Some residents are likely to save on their monthly power expenses as Shanghai residential and office buildings constructed from this year on will have to meet certain "energy-saving standards," Jiao Yang, a municipal spokeswoman, said yesterday.

This is part of the city's new administrative regulation on the management of energy-saving buildings - which was recently adopted by the municipal government and will soon take effect.

"The cost of each energy-saving construction is around 25 percent higher than that of a normal building but the additional costs can be paid off in 5-8 years," Jiao told a municipal news conference yesterday, elaborating that the investment in the buildings will be shared by the government, real estate developers and tenants.

 According to the city government, construction-related energy consumption accounts for 20 percent of the city's overall use and the figure has been rising every year by around 1 percent.

Buildings with energy-saving standards are built with heat-insulation materials so that they can save around 25 percent of the power consumed by air-conditioning in normal buildings, experts said. They can also be equipped with "intelligent elevators" - which can be better controlled by users. The regulation also requires most of the city's existing buildings to undertake proper renovation to improve their energy-saving ability.

(Shanghai Daily June 2, 2005)