1,720,978 research outputs found
The determinants of residential energy expenditure in Italy
No full textAs a large part of primary energy consumption in different countries is related to the residential sector, a reduction in energy consumption at the “household-scale” may determine a significant reduction in the carbon emission at the “country-scale”. Hence, the precise knowledge of the relationships between the household characteristics and the energy consumption/expenditure may serve as basis for policymakers when planning investments aiming to reduce the primary energy consumption in the residential sector. This paper contributes to the existing discussion, focusing on the Italian case study, by analyzing the relationships between the residential energy expenditure and the building factors, socio-demographic variables and appliances. In particular, the impact that the different household characteristics have on per–capita family energy expenditures has been examined commented and compared with the previous literature. The analysis is performed by coupling (a) the ordinary least squares method, to determine the relationship between the variables, (b) the variance inflation factor, to check for multicollinearity issues, and (c) the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, to select suitable variables. Subsequently, a segmentation of the Italian households has been proposed, by using a segmentation-tree approach and the outcomes of the previous analysis
The socio-demographic and geographical dimensions of fuel poverty in Italy
No full textFuel poverty is a multi-scale and a multidisciplinary topic, as it relates the demand-side to the supply-side, the “household-scale” to the “country-scale”, and it involves social and economic boundary conditions. This paper focuses on the Italian case and contributes to the present-day discussion by introducing a novel measure of fuel poverty that considers details on household energy expenditure and its impacts on aggregated regional and national levels. The proposed measure of fuel poverty couples the “household-scale” to the “country-scale” and is based on an integrated statistical-lumped parameter approach. This approach compares the theoretical household thermal requirements for heating purposes―obtained by a lumped parameter model―with the real thermal energy expenditure―obtained by a national-representative survey. Subsequently, the proposed measure of fuel poverty is related to the socio-demographic and geographic variables by using by a statistical approach, structured in four techniques: ordinary least squares method, (b) variance inflation factor, (c) least absolute shrinkage and selection operator and (d) classification and regression tree approach. It is found that fuel poverty, in the Italian case, is mainly related to the geographical dimension, rather than being related to the socio-demographic dimension. This results is of practical importance and provide a rational basis for policy makers when planning strategies to tackle the incidence of fuel poverty in Italy
On the relationship between residential energy expenditure and building factors, socio-demographic variables and appliances
No full textA precise understanding of the relationships between household characteristics and residential energy consumption is needed to support the implementation of effective energy policies and to improve the prediction of forecasting modeling approaches. This paper contributes to the present-day and analyses the building factors, socio-demographic variables and appliances contributing to high-energy expenditures (electrical energy, thermal energy and total energy) in Italian households. The proposed study builds on an earlier work performed by the authors, which identified the determinants of the household energy expenditure characteristics, based on a nationally representative survey (the “household Budget Survey: microdata for research purposes - 2015” performed by the Italian National Institute of Statistics, ISTAT). In particular, this study completes and extends the previous research by applying the odds-ratio analysis to the previously identified determinants, in order to identify the factors that led to high electricity consumption (electrical energy, thermal energy and total energy). In conclusion, this paper contributes to a more precise understanding of the factors that certainly affect the energy expenditure
What are the odds? On the determinants of high residential energy expenditure
Full text linkA precise understanding of the relationships between the household characteristics and the residential energy consumption is needed to support the implementation of effective top-bottom energy strategies and to improve the prediction of forecasting models. This paper contributes to the present-day discussion and analyses the building factors, socio-demographic variables and appliances contributing to high-energy expenditures (viz., electrical energy expenditure, thermal energy expenditure and total energy expenditure) in the Italian households. The proposed study builds on an earlier work proposed by the authors, which identified the determinants of the household energy expenditures, based on a nationally representative survey (the “household Budget Survey: microdata for research purposes - 2015′′ performed by the Italian National Institute of Statistics). In particular, the present paper completes and extends the previous research by applying the odds-ratio analysis to the previously identified determinants, in order to identify the factors that led to high electricity consumption (viz., electrical energy expenditure, thermal energy expenditure and total energy expenditure). In conclusion, this paper aims to providing a more precise understanding of the factors that certainly affect the energy expenditure
Measuring fuel poverty in Italy: application of different fuel-poverty criteria to a national household segmentation
Full text linkFuel poverty is a multidisciplinary topic, coupling the demand-side to the supply-side, and the “household-scale” to the “country-scale”. In this complex framework, this paper contributes to the present-day discussion regarding suitable indicators to quantify fuel poverty, focusing on the Italian case study. In particular, we have compared different indicators taken from the literature and we have further developed a novel indicator based on the “minimum thermal comfort” constrain. The different indicators have been applied to the “household Budget Survey” nationally representative survey and the results have been presented, on an aggregated point of view, by using the segmentation of the Italian households previously proposed by the authors. Thus, the proposed assessment of the fuel poverty couples the “household-scale” to the “country-scale”, in the process of identifying vulnerable households: for this reason, this paper is able to scale-up the “household-scale” to consider the whole “country-scale”. In summary, this work contributes to the broader framework of “the human dimensions of energy use”. The obtained results are of practical importance and provide a rational basis for policy makers when planning strategies to tackle the incidence of fuel poverty in Italy
