With the acceleration of urbanization and the increase of commercial buildings, the demand for central air conditioning continues to grow, especially for high-end commercial buildings such as large shopping centers, office buildings, and hotels, which are increasingly dependent on central air conditioning. It is expected that the market size of commercial central air conditioning in China will reach the level of billions by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of about 15%. Below are some policies related to central air conditioning for reference.
In February 2024, the National Development and Reform Commission and six other departments jointly released the "Advanced Energy Efficiency Level, Energy Conservation Level, and Access Level of Key Energy consuming Product Equipment (2024 Edition)", which set specific energy efficiency requirements for energy consuming equipment covering multiple fields such as industry, information and communication, transportation, commercial and household use. Central air conditioning equipment has also achieved comprehensive improvement in energy efficiency indicators under the improvement of energy-saving and carbon reduction standards. In March 2024, the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade in", which gave new impetus to the counter trend growth of the central air conditioning industry. After the State Council issued a document, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the Ministry of Commerce also issued action plans related to equipment updates and the trade in of consumer goods. In May 2024, the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction from 2024 to 2025", which requires that by 2025, the energy conservation and carbon reduction system in the construction industry should be further improved, the green building standards should be fully implemented for new urban buildings, the area of new ultra-low energy consumption and near zero energy consumption buildings should increase by more than 20 million square meters compared to 2023, the area of energy-saving renovation of existing buildings should increase by more than 200 million square meters compared to 2023, the proportion of electricity consumption in building energy consumption should exceed 55%, the substitution rate of renewable energy in urban buildings should reach 8%, and positive progress should be made in energy conservation and carbon reduction in the construction industry. Subsequently, on June 1st, the Chengdu Housing and Urban Rural Development Bureau and six other departments issued the "Several Measures to Promote Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction in the Construction Industry in Chengdu". In January 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued a notice on the implementation of large-scale equipment updates and the policy of exchanging old for new consumer goods in the field of central air conditioning by 2025, which released many positive signals. In February 2025, the Department of Commerce of Liaoning Province issued the "Implementation Rules for the Trade in of Home Appliances in Liaoning Province 2025", demonstrating significant policy support in the field of central air conditioning. The subsidy product categories are diverse, with central air conditioning (including household central air conditioning and air duct units) included in the national subsidy category, enjoying policy dividends along with 12 types of household appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and televisions.