually. It
was found that the actual distribution in cooling behavior had ob-
viously changed from least intensive ones “Hot On Sleep Off”, to
more intensive ones. This change trend is consistent among whole
population, and among population with same family income level.
In the results from S2008, approximately 80% of the surveyed
respondents (940 samples in total) used the cooling behavior “Hot
On Sleep Off”, which describes the behavior of turning on the air
conditioning when the residents feel hot and turning it off before
the family sleeps. The detailed results of S2008 show that 59% of
families chose to turn the cooling on in a single room and gather
the family members together in that room, to save energy cost. Ac-
tually this is not because of a limitation due to insufficient cooling
appliances, but due to traditional culture and life style. The num-
ber of AC units per 100 households in urban Beijing in 2008 was
152, which means there was an average of 1.5 AC units per family.
But more than half of these urban families still chose to use only
one AC.
In the results from S2015, the behaviors “All on” and “At home
on Leave Off” start to appear, meaning that urban households use
cooling in more rooms and for a longer time. No respondents in
the S2008 survey choose “All on” and “At home on Leave Off””;
in S2015 the percentage of these two behaviors increased to 6%.
The number of respondents using of “Hot On Sleep Off” decreased
dramatically, from 80% in 2008 to 26% in 2015.
However, which factors are the key drivers for these changes in
cooling device used and the changes in behavior? Was the chang-
6 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885

Fig. 4. Share of Beijing urban households with different predominant cooling device (S2015).

Fig. 5. Cooling pattern comparison between S2008 and S2015.

ing trend in behavior connected to the changes in cooling device
used? The analysis of S2015 from Section 3.2 to 3.4 will explore
the answers to these questions.
3.2. Factors correlated with cooling device
Correlation analysis was conducted on the S2015 samples, and
the Pearson correlation coefficient for the cooling device with fam-
ily and building factors calculated, as seen in Table 6. A significant
correlation between cooling device and region, family, and building
factors was identified. Among all factors, family income and the
type of building are the most correlated according to the signifi-
cant correlation found in the results of a partial correlation analy-
sis. When using the control for family income, no statistical corre-
lation between family type or family number with cooling device
can be found, meaning that cooling device is correlated with fam-
 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885 7

Table 6
Pearson correlation coefficient of cooling device (N = 10,599).

Correlation Partial correlation

Control region Control family income Control building type
Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Correlation Sig. (2-tailed)

Region −0.065∗∗ 0.000 – – −0.068 0.000 −0.06 0.000

Family income 0.238∗∗ 0.000 0.239 0.000 – – 0.194 0.000
Family type 0.019∗ 0.045 0.019 0.052 0.014 0.015 0.02 0.041
Family number 0.017 0.085 0.014 0.142 0.017 0.074 0.027 0.006
Education 0.052∗∗ 0.000 0.052 0.000 0.018 0.058 0.02 0.037
Building type 0.229∗∗ 0.000 0.227 0.000 0.182 0.000 – –
Building age 0.079∗∗ 0.000 0.079 0.000 0.07 0.000 0.017 0.076
Floor area 0.094∗∗ 0.000 0.094 0.000 0.066 0.000 0.085 0.000
∗∗
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
∗
Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

Fig. 6. Family income with building types and the choice of cooling device (S2015).

