3.2. Institutions included in the sample

The institutions included in the sample were classified according to three  criteria, namely the administrative characteristics of their cities, their climate zone,  and whether or not  they were building owners.

From the investigation we can see that the surveyed cities are mainly provincial  capitals and Municipalities (a Municipality is a specific administrative city which is  governed directly by the central government. There are four such cities: Beijing,  Tainjin,  Shanghai and Chongqing), which account for 90% of the whole  surveyed  cities. The building energy consumption in provincial capitals is more remarkable  than that in other cities, which  reflect the country’s real situation.

The surveyed cities are mostly located in the very cold, cold, hot summer and  cold winter zones. The proportion of the cities in the hot summer and warm winter  and mild zones are low and this is because the government focuses on the cold areas  at the  moment.  Among the sampled institutions, the energy service companies  make up the lowest proportion of 0.6%because the building energy efficiency  service system is not yet fully mature. The proportion of design institutions,  construction and consultancy companies is 38%, which is the largest group. The  second largest  group, with 14.3%, is made up of manufacturers of building  materials and equipment. These two institutions are the practical executive bodies  for the implementation of building energy efficiency. The proportion of clients of  public building is 9.0%, which is particularly selected to reflect public building  energy  management and renovation. The proportions of these institution  subject  samples reflect the real situation in China

                         4. Result analysis

The surveys were carried out within four groups: consumers, producers,  services and consultancy supervisions. The consumers include residents and clients  of public buildings. The producers include property developers and manufacturers.  The  services include design construction and construction consultancy  companies,  energy service companies, facility management services, energy resource services  companies  and finance institutions.  The consultancy supervisions include  government departments and the media.

4.1 Consumers of energy efficient products

4.1.1 The degree of acceptability of energy efficient products

The investigation shows the degree of acceptability of energy efficient products  from the survey. From the investigation we can see that the acceptability degree of  energy efficient building products does not remain high and there exists a regional  difference. The  feedback from the resident survey shows that, the energy  efficient  products are more likely to be accepted in the very cold, cold and hot summer and  cold winter zones than the hot summer and warm winter zone. In recent years, a  heating  metering and payment system reform has been conducted in the  very cold  and cold zones; therefore the residents in these zones are more interested in energy  efficient products. In the hot summer and cold winter zone, the indoor climate is  severe in  winter and summer without both air conditioning and electric  heating;  therefore the residents are keen to use energy efficient products to improve their  living conditions as well as to save money. The feedback from clients of public  buildings shows  that the energy efficient products are more favoured in the very  cold, cold, and hot summer and cold winter zones. From the survey results we can  conclude that the consumers’degree of acceptance of energy efficient building  products is  affected by the following factors: