Household energy consumption: state of the art, research gaps, and future prospects

Xiao, Han; Wei, Chu

doi:10.1007/s10668-020-01179-x

Cited by 26 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…It is difficult to relate the obtained result to the works of other researchers, because in the literature, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there are no studies of the consumer profile (especially behavioural) linking them with the impact (or rather its strength) of individual interventions. However, numerous studies [99,100] clearly indicate that human behaviour is one of the most important factors shaping individual energy consumption. Therefore, it is important to search for effective ways to motivate societies towards environmentally friendly and energy-efficient behaviours [101][102][103].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Encourage Energy Savings Behaviours? The Most Effective Incentives from the Perspective of European Consumers

2021

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Ongoing climate change and increasing energy consumption are becoming a serious threat to international development efforts. To ensure a secure and sustainable future, local, national and regional authorities, as well as energy companies, need to be involved in improving energy efficiency and promoting rational energy use. The consumer is always at the centre of interest of policy and energy reduction strategies makers. It is their behaviour, motives and beliefs that can lead to optimised and economical energy management. This paper responds to the need to identify the individual preferences of energy consumers. The presented research fills an existing gap in the literature by analysing the strength of the influence of different types of instruments and external stimuli shaping pro-environmental attitudes of consumers of different behavioural types. The analysis presented in this paper is the result of the next stage of the authors’ research on energy consumers modelling, their segmentation and comprehensive characteristics. The analysis was conducted on a representative sample of N = 4332 respondents from 8 European countries (Czech Republic, France, Greece, Spain, Germany, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom). The study used multivariate statistical methods, such as: Correspondence Analysis, Factor Analysis and Kruskal-Wallis test. These methods are adequate to the assumptions of the research procedure and allowed for the identification of 4 latent factors that link the incentives into groups, where the motivation to save energy is based on: information (“Information and Knowledge”), social norms (“Social Influence”), investment funding (“Investments”) and energy price changes (“Energy Price”). In addition, the level of effectiveness of the studied incentives and motivators depends on the behavioural type of energy consumers and increases with rising levels of their intrinsic pro-environmental motivation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How to Encourage Energy Savings Behaviours? The Most Effective Incentives from the Perspective of European Consumers

2021

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“…With increasingly serious environmental problems, the energy consumption from the household sector and its carbon emissions have attracted widespread attention from the academic community (Han and Wei, 2021). Several scholars have explored and discussed the influencing factors and regional differences in household carbon emissions, based on research methods such as carbon emission coefficient, input-output, and life-cycle evaluation methods.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon Emission Characteristics and Reduction Pathways of Urban Household in China

Liu²,

Zuo³

2022

Front. Environ. Sci.

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With China’s rapid urbanization and rising living standards, the household sector has become the second largest contributor to urban carbon emissions and important pathway to achieve China’s carbon reduction targets. Based on data of Chinese Residential Energy Consumption Survey in 2014, this paper establishes standard households in 54 cities to identify the carbon emission characteristics and explores the emission reduction paths of urban households. We present evidence that rich households tend to increase their use of clean energy, low-income households will not completely abandon inferior energy because of their usage habits and costs and they always live in suburban areas and urban villages. Cities with high household carbon emissions are almost located in north of Huai River/Qinling Mountains line, while cities with low carbon emissions are mostly located around the line and which are mainly on the south side. Monocentric urban development patterns and frigid climates are easy to increase higher household carbon emissions. In this regard, policy makers should help low-income households to escape from inferior energy dependence, encourage the use of new energy vehicles and green housing technologies, introduce a two-part pricing system for central heating services and maintain relative balance of residential and public resources in urban planning.

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“…Household energy consumption is one of the most important issues in the context of discussions related to climate change and the sustainable transformation of our economy and the energy sector as it accounts for almost one third of global primary energy demand and accordingly, significantly affects the environment. As such, it has served as a classic and compelling object of investigation in the academic literature, with a range of studies having analysed various aspects of household consumption, including energy conservation, energy poverty, energy efficiency, and flexible consumption [14].…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Empirical Approach to Differences in Flexible Electricity Consumption Behaviour of Urban and Rural Populations—Lessons Learned in Germany

2021

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This article analyses two major trends of the 21st century. Firstly, the transition from fossil fuel-based energy production to renewable energy sources. Secondly, the inexorable urbanisation which can be witnessed all over the globe. The most promising renewable energy production technologies for the near future, i.e., wind and solar energy, are volatile by nature which makes matching supply and demand essential for a successful transition. Therefore, the aspects that determine the willingness of consumers to flexibilise their demand has gained growing attention. Initial research shows that different settings for (co-)ownership in terms of available prosumption options and used production technologies have a varying impact on demand flexibility. However, existing research has analysed flexibility drivers solely for the general population as an aggregate without any distinction regarding spatial, economic, or social factors. In this article, the authors go one step further and analyse whether those drivers for flexible consumption behaviour differ in rural or urban areas acknowledging differences in day-to-day life in both cases. This study is based on 2074 completed questionnaires from German consumers which were analysed using propensity score matching. The results show that people from rural and urban areas do not significantly differ in their willingness to be demand flexible in general. However, (co-)owners of RE installations from rural areas are generally significantly more demand flexible than (co-)owners of RE installations from urban areas. Further, when looking at different RE technologies, the results show that (co-)owners of solar installations are significantly more demand flexible if they are from rural areas. Lastly, when looking at usage options, people who solely consume produced electricity are more demand flexible if they are from rural areas as well.

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Household energy consumption: state of the art, research gaps, and future prospects

Cited by 26 publications

References 104 publications

How to Encourage Energy Savings Behaviours? The Most Effective Incentives from the Perspective of European Consumers

How to Encourage Energy Savings Behaviours? The Most Effective Incentives from the Perspective of European Consumers

Carbon Emission Characteristics and Reduction Pathways of Urban Household in China

An Empirical Approach to Differences in Flexible Electricity Consumption Behaviour of Urban and Rural Populations—Lessons Learned in Germany

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