Patterns of Household Water and Electricity Consumption in Beijing

With rapidly growing urban population, rising standards of living, and decreasing family size, household water and electricity consumption in China will continue to soar over the next few decades. For instance, every urban resident of Beijing consumed 12% more electricity in 2004 than in 2003. To better under the trend empirically, a research grant entitled “Patterns of Household Water and Electricity Consumption and Their Underlying Determining Factors in Beijing” was approved by the Hixon Center at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studeis. 

In the research, a questionnaire survey will be conducted to investigate household annual water and electricity consumption, as well as household size and composition, total income, education level, employment status, and tariffs of water, electricity, and waste management. The research will randomly select 60 households each (altogether 180 households) from three types of residential communities in Beijing, i.e. high-rise housing, multi-story housing, and traditional courtyard/two or three-story buildings for in-house interviews. Multivariate statistical analysis on empirical data will be conducted to explore the consumption patterns. Regression analysis will be carried out to probe the socio-economic factors affecting the above patterns.

The outcome of the research will be a scholarly paper, concerning household water and electricity consumption. The research will be carried out by Han SHI, a doctoral student at CIE under the direction of Prof. Marian Chertow from May through September 2006