Sustainability Challenges in Energy Use Behaviour in Households: Comparative Review of Selected Survey-based Publications from Developed and Developing Countries
Tore Johansson
Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences of Karlstad University, Karlstad (Sweden)
Pedram Pirouzfar
Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences of Karlstad University, Karlstad (Sweden)
Abstract
This review paper studies the differences in the energy use behaviour in households in developing and developed countries, by focus on a geographically diverse selection of publications. The study has been divided into sections in which energy use, socio-economic factors, policies and the methods used in the surveys have been investigated. The main motivation of the study was to understand user behavioural patterns influencing energy consumption (or reduction in use), and the effect of varying socio-demographic factors on the same. The methodologies adopted in the papers reviewed have been compared. Surveys were prioritized in the examined papers to see if there was an pattern in household energy use and which behaviours affected this. For the developing countries door knocking were the most used strategy to get hold of information. For the developed countries surveys online were the most effective strategy. In Japan and Norway clear differences could be seen due to the culture of the countries, which affected the households energy use. For the developing countries energy here is not predominantly electricity. Biofuels and kerosene were the most common fuels used for the daily life of the residents in the developing countries. A transition from these fuels to more modern energy is happening right now in the 21st century. The government have a big impact on the households energy use and the governments for the different countries prioritize differently as seen in Kuwait where they subsidy 90 % of the final electricity for the households thus increases the energy use significantly which have a negative sustainable development effect. While on the other hand the government in Zambia decided to shut down the whole electricity grid for eight hours per day during a two year period of time to save energy.
Effective strategies for reducing energy use, according to most of the publications, are tailor-made information and feedback to users, and clear outlining of goals by the decision-makers, for both the developed countries and the developing countries. Future research should focus on effective formulation of the feedback provided to users.
Keywords:
energy use behaviour, households, sustainable development, developed countries, developing countriesReferences
ABRAHAMSE W., STEG L., VIEK C. & ROTHENGATTER T., 2005, A review of intervention studies aimed at household energy conservation, in: Journal of environmental psychology, 3, p. 273.
Google Scholar
ABRAHAMSE W., STEG L., VIEK C. & ROTHENGATTER T., 2007, The effect of tailored information, goal setting, and tailored feedback on household energy use, energy-related behaviors, and behavioral antecedents, in: Journal of environmental psychology, 4, p. 265.
Google Scholar
AITKEN R., 2017, Household energy use: a comparison of household energy consumption and expenditure across three provinces, in: Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, 18(1), p. 20-28.
Google Scholar
AL MAMUN M., HOQUE M. A., HOSSAIN M. T. & YASMEEN F., 2016, Managing the future megacity: an appraisal of knowledge about energy challenges and energy-saving attitudes among households in Dhaka, in: International Journal of Sustainable Energy, 35(7), p. 701-721.
Google Scholar
ALKON M., HARISH S. P. & URPELAINEN J., 2016, Household energy access and expenditure in developing countries: Evidence from India, 1987–2010, in: Energy for Sustainable Development, 35 p. 25-34.
Google Scholar
BLOCKER T.J. & ECKBERG D.L., 1997, Gender and Environmentalism: Results from the 1993 General Social Survey, in: Social Science Quarterly, 4, p. 841.
Google Scholar
CAMARA N., XU D. & BINYET E., 2018, Enhancing household energy consumption: How should it be done?, in: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 81, p. 669-681.
Google Scholar
DE LAURETIS S., GHERSI F. & CAYLA J.M., 2017, Energy consumption and activity patterns: An analysis extended to total time and energy use for French households, in: Applied Energy, 206, p. 634-648.
Google Scholar
DEMETRIOU D., POLATIDIS H. & HARALAMBOPOULOS D., 2014, Integrated Energy Planning for the Residential Sector: The Case Study of Cyprus, in: Energy Sources, Part B: Economics, Planning, and Policy, 9(2), p. 183-195.
Google Scholar
FENG Z.-H., ZOU L.-L. & WEI Y.-M., 2011, The impact of household consumption on energy use and CO2 emissions in China, in: Energy, 36(1), p. 656-670.
Google Scholar
FREDERIKS E. R., STENNER K. & HOBMAN E. V., 2015, Household energy use: Applying behavioural economics to understand consumer decision-making and behaviour, in: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 41, p. 1385-1394.
Google Scholar
HUNTER L.M., HATCH A. & JOHNSON A., 2004, Cross-National Gender Variation in Environmental Behaviors, in: Social Science Quarterly, 3, p. 677.
Google Scholar
JAFFAR B., ORESZCZYN T., RASLAN R. & SUMMERFIELD A., 2018, Understanding energy demand in Kuwaiti villas: Findings from a quantitative household survey, in: Energy & Buildings, 165, p. 379-389.
Google Scholar
JIA J.-J., XU J.-H. & FAN Y., 2018, Public acceptance of household energy-saving measures in Beijing: Heterogeneous preferences and policy implications, in: Energy Policy, 113, p. 487-499.
Google Scholar
KAYGUSUZ K., 2011, Energy services and energy poverty for sustainable rural development, in: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15, p. 936-947.
