| Carsten,
It sounds like you know a lot of insolation. But the methods you suggest are mainly for cold weather, which may not suitable for Shanghai. In China and also in most of countries, construction/design are governed by building code. I remember in Northern China, the external wall should be at least 370 mm, and in Shanghai should be at least 240 mm. But I do agree with you that the craftmanship in China has room to improve. When i studied in Beijing, we did exactly the same thing you suggested to our dorm in winter -- seal your apartment unit. But in Shanghai, this may not be a good solution. In southern China, people open up their doors and windows whenever they got a chance. If you seal everything, you won't be able to survive the humid weather. The energy problem in China, i think, is a growing pain. You guys will all survive this and move on. Shen PS: JianShuo, the causes of California energy crisis are interesting. It is due to 1) California government had implemented some energy efficiency programs so successfully that utility companies slashed energy conservation budget; 2) deregualtion allow California utility companies to sell their extra capacity to other states. CA's energy problem is not a capacity problem. When CA needed energy most, the power plants inside CA could not sell electricity to it since they already had the contracts with other states. Other states don't have those successful stories of energy efficiency program, they were more conservative and ordered more energy conserve. When those states saw the high energy price in CA, they resold the capacity contract back and made a big profit. A CA's successful energy efficiency story ends up with a crisis. It remimds me an old Chinese saying, an old man lost his horse, but who knows what kind of fate it is... |
Shanghai is Experiencing Energy Crisis