Summary information

Study title

Human Factors in Domestic Gas Consumption in South-East England, 1981-1985

Creator

Griffiths, I. D., University of Surrey, Department of Psychology

Study number / PID

2193 (UKDA)

10.5255/UKDA-SN-2193-1 (DOI)

Data access

Restricted

Series

Not available

Abstract

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

(a) The investigation of social and human factors, which would enable the prediction of changes in domestic gas consumption;
(b) the assessment of the significance of heating controls for energy consumption (and change of energy consumption) and satisfaction with heating systems;
(c) field validation of Fanger's biophysical theory of thermal comfort in domestic environments;
(d) evaluation of the Fishbein model as an explanatory device for the relationship between attitudes and intentions to energy conservation.
Main Topics:

Variables
Heating and ventilation practices; expectations and intentions with regard to current gas consumption, heating practices, economy measures and improvements in insulation level, and changes made during survey ; beliefs, attitudes and knowledge with regard to household energy related matters ; thermal comfort and indoor climate conditions ; household structure and socio-demographic details ; physical details of the house ; quarterly gas meter readings
Measurement Scales
ASHRAE Thermal Sensation Scale. Some scales of attitudes were taken from Seligman, D. et al, 'Predicting summer energy consumption from home owners attitudes', Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 9, 1979, pp. 70-90. Some questions on structure and fabric of the houses were derived from Open University and Building Research Establishment, Check your energy : personal home survey, 1983.

Consumption and consumer behaviourEnergy and natural resourcesHousing

AGEATTITUDESBOILERSCENTRAL HEATINGCHILDRENCLOTHINGCONSUMERSCOOKING FACILITIESDOMESTIC APPLIANCESEDUCATIONAL BACKGROUNDELDERLYENERGY EFFICIENCY

Data collection period

01/12/1983 - 01/05/1985

Country

England

Time dimension

Cross-sectional (one-time) study

Longitudinal/panel/cohort

The replacement sample survey was conducted as a one-time cross-sectional study. The intensive sample (four waves) and extensive sample (two waves) surveys were conducted as panel studies.

Analysis unit

Individuals

Families/households

Subnational

Consumers

House owners

Households

Universe

Intensive sample: households living in single household owner - occupied houses in the SEGAS region (excluding Inner London) which consume a minimum of 600 therms of gas a year ; extensive sample: the same, except that there were no restrictions on housing, tenure, or minimum gas consumption.

Sampling procedure

Households were selected by means of a stratified multi-stage cluster procedure. For further details see Sampling procedure and data collection available from the ESRC Data Archive.

Kind of data

Not available

Data collection mode

Face-to-face interview

Postal survey

Compilation or synthesis of existing material

Survey of physical and structural house characteristics ; temperature measurements

Publisher

UK Data Service

Publication year

1987

Terms of data access

The Data Collection is available to UK Data Service registered users subject to the End User Licence Agreement.

Commercial use of the data requires approval from the data owner or their nominee. The UK Data Service will contact you.

Griffiths, I., Baillie, A. and Huber, J. (1986) The indoor climate :: energy conservation, social, psychological and biophysical perspectives, [Discussion paper].: Nato Advanced Research.
Baillie, A. and Huber, J. (1986) Energy attitudes, intentions and behaviours : : consumption outcome, [Discussion paper].: Social Psycology Section.
Baillie, A. (1986) Human factors in domestic gas consumption : : final report to South Eastern Gas [Research report], : University of Surrey, Dept. of Psychology.
Baillie, A., Huber, J. and Griffiths, I. (1986) Thermal comfort in domestic environments [Research report], Guilford: University of Surrey, Dept. of Psychology.
Huber, J. and Griffiths, I. (1986) Domestic energy conservation : : behaviour and attitudes [Research report], : ESRC.
Baillie, A. (1982) Energy conservation : : comfort, buildings and people, [Discussion paper].: Martinus Nijhoff .