Influences of occupant preferences for living environments on household energy consumption: A case study of Indonesia

Abstract

Generally, economic factors, demographic factors and home appliances are several known factors that directly influence the level of household energy consumption (HEC). But still, individual differences often remain among the households. This study aims to explore indirect factors affecting HEC in Indonesia, focusing especially on occupant preferences for their living environments. A nationwide online survey (n = 1629) was conducted between July and August 2021 to depict the preferences using the Evaluation Grid Method (EGM) at various scales, including behavioral, interior, building and neighborhood scales. A new EGM approach incorporating text mining methods was developed and demonstrated, which was able to draw the comprehensive overviews of the complex relationships between occupant psychology and the surrounding environment. In the survey, 400 respondents were randomly chosen for each of the four scales and 29 respondents participated in the following online interviews for all scales. The results of EGM were analyzed among different levels of HEC to find the specific psychological factors affecting their HEC levels. The extracted major Original Evaluation Items (OEIs) include “healthy lifestyle” in behavior (10.0 %), “wide place” in interior (3.6 %), “comfortable building” in building (6.4 %) and “cool air” in neighborhood (5.3 %), respectively. The axis of sociability-introvert was found to be a key factor affecting their HEC. Other key factors include the design preferences and leisure preferences. As such, the results revealed several differences in preferences and sense of values among respondents with various levels of HEC. These findings would help find a way to balance between economic growth and energy-saving objectives in the fast-developing countries such as Indonesia.