The Research On China’s Residential Energy Consumption

As the raw material of production and living, energy plays an important role in the process of achieving modernization and prosperity of Chinese people. But the large use of energy caused the shortage of energy and environmental pollution. It is necessary to achieve the target of energy conservation and emission reduction. Residential energy is the material base of living and residential energy consumption is a key indicator that reflects the quality of life. As the second largest sector that consuming energy, the ratio of residential energy consumption to total energy consumption is increasing. So residential energy consumption is not only related to the quality of life, but also the overall strategy of sustainable energy development.On the base of understanding the characters of residential energy consumption, this paper analyzed the relationship between residential energy consumption and influencing factors from different spatial and temporal scales. First, establishing decomposition model of residential energy consumption based on LMDI to study the effect of energy intensity, the way of life and living space to residential energy consumption. Second, by establishing the ARDL model, research the long-term cointegration correlation between GDP, temperature and residential energy consumption. Third, analyzing the difference in the effect of factors on residential energy consumption in different quarter. Fourth, utilizing the panel data model to research the relationship between per capita residential energy consumption and income, and to analyze the regional differences combining the factors like urbanization and climate conditions. The main conclusions are as follows:First, residential energy consumption grows fast. The coal-dominated residential consumption structure is transformed to the structure of electricity, coal and natural gas-based. The scale and structure of residential energy consumption is different between urban and rural areas, as well as in different provinces.Second, seen from the view of household factors, the effect of the way of life and living space promote the increase of residential energy consumption. On the contrary, energy intensity is the disincentive of residential energy consumption.Third, seen form the view of economic, social and natural factors, there is a long-term cointegration relationship between GDP, degree days and residential electricity consumption. The correlation of GDP to residential electricity consumption in the first and third quarter is larger than that in the second and fourth quarter. And the residential electricity consumption in the first and third quarter is positively correlated to degree days. At the same time, the long-term coiritegration correlation is existed between per capita residential energy consumption and income in every province. Besides, the correlation in rural areas is generally stronger than that in urban area. The elasticity coefficients of income to residential energy consumption are comparatively large in high latitude area of northern China and low latitude area of southern China. Generally, the influence of per capita income on residential energy consumption is relatively large in areas with higher urbanization.Based on the above results, relative policy advice is proposed. To improve the level of life, it is necessary to speed up economic development to increase the level of income. To achieve the target of energy conservation and emission reduction, it needs playing attention to the quality of economic development so as to coordinate economy, society and environment. First, the setting temperature of air conditioner should be expressly stated. Second, allocate public service facilities rationally and adjust the heat supply as needed. Third, enhance the level of technology to improve energy efficiency. Finally, strengthen propaganda and education to raise awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection.