Abstract
In China, since the 1990's, as household incomes have increased, many kinds of appliances have been purchased, causing the electricity demand to grow from year to year. Widely-used air conditioners and recently penetrated water dispensers, in particular, contribute mainly to increased electricity consumption in the household sector. In this context, we conducted a study to provide descriptive information on the effects of this recent electricity consumption of installed air conditioners, refrigerators, water dispensers, and the standby power of electric devices of urban households in Guangzhou based on the result of our survey in 2004. The result of this study suggests that in terms of water dispensers extending operation time is a serious factor affecting increased electricity consumption. Moreover, replaced air conditioners for power saving may not be enough to reduce the growing electricity consumption.
