Household Energy Consumption Behavior Research Articles

The role of household energy consumption behavior in environmental policy outcomes —the case of driving restriction policy in zhengzhou

The evaluation of the environmental effects of the driving restriction policy often sparks widespread discussions in the literature due to its complex and controversial assessment methods. Fewer studies have delved into the exploration of household energy consumption behavior, the role played by the targeted subjects of policy implementation, and the policy's impact on climate change. This paper focuses on the case of Zhengzhou, a city in China, to thoroughly discuss the formulation process of the driving restriction policy. By utilizing publicly available statistical data and conducting surveys among 795 households, this research employs statistical methods such as regression discontinuity, difference-in-differences estimation, and improved causal stepwise regression to quantitatively estimate the environmental consequences of the driving restriction policy. It also examines the impact of changes in residents' consumption behavior on policy effects and climate change under this policy shock. The study aims at bridging the gap between environmental policy effects, individual behavior changes, and climate change research. Our findings indicate that the driving restriction policy is effective in the short term, significantly improving air quality. However, due to the stickiness of residents' household consumption behavior and the adaptive adjustments in long-term travel behavior, the pollution-reducing effects of the policy gradually weaken and even exacerbate air pollution, resulting in an additional increase of approximately 147,950 tons of carbon dioxide emissions after the policy had been implemented for nine months. Therefore, this paper further suggests that implementing environmental policies requires close coordination with adjustments in household energy consumption behavior.

Everyday Energy Information Literacy and Attitudes towards Energy-Related Decisions: Gender Differences among Finns

Many household-level decisions are made in families and, in studies, gender has been found to be an important factor affecting both household energy consumption behavior and household-level decisions related to energy use. This article scrutinizes everyday energy information literacy (EEIL) based on qualitative data collected from Finnish households in 2018 and reflects the findings by the gender differences that emerged from the quantitative analysis. The data (n = 415) included Finnish households (n = 323) and the residents of Ii municipality (n = 92), a pioneering municipality striving for carbon neutrality. The results indicate that there are gender differences in the dimensions of EEIL. Scrutinizing the qualitative data revealed the nuances of the differences. The qualitative data brought depth to the analysis by deciphering examples of respondents’ views and perceived challenges in improving energy efficiency at home. The examples also illustrate the respondents’ need for energy counselling and trusted parties from whom they hope information and advice. The article provides new information on gender differences in EEIL. Gaining more information on different groups and their attitudes, capabilities, and preferences helps to achieve carbon neutrality targets as a society. The results may be utilized in tailored communication for specific target groups and in communities’ decision making and policies.

Why Low-Carbon Publicity Effect Limits? The Role of Heterogeneous Intention in Reducing Household Energy Consumption

Low-carbon knowledge is seen as having a key role in interfering with household energy consumption behaviors by wide consensus from political and academic areas. Whether low-carbon publicity will help to reduce household energy consumption is still in dispute. By constructing an integrated knowledge-intention-behavior model and using 1335 detailed survey questionnaires of household energy behavior in Henan Province, the central area in China, this paper finds that in the developing area low-carbon knowledge or publicity cannot positively impact household energy-saving behavior even if mediated by energy awareness and energy-saving attitudes. Low-carbon knowledge does improve energy-saving attitude and attitude does not decrease household energy consumption directly. Familiarity with particular energy-saving knowledge would decrease the household energy consumption but not significantly in the statistics. Path analysis unfolds the reason that the heterogeneous effects of purchase-based intention and habitual intention explain energy consumption behavior. Subgroup analysis supports those economic factors of income and energy prices play key roles in explaining such household energy consumption behavior in the rapid urbanization area. This paper gives new evidence on the residential energy-saving behavior intervention among developing areas.

ASSESSING THE FACTORS OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR IN URBAN AREA

This paper focuses on delineation of ecological viability due to changes of household energy consumption behavior. Then the research also explored the factors (Environmental resources) behind growing ecological footprint. For having a lot of natural elements and high residential characteristics ward-4 of Khulna city was selected as study area. The research followed a three step approaches. At first, geographical and topographical data are analyzed in geo-spatial environment. Which helped to draw the Environmental Performance framework. Geographical Information system (GIS) helps to evaluate the current scenario and past scenario of the resource compatibility of some existing assets. The second phase is all about assessing the residents’ behavior towards energy consumption practice and the influencing factors behind this. The third part showed the environmental performance index (EPI) that include both the socio-economic problems and environmental circumstances using NSA method under the explanatory variables of environmental impact assessment (EIA). Essential natural assets especially water body and the vegetation has decreased at tremendous rate in recent time in Ward-4 with the enhancement of buildup area. This research is totally based on stakeholder perception towards energy consumption pattern and all the further assessment depend on this concept. To assess the behavioral changing factors, it seems that the correlation between income range and energy consumption is positive and linear. It represents that people want to switch high energy consumption appliances with growing wealth. Third phase assess environmental health (measure threat to human health) and ecological vitality (measures ecosystem service and natural resources) under environmental performance index. As the study is mostly involved local residents of study area so the method of neighborhood sustainability Assessment (NSA) is combined with EPI method for scoring the indicators. The approximate score of Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is around 53 percent demarcating the areas existing situation is in moderate rate and diverted from the standard value. This research draw attention to find out environment viability of ward-4 by measuring environmental stress to human health and ecosystem for providing practical guidance to government that aspire to move towards sustainable future.

