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SUMMARY AND TRENDS OF ENERGY CONSUMPTION BY LATVIAN HOUSEHOLDS: IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF HUMAN FACTOR

J. Makijenko, J. Brizga

Abstract

Final energy consumption in Latvian households fluctuated massively because of serious political and social changes in the country between 1990 and 2015; this study explores why final energy consumption trends in Latvia during the last decades, meanwhile in Europe is the opposite situation observed. This paper investigates the downward trend in average household energy consumption of the last 30 years and shows the impact of social factors towards energy consumption. The method applied portrays factors such as level of education, age, income, social status, the size of leaving the area, region, the number of persons per dwelling, etc. There was conducted the social survey with 1009 respondents overall territory of Latvia and for data comparison, some additional data was extracted from the data set of quantitative energy statistics. The findings from the research illustrate that despite a decrease in the number and the average size of dwellings; plus increased use of electronics, improvements in social education, energy efficiency for heating and major appliances have all led to decreased energy consumption per household. The findings from the research show that the impact of education, age, and income on energy consumption is more complex than previously assumed. The findings show that in terms of energy consumption human factorВ’s roles and effects are difficult to forecast due to multifarious interactions between them.

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