This is one in a series of measures officials have thought up and put into a booklet to prepare for a summer which otherwise looks set to become the most expensive ever in energy terms, the China Youth Daily reported.

Peak demand for electricity this year is likely to be 15 percent higher than last year, when parts of China suffered the worst heat wave in half a century, bringing the country's creaking energy infrastructure to the brink of collapse.

Air conditioning is the main culprit, sucking up 40 percent of total electricity consumption in Beijing in the summer months, where temperatures often soar to a sizzling 40 degrees Celsius, the China Daily said.

Officials have proposed that 23 star-graded hotels in the capital set the standard temperature at 23 degrees Celsius (73 degrees Fahrenheit) rather than 22 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit), the paper said.

It is estimated that a one-degree rise in room temperatures will lead to an eight-percent decline in costs, according to reports.

However, to show that not just visitors to the city should suffer, Beijing's Commission of Development and Reform has set an example.

While the commission's air-con was previously on 24 hours a day, even if no one was in the office, it will now be operating only in the daytime.

TERRA.WIRE