State of residential energy consumption in Southeast Asia: need to promote smart appliances because urban household consumption is higher than some developed countries

Panel: 7. Appliances, products, lighting and ICT

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Chiharu Murakoshi, Jyukankyo Research Institute INC, Japan
Hidetoshi Namagami, Jyukankyo Reserach Institute, Japan
Ji Xuan, Jyukankyo Reserach Institute, Japan
Azusa Takayama, Jyukankyo Reserach Institute, Japan
Hiroto Takaguchi, Waseda University, Japan

Abstract

Energy use in Southeast Asian countries increases annually, and will continue to rise with improving living standards. However, data collection related to residential energy consumption lags behind, and understanding the state of consumption is challenging.

In 2015, we conducted a field study on residential energy consumption in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia to indicate how improved lifestyles result in increased energy consumption compare to the other development countries in Southeast Asia and Japan. To analyze these relationships, we surveyed energy use and people’s lifestyle, including equipment ownership and usage methods as well. As a result, we found that energy consumption of lighting, plug loads, cooling and cooking in urban areas of Southeast Asia approaches that found in developed countries and in some cases exceeds this. In the other word, energy consumption in emerging countries has become a more critical issue than developed countries.

In this paper, we explain the variance in energy consumption of developing, emerging, and developed countries, due to differences in housing, equipment, income, and lifestyle. Following, we explain new energy efficiency policy in Thailand which called “Energy Efficiency Plan 2015”. EE plan 2015 is most advanced policy in Southeast Asia that was including Energy Efficiency Obligation. At the same time, we discuss the importance concerning strengthening of MEPS and EE labeling and promotion of smart appliances. Eventually, we aim to collect and analyze energy consumption patterns in household in several nations in Southeast Asian countries, to create a database with the results from the surveys, to develop scenarios in order to mitigate CO2 emissions, and to develop a platform that can examine the gradual effects at the different stages of national development. Moreover, we aim to share our survey results with international experts, researchers, professors and policymakers in the future, to develop an open platform database.