Air conditioner clean-up ordered
13/6/2005 7:29
Shanghai Daily news
The Shanghai Economic
Commission has ordered all office buildings, department stores and hotels in the
city to clean up their central air conditioning systems by Wednesday in order to
reduce power demand.
"Dirt in the systems will increase power consumption and
reduce the cooling effect," said Wei Yujian, an official with the commission's
Energy Conservation and Supervision Center.
Wei added that cleaning the
systems will also improve the quality of air in the buildings.
Air
conditioning has long been blamed for the city's seasonal power shortages, as
about one-quarter of the power used in the city during the summer goes to
keeping homes, buildings, stores and factories cool.
A thorough cleaning can
reduce the amount of power needed to run a system by 5 percent, officials from
the center estimated.
Last week, the center offered five training classes
for the maintenance staff from more than 500 commercial buildings, to teach them
the proper way to clean their air conditioning systems.
Officials would like
to see building managers clean their systems on a regular basis, but the high
price of a proper cleaning makes that unlikely.
One thorough cleaning of a
central air system, including the ventilation pipes, will cost more than 100,000
yuan (US$12,048). Even a simple cleaning costs several thousand yuan.
Unclean
systems use too much power, and also recycle bad air which can lead to health
problems, said Wang Fang, secretary-general of the Shanghai Environmental
Protection Industry Association.
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