Energy choice in rural household cooking and heating: influencing factors and transformation patterns

Abstract

In China, the traditional biomass, coal, and other highly polluting energy sources used by rural households have had many negative effects on the environment and the health of residents. To explore the influencing factors of energy consumption choices in rural household cooking and heating in China and to promote more modern, efficient, and clean energy consumption modes for rural household cooking and heating, this article builds a multinomial logit model for theoretical analysis based on interview and survey data in rural areas of central and eastern China from January to February 2017. The results show that (1) biomass energy still occupies an important position in the life of Chinese rural households; (2) the driving factors for the cooking and heating energy choices of rural residents in central and eastern China include the number of appliances, family type, family members' leisure, heating demand, and natural endowment; and (3) because of the above main influencing factors, some policies that conform to the background of the times, such as household appliances upgrade policies and centralized housing policies, are worthy of government consideration.