ily income. Similarly, building age is not directly correlated with
cooling device by the results from the partial correlation analysis.
Four factors were recognized as correlated with the cooling device;
family income was the most strongly correlated, followed by type
of building and floor area. The partial correlation between cooling
device with family income and building type are significant when
controlling for region, indicating that these correlations are statis-
tically significant across different regions.
There is in fact a close connection between family income,
building type, and cooling device. Firstly, family income is corre-
lated with both the choice of building type and the choice of cool-
ing device. The living patterns of urban households across different
family incomes could be easily identified: middle to high income
families tend to live in high-rise buildings, which are newer build-
ings, while there is obviously a larger percent of households with
high income families living in villas (see Fig. 6). Across all fam-
ily incomes the single split AC is the most popular, while there
is a significantly higher proportion of multi-split and central cool-
ing systems seen in high income families. Secondly, it is appar-
ent that building types are also closely related with the choice of
cooling device; single-split AC is a priority choice across families
with different income levels, but a significantly higher number of
families in high-rise buildings choose multi-split AC and central-
ized cooling systems. The different types of building can ultimately
be distributed among different ranges of floor area and years of
construction. High-rise buildings in urban China are mainly con-
structed after 20 0 0, while one story and multi-story buildings tend
to be older. Compared with apartment buildings, villas are of big-
ger size, at an average of approximately 200–250 m2 , while apart-
ment buildings are normally 80–120 m2 , as seen in Fig. 7b. This is
probably the reason that the floor area and age of a building was
found to be significantly correlated with the type of cooling device.
The reasons why families in Chinese households preferred fans
to AC were also investigated using S2015, see Figure 8. Among the
3003 samples (accounting for 28% of all samples) who choose fans
as the predominant cooling device, energy cost and personal pref-
erence are the top three reasons. Approximately one third of all
families choose fans because the electricity consumption of AC is
much higher. A further third of the respondents did not use AC
because of personal preference. Adequate ventilation of the apart-
ment is another typical reason. Approximately 15% of the house-
holds chose to use fans because of the presence of the elderly
or young family members, constraints to the infrastructure of old
buildings, and cool summers. It can be assumed that with the in-
crease in family income, more and more people will adopt AC be-
cause the ratio of energy cost to family income will decrease. But
there will always be families with relatively higher incomes who
do not use AC because of personal preference.
From the analysis carried out in Section 3.2, it could be con-
cluded that single split AC is still the majority choice in urban
households across families of all income levels and in all types
of residential buildings. There are still an obvious proportion of
households that choose fans instead of AC as a primary cooling
device, partly because of the higher energy cost of AC, but mainly
due to personal preference, good ventilation, and the presence of
elder/young family members. It could be said that even with the
high saturation of AC seen in Chinese urban families, not all fam-
ilies choose ACs as a primary cooling choice. Fans are still fre-
quently used in around one third of urban families, and will not
become obsolete in the short term. In addition, the emerging trend
in multi-split AC can obviously be seen along with the increases in
income and the movement into newly-constructed high-rise apart-
ment buildings. Centralized cooling systems were promoted via
policy incentives as renewable energy utilization and by real es-
tate developers as part of a high-quality life and luxury service.
High income families tend to choose this cooling device, but the
centralized cooling system only accounts for a small share of the
cooling market, even with such vigorous promotion.
8 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885

Fig. 7. Building type with choice of cooling device and floor area(S2015).

