Household Energy Research Articles

Impacts of workplace automation on energy poverty: The new challenge of achieving SDG 7 in the context of technological revolution

This paper systematically examines how workplace automation impacts energy poverty from a demand-side perspective, revealing a new challenge for Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG 7) in the context of technological revolution. Our research demonstrates that workplace automation significantly increases household energy poverty. This finding is robust when using the instrumental variable approach to tackle endogeneity, as well as employing different automation and energy poverty measures, placebo tests, and machine learning methods for robustness checks. Automation's impact mechanism is that it reduces people's income and work-related social capital, thus exposing households to higher risks of energy poverty. Moreover, its consequences are more prominent for rural households, less educated people, non-migrants, those without labor contracts, non trade-union members, and out-of-system workers. Thus enhancing human capital, promoting free movement of workers, and providing better labor protection contribute to weakening the adverse impact of the technological shock. Meanwhile, we find that improving the price reasonability, stability, security and accessibility of energy supply can also mitigate the negative effects of workplace automation on household energy consumption. In the dual context of the fourth technological revolution promoting industrial automation as well as the increasing urgency to achieve SDG 7, findings of this paper have important policy implications.

Addressing energy insecurity: Policy Considerations for enhancing energy assistance programs

Household energy consumption is crucial for a productive and safe life. Despite its importance, 33.7 million U.S. households experienced energy insecurity in 2020. This paper examines the prevalence, correlates, and effects of energy bill assistance programs, which aim to alleviate the hardship. This analysis relies on logistic regressions and the 2020 Residential Energy Consumption Survey, a nationally representative survey administered by the Energy Information Administration. Results reveal 16 percent of the energy insecure population received assistance to pay its energy bill in 2020. Several socioeconomic and housing characteristics are associated with receipt of assistance; however, logistic regression estimates suggest prior participation in energy assistance and receipt of a disconnection notice from a utility provider are indicators substantively and significantly associated with energy assistance participation that warrant attention from scholars and practitioners. Lastly, outcomes generally indicate previous participation in energy assistance does not impact the odds a household will experience energy insecurity. Based on findings, I offer three policy recommendations: 1) increase resources spent on energy assistance to align with demand; 2) enhance communication between utility providers and low-income households regarding available assistance opportunities; and 3) prioritize engagement with populations that never participated in energy assistance to facilitate successful application processes.

Impact of solar-driven heating strategies on the phase change thermal storage performance of erythritol.

With escalating energy demands, solar power stands out for its abundance and renewable advantages, presenting a paramount sustainable solution. Herein, we tactically incorporate phase change material (PCM) into solar energy systems, resulting in substantial enhancements in energy storage and utilization. Through numerical simulations, the thermal dynamics and phase change processes associated with various heating methodologies are investigated, aiming to achieve optimal thermal performance and energy efficiency. Detailed analysis of temperature dynamics within the PCM under two distinct heating methods reveals pivotal thermal fluctuations in both the PCM and water during heat release. The results indicate that bottom heating promptly induces rayleigh convection, resulting in a uniform temperature and a stable phase interface, which are desirable for heat transfer. In contrast, central tube heating concentrates heat transfer in the upper PCM layer, leading to an uneven phase interface and thermal stratification. Configurations with two horizontally aligned heating tubes result in a 36% reduction in melting duration compared to the single central tube setup, highlighting enhanced efficiency. Additionally, the bottom heating approach demonstrates improved energy storage efficiency in both the initial and second heating cycles. These findings highlight the potential of PCM-integrated combined heating systems for solar energy capture, confirming their efficiency and practicality in addressing modern household energy demands.

