Officials in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality have developed an
energy-efficient air conditioning system that uses river water to
provide heat in the winter and cool air in the summer.
The system is said to use between 20 and 30 percent less
electricity per hour than a conventional air conditioner during the
summer and between 40 and 50 percent less during the winter.
The system uses an electric pump that sucks up river water which
is then sent to a heater, said Shen Lizhi, an official with the
Department of Chongqing Municipal Construction Committee.
"In the summer the system will draw the heat out of a room,
transfer it to the water and then take it away while in the winter
the system will heat the water which will warm the room," Shen told
China Daily.
He said Chongqing started experimenting with the water-based air
conditioning system in late 2005 while searching for ways to save
energy. Last year the municipality spent 2 million yuan
(US$256,410) using the system on an experimental basis to heat and
cool a 600-square-meter area near the Jialing River.
"The experiment showed that the system could maintain a room
temperature of between 26 and 28 degrees Celsius in the summer and
between 16 and 18 in the winter," Shen said.
The Ministry of Construction had selected Chongqing to
demonstrate the effectiveness of the water-based air-conditioning
system because the city has abundant water resources, the
construction official said. Both the Yangtze and Jialing rivers
pass through the city.
Using 1 percent of the water flowing down the Yangtze River, the
system could heat and cool 10,553 square meters of residential and
public space in Chongqing.
Shen said the system would raise the river's temperature by 0.1
degree Celsius in the summer and 0.08 in the winter. He added that
the system wouldn’t cause environmental harm to the Yangtze
River.
The city expects the system to reduce energy consumption and
plans to use it to heat and cool 2 million square meters of
residential and public space during the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10).
According to a joint circular issued on Monday by the Chongqing
Municipal Construction Committee and the Chongqing Municipal
Finance Bureau hotels and supermarkets with floor areas of 20,000
square meters and residential buildings with floor areas of at
least 100,000 square meters can apply to be connected to the new
system.
(China Daily January 23, 2007)
