The "Average American" Unmasked: Social Structure and Differences in Household Energy Use and Carbon Emissions
The "Average American" Unmasked: Social Structure and Differences in Household Energy Use and Carbon Emissions
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“普通美国人”揭秘：社会结构以及家庭能源使用和碳排放的差异
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发表时间：
2008
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通讯作者：
L. Lutzenhiser
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作者：
L. Lutzenhiser
虽然我们经常听到“美国人的平均消费量”是“欧洲人的平均消费量”的两倍，但对家庭消费的研究表明，美国国内的差异很大。然而，政策分析和预测仍然在很大程度上依赖于典型的能源最终用途的平均消费量，对消费者群体进行分类的努力往往着眼于广泛的区别（例如，单户住宅与多户住宅）或小样本的心理特征。然而，社会理论和过去的研究表明，家庭能源使用实际上是高度结构化的家庭组成/动态，状态适当的住宅和电器，以及基于生活方式的行为模式。迄今为止，对系统分析和报告这些因素各自的影响的关注相对较少。我们报告的结果，详细的电力和天然气的使用在最近的样本北方加州的1,627个家庭的家庭级建模。结合详细的调查数据，电力和天然气消费的计费历史和匹配的天气数据，在家庭层面的消费模型估计和消费的社会结构进行了探索。有证据表明，能源使用的独特社会模式。这项研究超越了先前的工作，估计了家庭的总碳排放量和燃料特定的碳排放量（发现这些碳排放量差异很大，并密切遵循社会结构的界限，但有时以令人惊讶的方式）。
Although we routinely hear that the “average American” consumes twice as much energy as the “average European,” studies of household consumption have shown considerable variation within the United States. However, policy analysis and forecasting still relies heavily on consumption averages for typical end-uses of energy, and efforts to segment consumer populations tend to look either at broad distinctions (e.g., single family vs. multi-family dwellings) or at psychological traits from small samples. Social theory and past research suggest, however, that household energy use is actually highly structured by household composition/dynamics, status-appropriate dwellings and appliances, and lifestyle-based behavior patterns. To date, relatively little attention has been given to systematically analyzing and reporting the respective effects of those factors. We report the results of detailed household-level modeling of electricity and natural gas use in a recent sample of 1,627 Northern California households. Combining detailed survey data with billing histories of electricity and gas consumption and matched weather data, models of consumption at the household level are estimated and the social structuring of consumption is explored. Evidence of distinctive social patterns of energy use is reported. The research goes beyond prior work, to estimate total and fuel-specific carbon emissions for households (which are found to vary widely and follow closely the lines of social structure, but sometimes in surprising ways).