veyed: 47% of families relayed that the control method is “individ-

ual for each room”, while 25% chose “one switch for whole apart-
ment”, 21% chose “I don’t know the control method”, and the re-
maining 7% choose “central control for continuous operation”. For
the centralized cooling system with an individual control for each
room, the two charge method is common for practical purposes,
by actual usage (such as the hours during which the indoor unit
fans are under operation), or by floor area. It is therefore possible
that some families would actually decrease the usage of cooling
because of the higher cooling costs and the mode by which the
actual usage of cooling service is charged.
Fig. 8. Reasons ranking why families choose fans instead of AC (S2015). Of course, the choice of cooling device and the cooling behav-
ior directly leads to different levels of indoor thermal comfort and
Table 7 occupant feeling, as well as the amount of energy used. Satisfac-
J-T test result. tion levels across the three cooling devices were compared as seen
Cooling behavior Cooling satisfaction in Table 8. Dissatisfaction rate was defined by the percentage of
Cooling device 3 3
households that responded with “Very dissatisfied” or “Dissatis-
N 6745 6745 fied”. Dissatisfaction rate markedly decreases when AC is adopted.
Observed J–T Statistic 2,188,277.000 2,222,243.500 However, the actual statistical dissatisfaction rate of multi-split AC
Mean J–T Statistic 2,004,694.000 2,004,694.000 and centralized cooling was even higher than that of the single-
Std. Deviation of J–T Statistic 45,846.122 41,380.215
split AC. The primary reason for this dissatisfaction (single choice
Std. J–T Statistic 4.004 5.257
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) 0.000 0.000 question) with regards to cooling device is shown in Figs. 10 and
11. Bad cooling performance in an indoor environment is naturally
the top-ranking reason when fans are used. However, it is also the
top-ranked reason for centralized cooling. The reasons for dissat-
3.3. Cooling behavior coupling with cooling device
isfaction with split AC are mainly associated with bad indoor air
quality due to the lack of ventilation. According to the survey, more
The behavior of households who primarily use single split AC,
than 80% of households with split AC rarely open windows while
multi-split AC, and centralized cooling systems was investigated
the space is being cooled. Next to IAQ, the second concern leading
and 6745 samples were selected accordingly.
to dissatisfaction with single split AC and multi-split AC is the cost.
First, the J–T test was conducted for all AC users to test whether
From the above analysis, a significant correlation was revealed
the null hypothesis “cooling behavior is independent of cooling de-
between cooling device and behavior. Changing to a centralized
vice” can be accepted. The J–T Test results seen in Table 7 indicate
cooling system will significantly raise the share of full-time, full-
that the null hypothesis is rejected, because the asymptotic signif-
space cooling behavior, even for families with adjustable terminals
icance achieved is 0.0 0 0. Therefore, there is strong statistical evi-
in each rooms. In practice, a considerable proportion of households
dence proving that cooling behavior is related to cooling device.
cannot turn off the cooling device during the cooling season due
The cross tab figure in Figs. 9 and 10 illustrates the differences
to limitations in the centralized cooling system [37], and these de-
in the cooling behavior distribution of the three different cooling
vices are passively switched to “all summer on (never off)”. This
devices. The distribution between the single-split AC and multi-
change in behavior leads to high energy consumption, as well as
split AC are similar, but more families use multi-split AC in the
wasted cooling when no one is at home. Changing to centralized
“At home on Leave off” or “All on” mode, indicating that multi-
cooling system also does not tend to raise satisfaction and indoor
split AC users tend to turn on space cooling while families are at
comfort. The results from this study illustrate that the dissatisfac-
home and operate indoor units in all rooms as a whole. The pro-
tion rate for centralized cooling systems is higher than that of split
portion of the most intensive mode “at home on leave off” and “all
AC due to a bad cooling performance and the high cost. Due to the
on” is further increased in families that use the centralized cool-
great diversity in the indoor cooling demand of residential build-
ing system, which also shows an increase in the proportion of the
ings, it is hard to provide a suitable amount of cooling according
least intensive “hot on sleep off” mode. It is worth mentioning that
to demand, which often leads to overcooling or insufficient cool-
the method of control for centralized cooling systems was also sur-
 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885 9

Fig. 9. Cooling behavior distribution difference (S2015).

Fig. 10. Ranking of the reasons for dissatisfaction with cooling devices (S2015).

Table 8
Satisfaction of different cooling device.

None% Fans% Single split AC% Multi-split AC% Centralized cooling%

Very dissatisfied 6.7 2.9 0.4 1.7 6.8

Dissatisfied 11.9 14.5 2.6 2.6 23.3
General 30.9 40.1 27.3 19.9 54.8
Satisfied 43.2 37.8 60.1 56.1 15.1
Very satisfied 7.3 4.7 9.5 19.7 100.0
Dissatisfaction rate 18.6 17.4 3.1 4.3 6.8

Fig. 11. Education level with the cooling behavior distribution of single-split AC users (S2015).
10 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885

Table 9
Pearson correlation of cooling behavior for different cooling device.

Single-split AC Multi-split AC Centralized cooling

Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed) Pearson Correlation Sig. (2-tailed)
N = 6094 N = 578 N = 73