Household energy consumption and adaptation behavior during crisis: Evidence from Indian economic blockade on Nepal

This paper analyzes the energy consumption behavior of urban households in Nepal during the energy crisis induced by the unofficial Indian economic blockade in 2015. Our findings suggest that urban households have a smaller marginal utility attached to the consumption of one more unit of electricity relative to other dirty energy sources like firewood. The 2015 economic blockade had some deteriorating impacts on a household fuel choice as they were forced to degrade to firewood for cooking. However, to some extent, the blockade also seems to have acted as a push factor for some households towards cleaner sources like electricity largely due to the distrust in the supply of petroleum fuels. There is a variation in energy consumption behavior of households, which is explained by different demographic and socioeconomic attributes of the household. Households with a better educated head and those headed by a female are generally more amenable to cleaner fuels such as electricity. On the other hand, larger households and those residing outside the Kathmandu valley are less likely to make the jump to cleaner fuels. House ownership and number of rooms used were found to have no significant association with the energy consumption behavior of households residing in urban Nepal.

The Impact of Smart Meter Installation on Attitude Change Towards Energy Consumption Behavior Among Northern Ireland Households

The continuous development of energy management systems, coupled with a growing population, and increasing energy consumption, highlights the necessity to develop a deep understanding of household energy consumption behavior and interventions that facilitate behavioral change. Using a data mining segmentation technique, 2,505 Northern Ireland households were segmented into four distinctive profiles, based on their energy consumption patterns, socio-demographic, and dwelling characteristics. The change in attitude towards energy consumption behavior was analyzed to evaluate the impact of smart meter feedback as well. The key finding was 81% of trial participants perceived smart meters to be helpful in reducing their energy consumption. In addition, we found that the potential to reduce energy bills and environmental concerns were the strongest motivations for behavior change.

Rural household energy consumption behavior with neural network approach: A case study

Rural household energy consumption behavior with neural network approach: A case study

A review on household energy consumption behavior: how about migrated consumers?

This paper reviews the literature on energy consumption behavior for both domestic and migrated/displaced population and aims to recommend crucial policy measures for creating awareness on the energy efficiency. Consumers’ adoption to the efficient usage of energy varies depending on demographic, behavioral and situational dynamics in their households and societies. The regional or national strategies to implement efficient technologies for the consumer engagement are crucial to change their behaviors. Migrants affect the energy usage patterns in the host country due to their different usage behaviors. Any type of measures for migrated population should include available, acceptable, accessible and affordable energy efficiency applications to engage them with the domestic population.

Determinants of household energy use and fuel switching behavior in Nepal

This paper analyzes the energy selection behavior of Nepalese households, specifically the effects of socio-demographic factors on the energy mix. To overcome the limitations of prior research and to accurately model household energy selection and consumption behavior simultaneously, this study uses the multiple discrete continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model. The empirical analysis was performed on data from the Annual Household Survey (AHS) conducted by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) of Nepal. The results show that lower education levels of the household and private house ownership are linked to the consumption of fuels such as firewood and kerosene, whereas ownership of information and communications technology (ICT) devices and access to renewable energy lead to a preferred selection of more modern, cleaner fuels. The results provide implications for policy measures supporting a shift towards the use of cleaner fuels such as LPG and electricity to overcome the negative effects of traditional fuels on personal health and the environment.

Impact of Ageing and Generational Effects on Household Energy Consumption Behavior: Evidence from Pakistan

Demographic shift is a worldwide phenomenon, which is mainly common among industrialized nations. However, in the age of fast technology transfer and globalization policy makers cannot undervalue population aging in developing countries, like Pakistan. The relationship between population aging, combined with joint family system, and energy demand has gained importance in Pakistan during the recent times. On the basis of a detailed analysis of micro data spanning over period of 16 years, this study explores the role of generational behavior towards energy consumption, while considering the effects of cohort and age, along with other determinants of energy demand. The decomposition of energy consumption exhibits significant differences in cohort and age effects. The study concludes that, in addition to aging effects, policy makers cannot ignore the recent generation’s trends of spending increasingly more on energy than previous generations.

