Heating and Cooling Homes In Hong Kong

Heating and cooling are amongst the biggest energy consumption sources throughout the world. The reason is simple; air conditioning and heating have no longer become a luxury in many cities throughout the world, but a necessity. Hong Kong holds true to this instance. September 29^th, 2010 Hong Kong attempted to have their first “No Air Conditioning Night.” 50,000 households did their best, while the other 2,285,000 homes didn’t have the dedication to turn a/c units off. Air conditioning has become so large that during the summer months, air conditioning contributes to 60% of the total energy  consumption.

The average home size in Hong Kong is only 600 ft² and generally houses 2.9 people per household. With an average ceiling height of 8’, each person in Hong Kong contributes to 1600 ft³ of heating  and cooling their homes. The average temperature during the 6 colder months is 66° F, and 81.8° F in the warmer 6 months. Through a simple calculation, the total energy consumed for cooling can be found. Air has a density of 0.08lb/ft³, and has a specific heat of 0.241 BTU/Lb*F.  Applying the formula Q=m*Cp*∆T, a rough estimate for the energy consumed by a Hong Kong resident for warming/cooling their homes can be calculated. Assuming an air conditioner is circulating the air throughout the house in 0.5 hours, 6144 lbs. of air needs to be cooled per day per person. Applying these values to our formula and assuming households are set to remain at 70°F we get:

Qcool=6144*0.214*(81.8-70)=15514.8 BTU.

15514.8 BTU = 4.54694 kWh/day for cooling.

For heating the house up to 70°F,

Qheat=6144*0.214*(70-66)=5259 BTU.

5259 BTU = 1.54 kWh/day for heating.


Additional heating and cooling arises from other applications such as hot water for baths, showers, cleaning, etc., refridgeration purposes, and for cooking. The kW/day per person for these applications were found using the number of Terajoules used in each of these sections as provided in the "Hong Kong Energy End-use Data 2010" published by EMSD (Electrical and Mechanical Services Department).  Refridgeration came out to 2.51 kW/day per person, 4.26 kW/day per person for hot water, and 7.26 kW/day per person for cooking.


Taking all calculations into consideration, the total energy used for heating and cooling in Hong Kong comes out to about 20.1 kW/day per person.