Smart energy management in residential buildings: the impact of knowledge and behavior

A new technology called smart energy management makes use of IoT concepts to enhance energy efficiency and lower waste in structures. The goal of this study is to comprehend how household energy management knowledge affects energy usage, user behavior, related expenses, and environmental effect. Through a survey of 100 valid replies in Palestine, the research model assessed the knowledge and consumption habits of building occupants. Smart PLS software was used to analyze the research model using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Using path coefficients and behavior as a mediating variable, the structural model connected the latent variables. The mediation hypotheses were tested using the Preacher and Hayes method, and the indirect effect and confidence intervals were estimated and calculated using bootstrapping. The findings demonstrated that by lowering energy use and enhancing overall building performance, residential buildings that implement smart energy consumption management systems may move toward a more sustainable future. Furthermore, the study found that education and awareness campaigns are necessary to increase residents’ knowledge of these systems to promote energy savings. The results also indicated statistically significant indirect effects, supporting the existence of mediation of the behavior construct. Path coefficient values and P-values were presented to further support the study’s hypotheses. Such smart energy management systems represent an important innovation in building management and can help create more sustainable and efficient buildings.

The impact of adopting an energy information system on household energy consumption: a dynamic difference-in-differences approach

ABSTRACT This study analyzes effects of adopting an energy information system on energy use based on the advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in South Korea. Adopting the AMI was randomly assigned by the Korean Government. However, the adoption timing varies across household, making it difficult to apply an ordinary difference-in-difference (DID) approach to measure the impact, given the variation in adoption timing across households. We use a dynamic DID that is suitable for estimating a causal effect of a policy whose treatment timing differs depending upon the individual. Results indicate that AMI adoption led to a reduction in household electricity consumption, peaking within 18 months after adoption with a slight rebound effect. Our findings suggest that providing information on energy consumption and cost in the household sector can significantly reduce electricity use by as much as one quarter of average monthly consumption. Reducing electricity use in households can be achieved in several ways, including monetary incentives as well as personal and social feedback provided by adopting the AMI, implying the importance of a dissemination policy.

Income distribution and sustainable development nexus: Fostering poverty reduction and integrated sustainability amidst multi-dimensional regional integration

This study investigates the impact of income distribution as poverty reduction on sustainable development (SD), by taking the moderating role multidimensional regional integration (MRII) in fostering the integrated sustainability across 64 Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) countries from 2005 to 2020. Utilising Sys-GMM methodology, the findings support the notion that countries within the BRI are theoretically aligned with a sustainable development path as suggested by economic theory. Moreover, MRII significantly contributes to the integrated sustainability path. The direct channel analysis reveals a negative yet significant effect of income distribution on sustainable development, indicating an increase in disparity and capital management system. Conversely, the indirect channel suggests a reduction in disparity and regionally integrated BRI boost the sustainable poverty reduction. This study identifies positive contributions from macroeconomic conditions, institutional quality, and population size to BRI countries' sustainable development. Additionally, it suggests the inefficient utilisation of resources by BRI countries, particularly in government consumption. The study underscores the need for enhanced regional policies aimed at increasing income and reducing poverty to foster sustainable development. Upcoming research should investigate the unexplored effects of household consumption, financial inclusion, financial aid, and energy poverty influence on integrated sustainability, regarding global financial integration.

Characteristics, Drivers and Transitions of Household Energy Consumption in China: An Overview

Energy plays a crucial role in our daily lives, not only as a basis for survival and development, but also as a national strategy. This paper focuses on household energy consumption, which is a key factor in promoting economic development and social progress. Globally, household energy consumption accounts for 25-30% of the total energy consumption, and in China it accounts for 12.4% of the total national energy consumption, making it the second largest force after the first major energy consumer. Since household energy consumption is closely related to climate change, ecological quality, and population health, this paper analyzes the current situation of household energy in China, and conducts a literature review from three key aspects: first, it discusses in depth the characteristics and trends of household energy consumption, and reveals its important position in the global and domestic consumption patterns; second, it examines the drivers that influence household energy consumption, including household size, economic level, geographic location, and many other factors; finally, it focuses on household energy transition and explores the key issues of sustainable energy and green low-carbon transition. Through the review of the literature, this paper aims to provide an in-depth understanding for future research and policy development to effectively address the environmental, ecological and social issues that may arise from household energy consumption.