The socio-demographic dimensions of the private transportation emissions
No full textIt is known that the transportation sector accounts for a considerable share of the emissions and the primary energy consumption of the countries as a whole, thus determining an increasing attention towards the decarbonisation pathways of the transportation sectors. The energy consumption at the country-scale can be interpreted as the integral of the socio-demographic layer and the behavior spectrum. Thus, ad-hoc policy schemes need to rely on multi-scale approaches, describing the household-scale and, subsequently, scaling-up towards the country- scale. In this long-term aim and perspective, the present communication contributes to the existing discussion regarding relationships between the household/socio-demographic characteristics and the transportation patterns. In particular, focusing on the Italian case study, this communication explores the relationships between the household/socio-demographic variables and the carbon dioxide emissions related to the private transportation sector. To this end, this paper build on micro-data obtained by the Italian Institute of statistics and it applies a four-step statistical method to select suitable variables, explore the significant determinants and perform an household segmentation. It is found that the geographic area (in terms of the macro-scale as well as the micro-scale geographic locations) as well as income-related variables are likely to be factors influencing the carbon dioxide emissions related to the private transportation sector
A bottom-up study on the relationships between transportation expenditures and socio-demographic variables: Evidences from the Italian case study
Full text linkA precise understanding of the relationships between the household characteristics and the transportation expenditures is of paramount importance to support bottom-up policies, aiming at defining decarbonisation pathways keeping into account the household budget constraints. Despite the considerable amount of research activities carried out during the last decades, an agreement regarding the factors influencing the transportation expenditures is far from being reached. This paper contributes to the present-day discussion, focusing on the Italian case study, by analyzing the relationships between the private, public and total transportation expenditure and the socio-demographic and geographical dimensions. The impact that the household characteristics have on the transportation expenditures have been explored by coupling (a) the ordinary least squares method, to determine the relationship between the variables, (b) the variance inflation factor, to check for multicollinearity issues, (c) the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator, to select variable. Subsequently, a segmentation of the Italian households is proposed, by using a segmentation-tree approach and the outcomes of the previous analysis. It is found that the geographic area (in terms of the macro-scale as well as the micro-scale geographic locations) as well as income-related variables are likely to be factors influencing the transportation expenditures. These observations may serve as bottom-layer for the forthcoming studies regarding decarbonisation of the transportation sector, considering also the household budget constraints
La scelta green che non ti lascia al verde
No full textCasa dolce casa! Al di là degli slogan, è un dato di fatto che l’edificio costituisca parte integrante della vita stessa dell’uomo e come tale sia cambiato nel tempo, nelle sue caratteristiche intrinseche e nella capacità di soddisfare bisogni e nuove aspettative
Italian household load profiles: A monitoring campaign
Full text linkThe increasing share of renewable energy sources on the supply side, as well as the so-called electrification pathways on the demand side, has led to peculiar challenges for electrical systems: Indeed, the increasing load demand has to be balanced from the supply-side viewpoint. In particular, the residential sector contributes to nearly 26% of the final energy consumption in Europe, suggesting that a further understanding of households’ consumptions and load profiles is needed to support an energy transition. In this context, this paper contributes to the existing discussion by proposing a sociodemographic analysis of Italian households’ load profiles using a smart metering experimental study, while also considering the households in energy poverty conditions. For the sake of generality, results are presented based on a previously proposed household segmentation of the Italian residential sector. The outcomes point out three prominent peaks on load profiles for all the identified clusters, with a notable distinction in intensity. Where children are present, a higher load profile is noted, reaching a maximum value of 600 W of absorbed power between 19:30 and 22:30. Conversely, households in an energy poverty condition show a relatively regular load profile, ranging from a minimum of 110 W of absorbed power in baseload conditions at night time to a maximum of 280 W in the evening hours. The findings in this paper are in agreement with existing research in the field, and accordingly the study proposes a better focus on domestic appliances and sociodemographic parameters
Measuring fuel poverty in Italy: A comparison between different indicators
Full text linkFuel poverty is a cutting-edge topic in the broader framework of the human dimensions of energy use. Fuel poverty research activities couple the demand side with the supply side and scale up the "household scale" towards the "country scale". This paper contributes to the present-day discussion regarding suitable indicators to quantify the incidence of fuel poverty and, in particular, it considers an Italian case study. The Italian case is peculiar, in terms of climatic conditions (encompassing a very broad range of conditions), dwelling types (in terms of construction periods and urban areas), and the many socio-demographic dimensions present. So far, a comprehensive assessment of fuel poverty in Italy is elusive and, to cover this gap in knowledge, this paper proposes a comparison between different types of indicators. To this end, different indicators taken from the literature have been considered and a novel indicator, based on the "minimum thermal comfort" constraint, has been further developed. All the proposed measures of fuel poverty have been applied to the "Household Budget Survey" (reference year: 2015) and the results have been coupled with a segmentation of Italian households, previously proposed by the authors. Using this method, the "household scale" has been scaled up to consider the whole "country scale", in the process of identifying vulnerable households. The obtained results are of practical importance and provide a rational basis for policy-makers when planning strategies to tackle the incidence of fuel poverty in Italy
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