The groups include private offices and commercial outlets of the commercial sector; and private cars and light goods vehicles of the transport sector. These two sectors together account for 68 per cent of the total energy consumption in Hong Kong.
The indicators and benchmarks are developed to facilitate owners, management personnel of commercial buildings and vehicle operators to compare energy or fuel consumption of their buildings or vehicles with others in Hong Kong to identify areas for energy saving.
The key findings of the study are as follows:
* for private offices and commercial outlets, occupants behaviour, operation and maintenance practices, types of lighting and air conditioning systems, and the general temperature setting of the air conditioning systems are the major factors affecting energy consumption;
* when compared with other economies, energy consumed by a typical office building in Hong Kong is less than that of Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, but higher than that of Japan, Korea and the Philippines;
* for private cars and light goods vehicles, fuel consumption is mainly determined by engine size, gross vehicle weight, traffic and weather conditions.
Two interactive benchmarking software tools are now available at EMSD's homepage (http://www.emsd.gov.hk) to facilitate members of the public to identify areas for energy saving.
By entering simple data such as electricity bill, floor area, number of operating hours, etc., the benchmarking tool for buildings will indicate the energy consumption level of the user's premises in relation to the levels of other similar types of premises in terms of percentile.
As for the benchmarking tool for vehicles, users only need to input simple data like the engine size, vehicle type, vehicle age, distance travelled, fuel consumed between two fuel intakes, etc. in order to get the benchmark value of their vehicles.
Users will also be advised of improvement measures in energy saving as well as some fuel saving tips.
End/Sunday, November 10, 2002
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