Region −0.028∗ 0.026 −0.011 0.790 −0.214 0.069

Family income 0.084∗∗ 0.000 .132∗∗ 0.001 0.170 0.149
Family type 0.010 0.424 0.015 0.716 0.095 0.426
Family number 0.004 0.771 −0.075 0.073 0.189 0.110
Education −0.043∗∗ 0.001 0.029 0.488 −0.106 0.374
Building type 0.069∗∗ 0.000 0.183∗∗ 0.000 .377∗∗ 0.001
Building age 0.057∗∗ 0.000 0.102∗ 0.014 0.187 0.113
Floor area 0.088∗∗ 0.000 0.163∗∗ 0.000 0.077 0.517
Energy saving awareness
Traditional culture −0.073∗∗ 0.000 −0.011 0.799 −0.108 0.362
Education −0.046∗∗ 0.000 −0.016 0.693 −0.117 0.325
Media Propaganda −0.016 0.222 −0.020 0.627 0.049 0.680
Energy cost −0.026∗ 0.039 −0.061 0.144 −0.111 0.351
Social norm −0.007 0.570 −0.036 0.392 −0.090 0.451
∗∗
Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
∗
Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

ing [38]. Because of the significant amount of energy consumption
and cooling loss, the electricity consumption of a centralized cool-
ing system is usually approximately 20 kWh//m2 , far higher than
that of families using single-split AC, therefore leading to a much
higher cost for families.
3.4. Factors correlated with cooling behavior
The correlation between cooling behavior and family factors,
building factors, and energy-saving awareness was analyzed for the
three individual groups, and the results are listed in Table 9. Due
to the different cooling patterns, the most significant factors are
also distinct among the three groups.
The factors found to correlate with split AC are similar. The type
of building, age, and floor area are significantly related with the
cooling behavior, while family income was also related. Families
with higher income and better buildings (high-rise apartment or
villa) of a younger age and bigger size also tend to use space cool-
ing more intensively, with a higher proportion of intensive cooling
behavior. Region is correlated with the cooling behavior of families
using single-split AC, but not those using multi-split AC. No signif-
icant factors correlated to the distribution of cooling behavior of
those using centralized cooling could be found, except for build-
ing type. This is mostly because of the centralized management of
these cooling systems and the behavior of the indoor occupants.
The level of education can be observed to influence the cooling
behavior distribution of single-split AC users. Families with higher
education levels tend to use space cooling in a less intensive way,
indicating that they pay more attention to the saving of energy,
as illustrated in Figure 11 12. Energy awareness does not influence
the cooling behavior distribution of multi-split users and central-
ized cooling families. However, traditional culture, education, and
cascading electricity prices were found to be statistically correlated
with the distribution of cooling behavior. Concern for electricity
costs is also significant in cooling behavior distribution, but with a
smaller Pearson coefficient value, which means that it is a weaker
factor compared with the others.
From the analysis carried out in Section 3.4, it is indicated that
further policy measures are required to guide to cooling behavior
with regards to energy conservation. Notably, there are no signif-
icant factors with the cooling behavior of the centralized cooling
system that indicate that cooling behavior was highly related with
the choice of system, and this can be hardly influenced by any so-
cial or economic factors. The implications for policy from these re-
sults is that the promotion of centralized cooling systems in resi-
dential buildings should be carried out with extreme caution. Once
centralized systems are widely introduced into the residential sec-
tor, and the cooling behavior inevitably changes to full-time full-
space, there are hardly any effective measures that can be used to
guide energy saving behavior and a conservative life style. The dra-
matic growth in electricity consumption due to the use of central-
ized cooling systems would be excessive. On a more positive note,
for bigger family groups who using single split ACs, traditional cul-
ture, educational background, and energy cost are still significant
factors guiding cooling behavior, indicating that policy measures
enhancing these factors would have a positive effect on guiding
conservative cooling behavior, ultimately leading to lower energy
consumption in urban residential buildings.
4. Discussion
4.1. Sustainable cooling approach
With future social and economic development in China, China’s
cooling energy consumption in the urban residential sector will
double by 2030 if no stronger policies were enforced [6]. The lo-
cal and national government are under great pressure to reduce
cooling energy use and emissions. Centralized cooling system with
higher equipment efficiency was promoted by international orga-
nizations and domestic manufactures. There is urgent need to as-
certain which path is sustainable for green and efficient cooling in
urban residential buildings, and which will be the future cooling
choices for the future Chinese urban residential buildings.
Actually, centralized cooling system has not become the dom-
inating cooling device even with dramatic economic development
and income growth. Neither will it become the primary choice for
sustainable cooling in urban China households. Survey results indi-