A dynamic active energy demand management system for evaluating the effect of policy scheme on household energy consumption behavior

To reduce the continuously increasing energy consumption in the household sector, including residential and private transport sectors, it is important to design a proper policy scheme to regulate household energy demand. However, determining how to evaluate the collective effect of multiple countermeasures in one policy scheme on household energy related behavior is very challenging; furthermore, the potential interactions between policies due to the timing effect cannot be overlooked. Under these concerns, this study provides a quantitative methodology by developing a DAEDMS (dynamic active energy demand management system) that can evaluate the overall effects of urban planning, soft policies for improving household/individual awareness, technology-improvement/rebate policies, market end-use diffusion control, and social-interaction oriented policies. The timing effect is directly incorporated by allowing the free setting of the execution period for each policy. Building on this demand management system, the quantified policy schemes and the pathways that can reach the target of energy conservation become straightforward, providing helpful support for policy planning. Besides, the variant effectiveness of policy schemes due to different policy timings admonishes the policy makers to realize that the current fragmented regime of policy making between different departments is undesirable for capturing the genuine effect of all of the policies.

Modeling household energy consumption behavior: A comparative analysis

Household decisions on the energy consumption behavior are with regard to the situations that multiple end-uses (e.g., domestic appliances and vehicles) are simultaneously hold and consumed. To deal with this issue, the multiple discrete–continuous models are the best choices from the behavioral perspective. This study compared two types of utility theory-based multiple discrete–continuous models, which are widely applied in the literature: multiple discrete–continuous extreme value (MDCEV) model and the improved resource allocation model based on the multi-linear function (RAM-MLF). A household energy consumption survey was carried out in Beijing in 2010, and the comparative analysis on the performance of these two models is carried out based on the survey data. Results show that the overall performance of RAM-MLF is slightly superior to the MDCEV model due to the incorporation of the inter-end-use interaction and the relative importance of end uses. Moreover, the utility structure by using the satiation parameters to represent the diminishing marginal utility with the increasing consumption shows better fitness than the structure only using the logarithmic function. These findings can be contributed to understand the household energy consumption behavior, while suggest the potential improvement of the model structure, which is mainly focused on the utility form and the decision making mechanism.

Evaluating the direct and indirect rebound effects in household energy consumption behavior: A case study of Beijing

This paper examines whether increases in energy efficiency of major household items cause additional short-run utilization of these end uses and other end uses for households in Beijing. An integrated model is first developed by combining a Logit model and a resource allocation model, where the former represents the choice of end-use ownership and the latter describes the end-use usage. The rebound effects are finally obtained from calculating the own- and cross-elasticities based on the prediction. The empirical results show that for refrigerators, electric fans, gas showers, TVs, and PCs, no evident rebound occurs; while for air conditioners, clothes washers, microwave ovens, and cars, either a direct rebound effect or an indirect rebound effect exists significantly. The respective average upper bound of direct rebound effects for them are 60.76%, 106.81%, 100.79%, and 33.61%, suggesting a possibility of backfire for the clothes washers and microwave ovens, while the respective upper bound of total rebound effects are 88.95%, 100.36%, 626.58%, and 31.61%. Furthermore, increasing the efficiency of air conditioners and cars can definitely reduce the total household energy consumption during the use phase.

Analysis of the residential location choice and household energy consumption behavior by incorporating multiple self-selection effects

It is expected that the residential location choice and household energy consumption behavior might correlate with each other. Besides, due to the existence of self-selection effects, the observed inter-relationship between them might be the spurious result of the fact that some unobserved variables are causing both. These concerns motivate us to (1) consider residential location choice and household energy consumption behavior (for both in-home appliances and out-of-home cars) simultaneously and, (2) explicitly control self-selection effects so as to capture a relatively true effect of land-use policy on household energy consumption behavior. An integrated model termed as joint mixed Multinomial Logit-Multiple Discrete-Continuous Extreme Value model is presented here to identify the sensitivity of household energy consumption to land use policy by considering multiple self-selection effects. The model results indicate that land-use policy do play a great role in changing Beijing residents’ energy consumption pattern, while the self-selection effects cannot be ignored when evaluating the effect of land-use policy. Based on the policy scenario design, it is found that increasing recreational facilities and bus lines in the neighborhood can greatly promote household's energy-saving behavior. Additionally, the importance of “soft policy” and package policy is also emphasized in the context of Beijing.

Comparative Analysis on Household Energy Consumption Behavior in Asia Megacities by Considering the Effects of Car Ownership and Self-selection

Comparative Analysis on Household Energy Consumption Behavior in Asia Megacities by Considering the Effects of Car Ownership and Self-selection

Comparative Analysis on Household Energy Consumption Behavior in Asia Megacities by Considering the Effects of Car Ownership and Self-selection

Comparative Analysis on Household Energy Consumption Behavior in Asia Megacities by Considering the Effects of Car Ownership and Self-selection