Title: Differences in energy consumption for appliance use among owned and rented households in the USA

Authors: Sadasivan Karuppusamy

Addresses: School of Business, Department of Economics, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas-78249, USA

Abstract: The differences in energy consumption among owned and rented households for appliance use in the USA are well acknowledged and discussed. However, many earlier studies in this area have focused on a specific issue such as household income, life style factors, energy efficient appliances and landlord-tenant problem to account for such differences in the household energy consumption for appliance use. This current study uses a combination of these factors along with regression-based decomposition analysis to account for differences in energy consumption for appliance use among owned and rented households. The results show that, after controlling for geographical, demographic and building vintage characteristics, clothes dryer, household income, owned homes in the multifamily housing units, freezers, and unit price of electricity have played a significant role in bringing about the differences in energy consumption for appliance use among owned and rented households in the USA.

Keywords: energy consumption differences; owned households; rented households; energy intensive appliances; decomposition analysis; USA; United States; appliance usage.

DOI: 10.1504/IJETP.2014.066884

International Journal of Energy Technology and Policy, 2014 Vol.10 No.3/4, pp.297 - 319

Received: 12 Jun 2014
Accepted: 12 Sep 2014
Published online: 24 Jan 2015 *

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