Earth Hour and Exploring Suzhou’s “Future Residential Housing”
Over 100 Suzhou primary and secondary schools students took a trip to the GCL Future Energy Pavilion on the same morning as Earth Hour to see an eco-friendly smart house that operates on wind power, nuclear power, and the IoT.
The Students were given a good look at the prospects of wind, tidal, and nuclear power in the amazing New Energy Town Showcase Area with its high-tech house powered by green energy technology.
The house is made completely of wood, and its amount of embodied energy accounts for only 1/72 that of a concrete house and 1/578 that of a steel-structured house. Solar-power accumulator panels have been installed on the roof. The power generated could not only meets the needs of all the electrical appliances and the heating and cooling systems in the house, it could also decompose water to produce hydrogen, which can in turn be used to power the fuel cells of eco-friendly cars. Wastewater from the house goes through a filtration system, which allows it to be used repeatedly for toilets and other equipment. In addition, the house is completely connected to the IoT: the curtains/blinds, air conditioner, refrigerator, and robot vacuum can be controlled with just the touch of a monitor in the living room.
As introduced, GCL has begun building eco-friendly smart green energy towns in Jurong City. In the near future, such houses will be commonplace.
Earth Hour is a global energy-conservation event that was initiated by the World Wildlife Fund in response to global climate change. On the last Saturday of every March, households and businesses are encouraged to express their support of proactively fighting global climate change by turning off non-essential lights and other energy-consuming products for one hour beginning at 8:30 p.m. of local time. China’s Earth Hour theme this year was “Initiating My 60+ Life.”
The event focused on the issues that have close relationships with community life and do severe harm to the environment to encourage the public to be proactive in changing their lifestyles so as to jointly create a sustainable future.