cates that most Chinese households use AC intermittently for an
occupied room only, instead of constant operation in all spaces
over the summer. Single split AC is less energy intensive, more
flexible, and therefore is more suitable for this “part time part
space” cooling behavior in urban China. In addition, centralized
cooling system is much more energy intensive than single split AC
but does not get better feedback from users. Monitoring projects
and case studies have been found to support this conclusion. En-
ergy intensity of centralized cooling system consumes 22 kWh/m2
in the case of Nanjing, and 7.6 kWh/m2 in the case of Henan
[38,39], which is much higher than the average cooling energy
 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885
consumption of urban Chinese households [40]. The reasons of
much higher energy consumption are lack of individual control,
and bad design and operation status [39]. Therefore, the split ACs
will and should be the primary choice and will remain the pre-
dominant cooling device used in urban Chinese households. Al-
though the centralized cooling system does not provide better in-
door quality, and eventually leads to higher rates of dissatisfac-
tion, the public awareness and cognition concerning cooling de-
vices is still influenced by the commercial promotion of high-grade
communities with centralized cooling systems and constant ser-
vices for indoor temperatures and humidity. Therefore, more cam-
paigns providing information for public education, the promotion
of awareness, and policy guidance are needed among urban resi-
dents.
To achieve sustainable cooling approach in China’s residential
buildings, pursuing split ACs with higher efficiency and guiding
green behavior should be the priority. However, barriers still ex-
ist and more policy interventions could be achieved.
For single split AC, technical innovation to furtherly raise the
energy efficiency ACs is still required. China established a mini-
mum energy performance standard (MEPS) for fixed single split
ACs and variable single split AC ever since 2005. However, there is
still a gap between the energy performance under actual operation
and the labeled energy performance. Badly installed, operated, and
maintained out-door units are the most common reasons affect the
heat dispersion of out-door units and reduce energy efficiency of
existing single split ACs [4,41–44].The limitation and difficulty in
installing outdoor units in high-rise apartment buildings is also a
key barrier for the promotion of new single-split AC and is one of
the most important reason for high-rise dwellers to choose cen-
tralized cooling systems [45]. To remove these obstacles, the pre-
cise design of building façades to allow space for the outdoor units
in high-rise apartment buildings should be popularized in urban
residential building design codes and regulation. On the contrary,
the pre-installing of centralized cooling systems should also not be
encouraged by national or regional policies as an energy efficient
measures.
Multi-split AC become more and more popular in residential
building, leading to new technical problems in the product design,
testing, and operation of current products in market. Due to the
part-time part-space behavior of Chinese residents, the operation
of multi-split ACs at partial loads leads to an even lower opera-
tional energy efficiency [46], and an much higher cooling energy
consumption [47]. Therefore, more technical innovations and policy
improvements need to be explored with regard to the standards
used in the testing of products and evaluation metrics.
4.2. Policy suggestions
To sum up, the adjustable and flexible split ACs are the suit-
able choice for China’s urban households who prefer to operate
AC in “part time part space” behavior. More policy improvement
and technical innovation are still needed to enhance public aware-
ness, for the improvement of energy efficiency, the installation and
maintenance of outdoor units, to promote the better use of split
ACs. The following policy implications are obtained according to
the results of the above analysis and discussion.
To urban residents, information tools such as campaigns, educa-
tion, the education of the public on green lifestyles and sustainable
cooling should be promoted, to let urban households comprehen-
sively understand the differences across different cooling devices
with regards to service levels and energy consumption.
To real estate developers and design institutes of urban resi-
dential buildings, regulations on pre-installing centralized cooling
system should neither be encouraged nor economically subsidized.
Conversely, designing residential building façades to retain the out-
11
door units of split AC should be a conventional consideration, for
both newly-constructed buildings and renovated residential build-
ings. More attention should be paid to research on the optimiza-
tion of vertical air distribution around high-rise residential build-
ings.
For the development of cooling technology, technical innova-
tion to further improve the energy efficiency of split ACs accord-
ing to various cooling behaviors should be the future priority. Sur-
veying, monitoring, and understanding the cooling behavior of ur-
ban households should be fundamental and the most essential
consideration in cooling demand simulations and equipment op-