Energy Household Forecast with ANN for Demand Response and Demand Side Management

This paper presents a short term load forecasting with artificial neural networks. Despite the great imprevisibility, it is possible to forecast the electricity consumption of a household with some accuracy, similarly to that the electricity utilities can do to an agglomerate of households. Nowadays, in an existing electric grid, it is important to understand and forecast household daily or hourly consumption with a reliable model for electric energy consumption and load profile. Demand response programs required this information to adequate the profile of energy load diagram to generation. In the short term load forecasting model, artificial neural networks were used, with a consumption records database. The results show that the artificial neural networks approach provides a reliable model for forecasting household electric energy consumption and load profile. To do so and using smart devices such as cyber-physical systems monitoring, gathering and computing in real time a database with weekdays and weekend, can improve forecasts results for the next hours, a strong tool for Demand Response and Demand Side Management.

Unravelling the Proportion of Food Expenditure and Energy Consumption on Food Security: Evidence from Smallholders’ Clove Farmers in Indonesia

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the proportion of food consumption expenditure to clove farmer household expenditures, as well as the energy and protein consumption and food security conditions of clove farmer households in Indonesia. Theoretical Framework: Hunger eradication and food security remain critical development challenges, particularly in developing nations such as Indonesia. Poorer households spend a large proportion of their income on basic needs, including food. However, as their income increases, they divert more of their income towards buying higher quality goods and services, thereby reducing the proportion that goes into food. Method: This research was conducted on 30 clove farming communities using a purposive sampling technique. In in-depth interviews, all informants responded to the researcher's questions using precise, in-depth, and easy-to-understand phrases. Data analysis was carried out by reducing data, presenting data and drawing conclusions and verification. Result and Conclusion: The results showed that the average proportion of non-food expenditure to total household expenditure of clove farmers in the study locations was 54.45%, while the proportion of food consumption expenditure to total expenditure was 45.55%. This suggests that non-food consumption spending accounts for a significant portion of farmer household expenditure. Meanwhile, the average energy and protein consumption of rice farming households was 1995.81 kcal/person/day and 88.65 grams/person/day, respectively. Implication Of Research: These findings imply that clove farmers have a sufficient amount of energy and protein. It may be stated that clove farmers in the research area have very excellent food security, with no food insecure households.

Enhanced radiative cooling with Janus optical properties for low-temperature space cooling

Abstract Passive daytime radiative cooling that could provide sub-ambient cooling emerges as a promising technology to reduce household energy consumption. Nonetheless, prevailing studies are predominantly focused on surface cooling, often overlooking its adaptability to enclosed spaces with active cooling technologies. Here we present a multilayer radiative cooling film (J-MRC) with Janus optical properties in the mid-infrared region, consisting of the nanoporous polyethylene films, the polyethylene oxide film, and silver nanowires. The top side of the J-MRC functions as a conventional radiative cooling material to supply sub-ambient surface cooling, while the bottom side with low mid-infrared emissivity transfers limited heat via thermal radiation to the low-temperature enclosures. Our experiments validate that the J-MRC possesses an enhanced space cooling performance in comparison to the conventional radiative cooling film. This work provides a valuable design concept for radiative cooling materials, thereby expanding their practical scenarios and contributing to reduce the carbon emission.

Value-Addition in Biomass for enhanced Household Energy Security in Navakholo Sub-County, Kenya

