Examining energy inequality: The impact of household wealth on heterogeneous response to temperatures

Jing Liang, Jiehong Qiu, Xiangrui Wang, Jikai Wu, Sansi Yang and You Zhou

Energy Policy, 2024, vol. 190, issue C

Abstract: As temperature extremes become more frequent due to climate change, households need to maintain comfortable indoor environments and even reduce weather-related health issues. However, energy inequality exists as disadvantaged households are more constrained economically, hence they are more likely to limit their electricity consumption. This study empirically examines the responses to temperature among households of different wealth levels, using smart metering data for 2017–2019 in Changsha City, China. We introduce a metric termed Heating and Cooling Utilization Rate (HCUR), which quantifies the deviation of a household’s power consumption from its baseline level. We observe a U-shape relationship between HCUR and temperatures and also observe energy-limiting behaviors for lower-income households. The cooling-related consumption changes most during high-temperature nights. We find energy inequality is largest during 22–30 degrees Celsius when the least wealthy households are more likely to limit their consumption than the wealthiest ones. We also find heterogeneous responses to temperatures among households lived in residence with varying building characteristics. Projections under various climate change scenarios indicate that more cooling demand will be needed in the future, especially for less wealthy households. These findings highlight the importance of tailored interventions considering the heterogeneous energy consumption patterns among households of different wealth.

Keywords: Energy inequality; Utilization rate; Weather bins; Household wealth (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421524001629
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:190:y:2024:i:c:s0301421524001629

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2024.114142

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().