IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/enejou/v41y2020i4p209-230.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Electric Heating and the Effects of Temperature on Household Electricity Consumption in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Susanna B. Berkouwer

Abstract

How does temperature affect household energy demand in low-income countries? This paper uses 132,375,282 hourly electricity consumption observations from 5,975 households in South Africa to estimate the causal effects of short-term temperature changes on household electricity consumption. The estimates flexibly identify a constant log-linear temperature response—for every 1ଌ increase in temperature, electricity consumption decreases by 4.1% among temperatures below the heating threshold but increases by 8.1% among temperatures above the cooling threshold. This relationship is driven more strongly by seasonal than hourly temperature changes. Holding all else constant, a 3.25ଌ increase in temperatures would reduce electricity consumption by 1,093.4 kWh (6.2%) per year per household. Widespread use of electric heating due to limited residential gas heating infrastructure likely drives this. These results point to important regional heterogeneity in how temperature increases may affect household energy demand in the coming decades.

Suggested Citation

  • Susanna B. Berkouwer, 2020. "Electric Heating and the Effects of Temperature on Household Electricity Consumption in South Africa," The Energy Journal, , vol. 41(4), pages 209-230, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:41:y:2020:i:4:p:209-230
    DOI: 10.5547/01956574.41.4.sber
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5547/01956574.41.4.sber
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5547/01956574.41.4.sber?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olivier Deschênes & Michael Greenstone, 2011. "Climate Change, Mortality, and Adaptation: Evidence from Annual Fluctuations in Weather in the US," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 3(4), pages 152-185, October.
    2. Maximilian Auffhammer, 2018. "Climate Adaptive Response Estimation: Short And Long Run Impacts Of Climate Change On Residential Electricity and Natural Gas Consumption Using Big Data," NBER Working Papers 24397, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ye, Yuxiang & Koch, Steven F., 2021. "Measuring energy poverty in South Africa based on household required energy consumption," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    2. Ta, Chi L., 2024. "Do conservation contests work? An analysis of a large-scale energy competitive rebate program," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Yuxiang Ye & Steven F. Koch & Jiangfeng Zhang, 2022. "Modelling Required Energy Consumption with Equivalence Scales," The Energy Journal, , vol. 43(6), pages 123-145, November.
    4. Yabin Da & Bin Zeng & Jing-Li Fan & Jiawei Hu & Lanlan Li, 2023. "Heterogeneous responses to climate: evidence from residential electricity consumption," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(8), pages 1-19, August.
    5. Shaun McRae, 2023. "Residential Electricity Consumption and Adaptation to Climate Change by Colombian Households," Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 253-279, July.
    6. Meixuan Teng & Hua Liao & Paul J. Burke & Tianqi Chen & Chen Zhang, 2022. "Adaptive responses: the effects of temperature levels on residential electricity use in China," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 1-20, June.
    7. Uzziah Mutumbi & Gladman Thondhlana & Sheunesu Ruwanza, 2022. "The Status of Household Electricity Use Behaviour Research in South Africa between 2000 and 2022," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-14, November.
    8. Hongliang Zhang & Jianhong E. Mu & Bruce A. McCarl & Jialing Yu, 2022. "The impact of climate change on global energy use," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 1-19, January.
    9. Koch, Steven F. & Nkuna, Blessings & Ye, Yuxiang, 2024. "Income elasticity of residential electricity consumption in rural South Africa," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    10. Yuanping Wang & Weiguang Cai & Lingchun Hou & Zhaoyin Zhou & Jing Bian, 2022. "Examining the Provincial-Level Difference and Impact Factors of Urban Household Electricity Consumption in China—Based on the Extended STIRPAT Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-18, August.
    11. Zhang, Guoxing & Shen, Lin & Su, Bin, 2023. "Temperature change and daily urban-rural residential electricity consumption in northwestern China: Responsiveness and inequality," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    12. Zhang, Xiaokong & Chai, Jian & Tian, Lingyue & Yang, Ying & Zhang, Zhe George & Pan, Yue, 2023. "Forecast and structural characteristics of China's oil product consumption embedded in bottom-line thinking," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 278(PA).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hongliang Zhang & Jianhong E. Mu & Bruce A. McCarl & Jialing Yu, 2022. "The impact of climate change on global energy use," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 1-19, January.