Although firewood is still the dominant source of energy in the majority of rural households in Navakholo, its sustainable availability is threatened by a steady decline in tree cover as much land gets converted to agricultural use. Opportunities for expanding energy security in such places reside in previously untapped potential for value addition on biomass energy sources. The broad objective of this research was to enhance availability and access to biomass energy while at the same time conserving tree cover for posterity. The specific objective was to assess opportunities for energy security through value-addition on available biomass energy sources. Data was collected using a questionnaire survey and focus group discussions in each of the five Wards of the Sub-County. Descriptive statistics and content analysis of responses were used to analyse the data and generate knowledge to inform future decision-making. Although Navakholo sub-county is a maize and sugarcane zone, results showed that value-addition practices on these two biomass energy sources such as through briquetting are non-existent. Much of the maize cobs are directly used as low energy fuel or simply left to rot away. Cow dung, which has a potential for energy provision through conversion into energy balls is usually used as manure in the farm. In addition, investment in biogas production is untapped because of the high initial costs. Only rudimentary approaches such as use of saw dust in cook stoves, and extinguishing firewood and charcoal after the day’s cooking are used to ease the pressure on available firewood. Although charcoal is a value-added product on wood fuel, respondents did not see it from that perspective. It was instead viewed as an energy alternative for those who could afford it. Opportunities for other value-added products like briquettes from charcoal, dust, saw dust and sugarcane cutting singly or in blended form remains unexploited. With appropriate exposure and capacity building on binder material and supply of press equipment, availability of biomass energy can be increased through the conversion of readily available maize cobs into briquettes. Secondary feedstock like cow dung, charcoal dust and saw dust may also be converted or used as binder material.

Beyond short-term savings: A ten-year analysis of energy efficiency program outcomes in swiss households

This paper investigates the enduring impacts of Swiss energy efficiency programs on household electricity use and on the continuation of energy-conserving practices. Employing a mixed-methods research design, we analyzed electricity consumption data from 2009 to 2019 and incorporated insights from 2840 survey responses collected in 2018. Findings reveal sustained reductions in electricity use and continued adoption of energy-efficient appliances among program participants, underscoring the role of non-financial incentives—particularly environmental awareness—in promoting long-lasting energy conservation behaviors. Socio-cultural factors emerged as more indicative of household energy use than social status. Scaling the results to the national level, we estimate a potential annual energy saving of 2400 GWh, equivalent to 13 % of Swiss household electricity consumption in 2009. The paper advocates energy policies that prioritize engagement and periodic reinforcement to enhance long-term program efficacy.

Research on energy consumption in household sector: a comprehensive review based on bibliometric analysis

Households are an important sector in carrying out human development activities, accounting for more than 30% of the total global energy consumption. The continued growth of household energy consumption (HEC) and carbon emissions is threatening economic and environmental sustainability. This review focuses on the research in the field of HEC and conducts a bibliometric analysis of research articles from the Web of Science Core Collection since 2000. The results show that: 1) HEC research has undergone rapid development since 2014, and interdisciplinary fusion and collaborative research have become dominant trends. 2) Keyword co-occurrence analysis clearly identifies the current urgent themes, including energy demand and its determinants, environmental impact factors and assessments, and energy-saving technologies and emission reduction measures. 3) The analysis of citations reveals that economic models, such as input-output models and life cycle assessment, are frequently employed in the field of HEC. Based on a summary of household energy-saving and emissions reduction work, this paper critically discusses the limitations of existing measures such as smart home technology, sustainable energy systems, and behavioral interventions. The main directions for promoting household energy-saving development in the future are identified: including improving the security and customer engagement of smart home technology, focusing on the availability and stability of sustainable energy, and paying more attention to low-income and aging households in behavioral intervention measures. One of the important obstacles facing research is how to reduce energy management efficiency and usage costs through technology and policy.

Improved static membrane-free zinc‑bromine batteries by an efficient bromine complexing agent

Zinc‑bromine batteries (ZBBs) are very promising in distributed and household energy storage due to their high energy density and long lifetime. However, the disadvantages of existing zinc‑bromine flow batteries, including complicated structure, high cost for manufacturing and maintenance, limited their large-scale applications seriously. Additionally, polybromide anions during the charging process of ZBBs will result in the problem of self-discharge. Here, a static membrane-free ZBB (SMF-ZBB) structure has been proposed, in which the phenyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (PTMAB) works as a bromine complexing agent (BCA). Because PTMAB has a feature of strong polarity, it can be combined well with polybromide anions to reduce the self-discharge effectively. Furthermore, it can also reduce the internal resistance of electrolytes and improve the energy density of SMF-ZBB. Compared with the blank electrolyte, the coulombic efficiency (CE) of the battery with PTMAB addition was increased by 10 % at 20 mA/cm2. The CE with a value of 93.1 % can be well maintained even after >5000 cycles at 10 mA/cm2. The results show that the introduction of PTMAB into the electrolytes can improve the CE and energy efficiency (EE) effectively.

