scholarly journals ENERGY KNOWLEDGE IN INFLUENCING HOUSEHOLD’S ENERGY CONSERVATION BEHAVIOUR

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (26) ◽  
pp. 215-222
Author(s):  
Nur Azzlin Mangsor ◽  
Low Sheau-Ting

Malaysia needs to ensure stable energy consumption to improve environmental quality and energy security. The increasing trend of the country’s population growth and economic development are parallel with the country’s overall energy demand. The building sector, commercial and residential sector has contributed to more than 12% of the country's final energy consumption in the year 2018. The energy demand from the household sector is on an increasing trend. The residential sector is responsible for the increasing trend of energy consumption with the improvement of lifestyle and living standards. Variation in residents’ behaviour can cause significant differences in energy consumption due to dwellings, household size, income, and building energy consumption. Past studies have shown the identification of the relevant psychological factors that formulating energy conservation behaviour contributed to household energy consumption reduction. By focusing on the psychological dimension, this study explores the role of energy knowledge in influencing energy conservation behaviour among households in Malaysia. Energy knowledge is about the household’s understanding in the context of energy-saving and consumption. Despite massive information and awareness of climate change about the contribution of climate change from household energy consumption, many households still do not practice energy conservation actively. By conducting a systematic literature review, this study found that energy knowledge plays an essential role in influencing household energy conservation behaviour. The findings of this study could help the institutions and relevant authorities to gain a better understanding of the role of energy knowledge as one of the psychological factors in household energy conservation behaviour.

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Gram-Hanssen

Practice theory has recently emerged within consumer studies as a promising approach that shifts focus from the individual consumer towards the collective aspects of consumption, and from spectacular and conspicuous dimensions of consumption towards routine and mundane aspects of consumption. Practice theory is, however, not a commonly agreed upon theory, but more like an approach, or a turn within contemporary social theory. When using practice theory in consumer studies, there are thus several conditions that need further clarification. The focus in this article is on how change and continuity in practices can be understood in practice theory. Discussions will include the balance between routinization and reflectivity as well as ways to understand the role of new technology in introducing change in consumer practices. One aspect of this is a discussion on how to include technologies and other types of material consumer goods in practice theory. Case studies on household energy consumption are used as an empirical basis for these discussions. Looking at household energy consumption through the theoretical lens of practice theory necessitates discussion on whether energy consumption should be viewed as one single practice or part of several different practices. The latter stimulates questioning on how these different consumer practices are related to each other horizontally and vertically, as parallel practices or as different levels of practices, and whether changes in one practice affect (or refrain from affecting) other related consumer practices, whether through reflexivity, routines or the materiality of consumer goods.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lu Jiang ◽  
Xingpeng Chen ◽  
Bing Xue

Household energy consumption has been a major contributor to the increase in global energy demand and carbon emission, and the household sector has also become one of the most crucial factors shaping the management of developments towards sustainability. However, there is still a knowledge gap regarding the household energy consumption in China. Due to the vast territory and the differences among regional conditions, it is critical to conduct a systemic review to illustrate the overall situation as well as the detailed mechanisms of the household energy consumption in China. By employing both qualitative and quantitative methods, two key features of the household energy consumption in China are presented; one is regarding the total amount and the structure of the household energy consumption, and the second is the significant urban-rural gap. The driving forces are investigated from the perspective of external determinants and internal determinants, which consist of seven key factors; finally, the transition roadmap towards the sustainable energy system for the household level are presented based on the text analysis from the four key policy documents. Weaknesses in the current research on the energy geography of household level also exist, such as the lack of single factor research and the lack of integration and comprehensive analysis. Therefore, future studies need to strengthen the research of regional household energy consumption structure, spatial-temporal process, and its motivation mechanism, and sustainable development of energy, so as to explore space-social structure of household energy consumption and spatial-temporal interaction.


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