From Linear Fuel Switching to Multiple Cooking Strategies: A Critique and Alternative to the Energy Ladder Model

Exposure assessment for respirable particulates associated with household fuel use in rural districts of Andhra Pradesh, India

“…move up the ''energy ladder'' 2 ); in localized situations, however, the picture is often complex. In many rural areas, households often employ a ''multiple model'' of stove and energy use in which households stretch across two or more steps of the energy ladder and fuel substitution is often not complete or unidirectional (Masera et al, 2000;Smith et al, 2000). Given the widespread prevalence of solid fuel use, the slow pace and unreliability of ''natural'' conversion to cleaner fuels in many areas, and the emerging scientific evidence of health impacts associated with exposures to emissions from solid fuel use, indoor air pollution issues in rural households of developing countries are of tremendous immediate significance from the standpoint of finding ways to improve population health.…”

Constructing Field Expedient Solar Water Pasteurizers from Junk

“…Masera et al [21] proposed that acceptance of cooking techniques that do not rely on the use of biomass for fuel, such as solar cooking, relies on economics and access to fuels, technical characteristics, cultural preferences, and health impacts. Solar heaters constructed from discarded materials successfully address these four key factors.…”

Wave transition in household energy use

“…1 The energy ladder (a) and energy stacking (b) models However, some empirical studies show that energy transition is not a linear, unidirectional or "natural" process, and households always consume more than one energy sources [9]. Masera [3] argues that two opposite forces drive energy use with the development of economy and technology. One of the forces pushes households to use new, convenient and clean energy sources in the upper rung, whereas the other force pulls the households to maintain their lifestyles rather than abandon traditional energy sources at the bottom rung of the ladder.…”

“…Today, a variety of non-fossil energy sources, such as nuclear, wind, solar and other renewable sources, have gradually become an integral part of the energy used by households, whereas traditional biomass has become obsolete [1] because of the process of technology diffusion and competition. To study the energy transition, i.e., the switching from one or a series of energy sources in the economy to another [2], the energy consumption share is commonly adopted to describes the structure of energy consumption to indicate the substitution of energy sources in the energy transition studies, although other indicators such as total energy consumption and energy penetration are also important to describe the role of energy consumption in an economy [3,4]. As with the economy-wide energy transition [2], The competition among the energy and technology sources is a kind of pure competition [5] with the index of energy consumption share.…”

“…The demand for energy may decline when the household income is higher, such that the household may consider advanced energy sources or simply change its lifestyle. The energy stacking model [3] suggests that the driving force of energy transition varies, including household income and other household characteristics. However, both models do not mention that energy transition is heavily influenced by technology substitution in the production of energy sources used by households, as commonly described by the logistic substitution model [5,7,8] over time.…”