An ensemble neural network model for predicting the energy utility in individual houses

With the rapid increase in the world's human population and the advancement of technology, energy utilization has substantially increased. To sustain a stable stream of energy, it is vital to anticipate power utilization beforehand. This issue makes predicting short-term electrical time series use difficult. In this research, the user proposed a neural network with a deep learning prototype that performs energy prediction by combining. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Feed Forward Neural Networks (FFNN). In order to enhance the performance, the ensemble FFNN-LSTM network and the Stationary Wavelet Transform (SWT) method are combined to create a hybrid deep learning algorithm. The SWT's reduction of instability and expansion of data dimensionality may improve the FFNN-LSTM forecasting accuracy. The suggested technique's predicting effectiveness is even further improved by the ensemble Long short-term neural network. On the basis of a real-world household energy usage database gathered by the "UK-DALE" project, validation studies were carried out. Researchers determined that the LSTM-FFNN based SWT produced a better result in terms of accuracy and energy utilization than other existing results after contrasting the experimental findings to the baseline, which is the conventional LSTM and Moving Average (MA) based upon the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) score.

A hybrid solar–biogas system for post-COVID-19 rural energy access

Abstract Solar home systems for rural electrification are often designed with a limited energy supply, which presents a drawback for the technology. Furthermore, uncontrolled livestock faeces in rural communities constitute environmental sanitation and health risks. Livestock excrement can be used through a biogas digester to supplement solar energy to provide adequate and sustainable electricity access to underserved rural communities while achieving waste management. Therefore, this study presents a hybrid solar–biogas system for a more dynamic energy supply and waste management for post-Covid recovery plans in rural communities. A parametric research approach that involves the use of the Integrated Environment Solution Virtual Environment software application and mathematical models to design the desired household load and the hybrid system sizing is used in the study. The findings show that the daily household energy consumption was 6.6 kWh, equivalent to 206.40 kWh/month. A 1.2-kWp and 1.2-m3 hybrid solar–biogas system was found to adequately power the house. Financially, the total initial investment cost of the system was $5777.20 with a net present value of $6566.78, net profit of $4443.6, a payback period of 14 years and 8 months, and a levelized cost of energy of $0.21/kWh; these include a 60% initial investment and maintenance costs subsidy. Energy performance contracting and energy-as-a-service were recommended to effectively run and operate the system. The study successfully revealed the design, specifications and upscaling mechanism of the proposed hybrid solar–biogas system. More research is required to unveil the efficacy of the system, the performance gap and the perception of the technology by the beneficiaries.

Auction-based peer-to-peer energy trading considering echelon utilization of retired electric vehicle second-life batteries

Lately, the growing emergence of electric vehicles (EVs) brings problems of retired batteries proliferation. Seeking effective application scenarios targeting echelon utilization of retired EV second-life batteries (EVSLBs) becomes important. This paper proposes an auction-based P2P energy trading approach in a residential community market that incorporates retired EVSLBs utilization. A unified P2P energy trading model is proposed to coordinate the economic layer and the physical layer. In the economic layer, the household energy management system (HEMS) of each agent is in charge of operating and market bidding through optimization models to maximize their net profit. Comprehensive operation models of fresh batteries and retired EVSLBs have been proposed and embedded into HEMS models. The battery life degradation issue is also considered by calculating the cycling cost. The P2P energy trading is conducted by a double-sided auction method with an average pricing market (APM) mechanism, in which the re-bidding process is allowed. In the physical layer, voltage issues and line congestion management are considered. There is a community manager in the P2P market to ensure the economic layer decisions do not violate the constraints in the physical layer. The proposed models are tested on the modified IEEE 33-bus distribution system and the comparison between new batteries and retired EVSLBs in the community market is discussed based on the simulation results. The echelon utilization effectiveness of EVSLBs in residential P2P trading has been verified as well.

