Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

I'm wondering how much power (electricty) and coal used to produce that power China would conserve?

if they didn't keep their doors and windows open all day long in the winter? I'm told the reason to open the windows is for fresh air. But the air in many places in China is far from fresh. Some days I can see it in the hallways of my school. Between November and February I think my city had about 10 days where we could see "blue" sky. I say "blue" because when I climb the mountains near my home I can still see the haze settled over the city. Many businesses, schools, and hospitals leave the doors open all day, yet they are running heaters within these buildings. Those heaters are usually in addition to the government controlled radiant heat systems, that don't work that great, built into most buildings. On top of that, many people still wear their winter coats inside. My students stay in theirs all day. So as most buildings are cold enough as it is in the winter, wouldn't it be better to keep the windows and doors closed, and buy a few plants to freshen the air?

Update:

I ask this question because the recent storms China suffered caused a huge reduction in coal supplies for many cities. It got so cold in places that aren't normally cold that many places came close to running out and coal miners had to give up their Lunar New Year holiday to work overtime to keep the country supplied with this horribly dirty fuel for their power plants and the government heating system. Perhaps if the normally cold places of China weren't so wasteful of it's electricity and heat, China wouldn't need to produce nor burn nearly as much coal as they go through every year.

Update 2:

Gengi, radiant heat here is hot water pumped through pipes, or essentially a radiator, in the walls. My school put in an additional boiler system because by the time the water get up the mountain to us it's no longer hot. Thus, the school uses more coal-fueled electricity to heat the water so we have some heat. It's still not enough. Most of us have had to buy extra heaters to keep our rooms warm enough to keep us healthy.

2 Answers

Relevance
  • Tom W
    Lv 6
    1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    I would guess all of that is correct but there is no move toward conservation or environmentalism in China. It strives to become an industrial power and has no problem destroying its environment and everyone else's to reach that goal. Its popular, because their press will play along, to denounce the US for hurting the environment but in fact few countries have environmental movements at the level of the US. China and India are what the US was 50-60 years ago, dirty, smokestack industries working at full capacity.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    i don't know what sort of heating they are using but if they are using any sort of open fire keeping doors and windows closed would probably result in carbon monoxide poisoning.

    PS it seams like you care about the environment allot and you want to help china become a better place. maybe you should consider taking up a career in the renewable energy industry or maybe the environmental sciences.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.