timization. The predominant cooling behavior is “turn on cooling
on” when a resident becomes too hot and “turn off once leave
room”, instead of “keep cooling operating”. Better split ACs that
can be used with this behavior should be the direction for tech-
nical innovation. For example, technologies to adjust the compres-
sor capacity according to indoor demand should be developed. One
good development made by a Chinese manufacturer in this direc-
tion was the design of an innovative compressor which can switch
on smaller compressors under low loads (<30%) and switch on a
larger compressor under high loads (>30%). This technique notably
improved the COP from less than 2 to more than 4 at a low load
ratio [4,46].
4.3. Limitations of this study
This study has produced important findings regarding the cool-
ing behavior of residents in Chinese urban building and its key cor-
related factors. From survey data on Beijing’s urban households in
2008 and national households in 2015, we can identify a change in
the cooling device used from fans and single-split AC to multi-split
AC and centralized cooling systems, although single split AC is still
the majority. Through correlation analysis, we can identify that the
choice of different cooling devices can significantly influence the
cooling behavior of a household, and that both are closely related
to family income and building type. Due to limitation via data de-
ficiencies, the limitations of this study are as follows:
(1) Lack of panel data with time is the biggest challenge and ob-
stacle, so this research can only take Beijing as an example to
examine the changing trends in cooling pattern and behavior.
However, as the results indicate, there is distinct diversity in
the cooling devices used and the behavior in different regions
with unique climate conditions and economic development lev-
els. Therefore, the historical trend of evolution in Beijing’s cool-
ing pattern can be used as a reference to understand a more
general trend; with more data digging and research required if
we want to understand the overall cooling pattern changes in
the urban residential buildings of China.
(2) There is a lower saturation of single split ACs in the regions of
northeast China, possibly because of the cooler summers and
lower family income levels. However, due to the limitation in
the size of the 2015 survey, the overall cooling pattern and be-
havior in these regions are not discussed in this study. House-
hold surveys, and case studies in this area should be a special
focus to understand the potential demand for cooling in urban
China. This is the next plan for research into the urban residen-
tial cooling in China.
5. Conclusions
This research conducted a national-wide online questionnaire
survey across China, and try to explore the cooling usage pattern
change in urban households and factors impacting this change.
Comparative analysis, correlation analysis, and Jonckheere-Terpstra
test analysis were done on 10,599 valid samples from 23 re-
gions. Following conclusions were obtained, and policy suggestions
12 S. Hu, D. Yan and B. Dong et al. / Energy & Buildings 214 (2020) 109885
to achieve sustainable cooling in urban residential buildings was
given.
Firstly, single split AC replaced fans to be the predominant cool-
ing device in urban households after 20 0 0. Around the year 2010,
multi-split and centralized AC appeared and entered the homes of
high-income families. With this change in cooling device, the dis-
tribution of cooling behavior moved from “Hot on sleep off”, to
more intensive modes in 2015. But “part time part space” mode is
still the cooling behavior of majority urban households instead of
“full time full space” mode.
Secondly, family income and building types are statistically
proved to be significantly correlated with the choices on cooling
device. A significantly higher number of families in high-rise build-
ings choose multi-split AC and centralized cooling systems. Cool-
ing behavior is closely correlated with cooling device. There is ev-
idently a higher proportion of “at home on leave off” and “all on”
families with multi-split AC and centralized cooling systems than
single split AC.
Finally, family income and building types are related with the
cooling behavior of households using single split AC and multi-split
AC. Families with a higher income and better buildings (high-rise
apartment or villa) tend to use space cooling more intensively. Ed-
ucation level, traditional culture, and energy costs are significant
factors regarding the cooling behavior with regards to single split
AC.
Related policy interventions could be considered by policy mak-
ers to achieve sustainable cooling in China’s urban residential
buildings.
Declaration of Competing Interest
None.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Shan Hu: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, In-
vestigation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Vi-
sualization. Da Yan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision.
Bing Dong: Methodology, Validation. Jiasha Fu: Methodology, Val-
idation.
Acknowledgement
This study was supported by China National Key Research and
Development Project (2018YFC1509006), and China Youth Pro-
gram of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.
51908311).
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