Reducing energy poverty by nearly universal pension coverage of rural China

This paper estimates the causal effect of income change on reducing energy poverty by exploiting age-based eligibility for China’s New Rural Pension Scheme (NRPS) through a regression discontinuity (RD) design. More than one billion people worldwide live in energy poverty, and the situation is even more difficult in developing world. It is an important development challenge to reduce energy poverty, which could be further associated with health outcome, labor productivity, and educational achievements. While public policies that increase income for poor households are the most direct ways to reduce energy poverty, the reverse causality makes establishing a convincing causal link between income and energy poverty challenging. Using the quasi-experimental variation in income induced by NRPS, this paper addresses the endogeneity of income and examines the impact of exogenous sharp changes in income on energy consumption behaviors. The findings indicate substantial increases in modern energy consumption and sizable reductions in solid fuels (e.g., straw and fuelwood), suggesting that “windfall income” by pension coverage alleviates energy poverty. Although individuals could anticipate the income shocks by pension coverage, the evidence suggests that they do not engage in anticipatory responses to smooth their consumption. Further evidence shows that liquidity constraints may be the underlying mechanism for the lack of anticipatory responses in household energy consumption. Besides reducing energy poverty, the results demonstrate that pension coverage leads to a decrease in elderly labor supply, an increase in subjective health and life satisfaction, and an increase in non-energy consumption, all of which are positively associated with the well-beings of senior citizens. We anticipate that the findings of this paper in the context of China may be extended to developing world which has been expected to set up targeted measures to tackle energy poverty in upcoming decades.

Can information technology construction alleviate household energy poverty? Empirical evidence from the “broadband China” Pilot Policy

Energy poverty poses a significant challenge to global sustainable development. With the rapid advancement of information technology, understanding its role in alleviating energy poverty holds great practical significance. This paper conducts a case study of the “Broadband China” pilot policy implemented by the Chinese government and utilizes panel data from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) over the 2012–2018 period. In a difference-in-differences framework, we empirically investigate the alleviation effects of information technology construction on household energy poverty and its underlying mechanisms. The main findings indicate that (1) information technology construction significantly alleviates household energy poverty and demonstrates a sustained alleviation effect. These results remain valid after a series of robustness tests. (2) Heterogeneity analysis suggests that factors such as the regional economic development level and geographical location distribution can cause varying impacts of information technology on alleviating energy poverty. (3) Mechanism analysis reveals that information technology construction can alleviate household energy poverty through two potential channels: raising residents’ income levels and enhancing their environmental awareness. The conclusions of this paper provide valuable insights into leveraging information technology construction to alleviate energy poverty.

Synergistic effects of regional environmental governance on alleviating energy poverty and promoting household decarbonization

Alleviating energy poverty and lowering carbon emissions are two crucial goals that can help achieve sustainable regional development. However, to make this a reality, it is vital to understand the relationship between environmental governance and these goals, especially at the household level. This study utilizes microdata from the 2012–2020 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) to construct models. We examine the synergies between reducing household energy poverty and emissions mitigation under regional policies, aiming to solve the long-standing energy poverty problem and reduce carbon emissions. Our findings emphasize that China's environmental governance exhibits significant synergies by concurrently addressing household energy security and promoting carbon reductions through integrated policy approaches. The efficacy and synergy depend critically on optimizing energy consumption structure, decreasing carbon intensity, and enabling technological advancement. These insights highlight the importance of top-level government design in balancing energy security and emissions reductions. Recommendations include establishing a robust governance framework to coordinate energy and climate goals while integrating climate and ecological governance regulations. The income-differentiated analysis provides valuable guidance for policymakers seeking to alleviate energy poverty and strengthen decarbonization, underscoring the importance of targeted interventions for disadvantaged households.