Google Scholar
KAYGUSUZ K., 2012, Energy for sustainable development: A case of developing countries, in: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16, p. 1116-1126.
Google Scholar
KLÖCKNER C. A., 2013, A comprehensive model of the psychology of environmental behaviour - A meta-analysis, in: Global Environmental Change, 23 p. 1028-1038.
Google Scholar
LENZEN M., WIER M., COHEN C., HAYAMI H., PACHAURI, S. & SCHAEFFER, R., 2006, A comparative multivariate analysis of household energy requirements in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India and Japan, in: Energy (Oxford), 2-3, p. 181.
Google Scholar
LÜNING S. & VAHRENHOLT F., 2017, Paleoclimatological Context and Reference Level of the 2°C and 1.5°C Paris Agreement Long-Term Temperature Limits, in: Frontiers in Earth Science, 5.
Google Scholar
LONG C., MILLS B. F., & SCHLEICH J., 2018, Characteristics or culture? Determinants of household energy use behavior in Germany and the USA, in: Energy Efficiency, 11(3), p. 777-798.
Google Scholar
LÓPEZ-RODRÍGUEZ M. A., SANTIAGO I., TRILLO-MONTERO D., TORRITI J. & MORENO-MUNOZ A., 2013, Analysis and modeling of active occupancy of the residential sector in Spain: An indicator of residential electricity consumption, in: Energy Policy, 62, p. 742-751.
Google Scholar
MARTINSSON J., LUNDQVIST L. J. & SUNDSTRÖM A., 2011, Energy saving in Swedish households. The (relative) importance of environmental attitudes, in: Energy Policy, 39, p. 5182-5191.
Google Scholar
MORREN M. & GRINSTEIN A., 2016, Explaining environmental behavior across borders: A meta-analysis. in: Journal of Environmental Psychology, 47, p. 91-106.
Google Scholar
NAUGES C. & WHEELER S. A., 2017, Analysis: The Complex Relationship Between Households’ Climate Change Concerns and Their Water and Energy Mitigation Behaviour, in: Ecological Economics, 141, p. 87-94.
Google Scholar
NEJAT P., JOMEHZADEH F., TAHERI M. M., GOHARI M. & ABD MAJID, M. Z., 2015, A global review of energy consumption, CO2 emissions and policy in the residential sector (with an overview of the top ten CO2 emitting countries), in: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 43, p. 843-862.
Google Scholar
NGOMA R., TAMBATAMBA A., OYOO B., MULONGOTI D., KUMWENDA B. & LOUIE H., 2018, How households adapted their energy use during the Zambian energy crisis, in: Energy for Sustainable Development, 44, p. 125-138.
Google Scholar
OZAWA, A., KUDOH, Y. & YOSHIDA Y., 2018, A new method for household energy use modeling: A questionnaire-based approach, in: Energy and Buildings, 162, p. 32-41.
Google Scholar
POTHITOU M., HANNA R. F. & CHALVATZIS K. J., 2016, Environmental knowledge, pro-environmental behaviour and energy savings in households: An empirical study, in: Applied Energy, 184, p. 1217-1229.
Google Scholar
RAHUT D. B., BEHERA, B. & ALI A., 2016, Household energy choice and consumption intensity: Empirical evidence from Bhutan, in: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 53, p. 993-1009.
Google Scholar
SUKARNO I., MATSUMOTO H. & SUSANTI L., 2017, Household lifestyle effect on residential electrical energy consumption in Indonesia: On-site measurement methods. Urban Climate, 20, p. 20-32.
Google Scholar
UDALE H.I. & MAJID NOOR H.A., 2014, Human behaviour in household energy use and the implications of energy efficiency delivery: A case of Bauchi, Nigeria, in: International Journal of Energy Sector Management, 2, p. 230.
Google Scholar
VICENTE-MOLINA M. A., FERNÁNDEZ-SAINZ A. & IZAGIRRE-OLAIZOLA J., 2018, Does gender make a difference in pro-environmental behavior? The case of the Basque Country University students, in: Journal of Cleaner Production, 176, p. 89-98.
Google Scholar
WILHITE H., NAKAGAMI H., MASUDA T., YAMAGA Y. & HANEDA H., 1996, A cross-cultural analysis of household energy use behaviour in Japan and Norway, in: Energy policy, 9, p. 795.
Google Scholar
ZHAO D., MCCOY A. P., DU J., AGEE P. & LU Y., 2017, Interaction effects of building technology and resident behavior on energy consumption in residential buildings, in: Energy & Buildings, 134, p. 223-233.
Google Scholar
ZHOU K. & YANG S., 2016, Understanding household energy consumption behavior: The contribution of energy big data analytics, in: Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 56, p. 810-819.
Google Scholar
Authors
Tore JohanssonDepartment of Engineering and Chemical Sciences of Karlstad University, Karlstad Sweden
Authors
Pedram PirouzfarDepartment of Engineering and Chemical Sciences of Karlstad University, Karlstad Sweden
Statistics
Abstract views: 7PDF downloads: 2
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
