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Energy efficiency standards for household appliances have been adopted in many countries to mitigate negative externalities, reduce emissions, and save energy. Using Chinese provincial-level panel data from 2008 to 2018, this paper builds a difference-in-difference model to examine the mechanism by which energy-efficiency upgrades in China's air conditioners affect urban household electricity usage. The results show that the upgrades have brought about an obvious reverse effect, with urban household electricity usage increasing rather than decreasing. Reducing the unit costs of energy service has enhanced residents' sensitivity to cooling demand. Driven by the substitution and income effects, urban residents may increase the intensity and frequency of their AC use. Additionally, this reverse effect is heterogeneously dependent on the family size and urban residents' age structure rather than their educational level. When families are larger and have more children, the reverse effect is more pronounced. This paper's findings provide useful recommendations for policy-makers to formulate policies that are synergistic with energy efficiency standards for household appliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the last two decades, a remarkable socio-economic transition has been witnessed in China. Existing studies have only shown that energy consumption of residents is influenced by economic growth and urbanization. It is unclear, however, how socio-economic transition influences the inequality of energy consumption among urban and rural residents. Focusing on the empirical investigation of two different regions (the eastern developed provinces with little energy resources and the western underdeveloped provinces with rich energy resources), this paper examined the major socioeconomic determinants of energy consumption inequality between urban and rural residents. The results of panel data analyses showed that there was a long-term relationship between socio-economic transition and changes in the inequality of energy consumption among residents. Meanwhile, the results revealed that the influence of socio-economic transition varied from regions to regions. Generally, the influence of urbanization on the inequality of both quantity and diversity was found to be the most profound and significant in all regions. The industrialization transition also exerted far-reaching effects, although its influence was determined by the growth of industry sectors. Moreover, the influence of economic transition was only significant in underdeveloped regions and such an influence fitted to a Kuznet's curve. For the transition of technology and education, its influence was significant in the developed provinces but was only effective in affecting the diversity of inequality. In summary, the findings of this research present policymakers a better understanding of the relationship between the socio-economic transition and inequality in energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the background of global warming, the world is experiencing many extreme climate events. The temperature fluctuation associated with climate change is often considered as a primary driving force of electricity consumption. To better explore the impact of temperature on electricity consumption, this paper aims to analyze the question from the perspective of income growth, i.e., the moderating effect of income growth on the response of urban residential electricity to temperature changes. Using the unbalanced panel data of 23 cities in the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration from 2004 to 2015, we construct the response model of residential electricity consumption to income growth, heating degree days, cooling degree days and their interactions. The results show that heating demand, cooling demand and income growth significantly increase residential energy consumption. However, urban residential disposable income growth weakens the positive effect of heating demand and cooling demand on residential electricity consumption. Because, urban residents have obvious demand for improving indoor heating comfort and cooling comfort, the moderating effect of income is shown as the crowding-out effect. Residents may adjust the structure of heating energy consumption (from electricity to natural gas) and upgrade their electrical equipment to high energy efficiency equipment, thereby reducing residential electricity consumption. This study also indicates that urban residential energy consumption is very sensitive to changes in permanent populations. The main contribution of this study is proposing the hypothesis of the negative moderating effect of income growth on temperature changes and expanding the response model of residential electricity consumption to temperature changes. Finally, this paper also proposes the adaptive strategies and policy implications for climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Besides technical measures, occupants’ behavior is one of the most important issues with respect to energy efficiency in households. This paper will discuss the relationship between electricity consumption and household lifestyle and evaluate the energy-saving potential by improving occupants’ behavior in domestic life through energy-saving education. After 124 households in three typical residential buildings in Hangzhou city of China being selected as research subjects, a series of surveys were conducted: (1) recording of the monthly electricity uses of all subject households from March 2007 to July 2008; (2) energy-saving education to the half of the households before July 2008; (3) a comprehensive survey about the household lifestyle of all subject households in the beginning of August 2008. By comparison analysis of the survey data, major findings are as follows: (1) residential electricity consumption will increase continually in the next years in China, because of the improvement of people''s living standard and more dependency on electric appliances; (2) improving occupants’ behavior in domestic life can save more than 10% household electricity use; and (3) some effort on residential energy savings should be shifted from technological measures to improving occupants’ behavior in ordinary domestic life. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]