    2. Olivier Deschenes, 2022. "The impact of climate change on mortality in the United States: Benefits and costs of adaptation," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(3), pages 1227-1249, August.
    3. Tamma Carleton & Michael Greenstone, 2021. "Updating the United States Government's Social Cost of Carbon," Working Papers 2021-04, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.
    4. Bento, Antonio M. & Miller, Noah & Mookerjee, Mehreen & Severnini, Edson, 2023. "A unifying approach to measuring climate change impacts and adaptation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    5. Zhang, Mingyang & Zhang, Kaiwen & Hu, Wuyang & Zhu, Bangzhu & Wang, Ping & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2020. "Exploring the climatic impacts on residential electricity consumption in Jiangsu, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    6. Lee, Wang-Sheng & Li, Ben G., 2021. "Extreme weather and mortality: Evidence from two millennia of Chinese elites," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    7. Antonio M. Bento & Noah Miller & Mehreen Mookerjee & Edson Severnini, 2023. "Incidental Adaptation: The Role of Non-climate Regulations," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 86(3), pages 305-343, November.
    8. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Smyth, Russell & Trinh, Trong-Anh, 2022. "Energy poverty, temperature and climate change," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 114(C).
    9. Melissa Dell & Benjamin F. Jones & Benjamin A. Olken, 2014. "What Do We Learn from the Weather? The New Climate-Economy Literature," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(3), pages 740-798, September.
    10. Xi Chen & Chih Ming Tan & Xiaobo Zhang & Xin Zhang, 2020. "The effects of prenatal exposure to temperature extremes on birth outcomes: the case of China," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 33(4), pages 1263-1302, October.
    11. Hsing-Hsiang Huang & Michael R. Moore, 2018. "Farming under Weather Risk: Adaptation, Moral Hazard, and Selection on Moral Hazard," NBER Chapters, in: Agricultural Productivity and Producer Behavior, pages 77-124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Zhang, Shaohui & Guo, Qinxin & Smyth, Russell & Yao, Yao, 2022. "Extreme temperatures and residential electricity consumption: Evidence from Chinese households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    13. Johnston, David W. & Knott, Rachel & Mendolia, Silvia & Siminski, Peter, 2021. "Upside-Down Down-Under: Cold Temperatures Reduce Learning in Australia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    14. Joshua Graff Zivin & Solomon M. Hsiang & Matthew Neidell, 2018. "Temperature and Human Capital in the Short and Long Run," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 5(1), pages 77-105.
    15. François Cohen & Matthieu Glachant & Magnus Söderberg, 2017. "The cost of adapting to climate change: evidence from the US residential sector," Working Papers hal-01695171, HAL.
    16. Garth Heutel & Nolan H. Miller & David Molitor, 2021. "Adaptation and the Mortality Effects of Temperature across U.S. Climate Regions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(4), pages 740-753, October.
    17. Sinha, Paramita & Caulkins, Martha & Cropper, Maureen L., 2018. "Do Discrete Choice Approaches to Valuing Urban Amenities Yield Different Results Than Hedonic Models?," RFF Working Paper Series 18-02, Resources for the Future.
    18. Yan Chen & Xiaohong Chen & Hongshan Ai & Xiaoqing Tan, 2022. "Temperature and Migration Intention: Evidence from the Unified National Graduate Entrance Examination in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-23, August.
    19. Harish, Santosh & Singh, Nishmeet & Tongia, Rahul, 2020. "Impact of temperature on electricity demand: Evidence from Delhi and Indian states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    20. Neidell, Matthew & Uchida, Shinsuke & Veronesi, Marcella, 2019. "Be Cautious with the Precautionary Principle: Evidence from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident," IZA Discussion Papers 12687, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Development and Energy; Electricity; Energy; Climate; Large Data Sets: Modeling and Analysis; Panel Data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F0 - International Economics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:enejou:v:41:y:2020:i:4:p:209-230. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.