Energy-efficient municipal heating: preliminary lessons from Beijing, Kathmandu and Edinburgh

Abstract

This study explores energy-efficiency efforts related to municipal heating in the metropolitan areas of Beijing, China; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Edinburgh, Scotland. This article begins by describing its research methodology consisting primarily of research interviews and in-country surveys. It then discusses respondents’ answers and preliminary findings to questions on energy-efficiency awareness, temperature preferences, heating arrangements in buildings and problems related to existing policies and procedures. The final section presents a number of recommendations for what city planners and national policymakers can do to promote energy-efficient heating. This study is unique from previous works as its focus is hospitals, administration buildings, schools and universities rather than (more commonly studied) households, countries and energy systems. Municipal heating was also chosen because it is much less popular as an area of scholastic enquiry than other areas of energy efficiency such as cars, homes or appliances, and the study is sensitive to the importance of social attitudes and values as they relate to energy consumption and heating norms.