Smart Energy Retrofitting of China’s Existing Building Stock: Digital Monitoring, Building Energy Management Systems, and Green Finance

Abstract

China’s existing building stock represents a major opportunity for reducing final energy consumption, electricity demand, operating costs, and carbon emissions. As construction growth slows and the proportion of older urban buildings increases, improving national building efficiency will depend progressively on retrofitting residential, public, and commercial buildings. This article examines an integrated smart-retrofit framework combining building-envelope renovation, efficient heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning systems, heat pumps, high-efficiency equipment, digital monitoring, Building Energy Management Systems, and innovative green-finance mechanisms. A policy and technical assessment are developed using data and retrofit scenarios reported by the International Energy Agency for China’s building sector. The assessment indicates that upgrading heating efficiency may reduce energy consumption by approximately 39%, combined heating and cooling improvements may deliver savings of approximately 53–55%, advanced building automation may reduce consumption by approximately 18–19%, and comprehensive retrofit packages could reduce final energy consumption by about 65% in selected buildings constructed between 1995 and 2010. The article proposes technical performance indicators covering energy-use intensity, peak demand, carbon intensity, HVAC efficiency, thermal comfort, load flexibility, cost savings, and investment performance. It also discusses performance-based subsidies, energy-service-company contracts, green loans, insurance-backed finance, on-bill financing, and carbon-market integration. The findings show that the greatest value is obtained when physical renovation, intelligent operation, measurement and verification, and financial incentives are implemented as an integrated system rather than as isolated interventions.