Volume 26: Closing Carbon Cycles – A Transformation Process Involving Technology, Economy, and Society: Part I

Analysis on the evolution of residential water-energy nexus, a case study in Beijing China Linrui Shi, Yongnan Zhu, Haihong Li, Chenyang Zhu, Hanqing Liu

Abstract

Economic development and the improvement in living standards have increased residential demand for water and energy. This research uses data of different water and energy consumption from 1978 to 2020, for analyzing the evolution of residential water and energy systems in Beijing. The results show that residential water consumption increased 140%, which from 58 L/(person day) to 139 L/(person day), energy consumption increased 540%, which from 0.06 KWh/(person day) to 3.30 KWh/(person day). It was found that mopping, dishwashing, laundry, and toilet flushing have changed from manual to automatic methods, even some households have changed to intelligent methods in Beijing households, following by the consumption of water and energy end-use. Although there is a high percentage of households who have used automated ways for water heating and drinking, still 5% use manual ways. As people gradually shift from manual ways to automated or intelligent ways, water and energy consumption have also changed dramatically. By calculating and comparing the utilization of water and energy in different ways, the systemic evolutionary trends were summarized, which including energy saving, the correlated growth of water and energy, and substitution of energy for water. Also the paper provides a theoretical contribution to the management of residential water and energy consumption.

Keywords Residential, Water and energy consumption, Evolution, Beijing