Comparative Efficiency of Energy Services in Households:
A DEA analysis in two Mexican communities
Jordi Cravioto, Eiji Yamasue
Ritsumeikan University, Japan

ABSTRACT: Energy services (ES) have grown in presence in recent household energy consumption studies. This research revisits the concept and presents a data‐envelopment‐analysis assessment ofhousehold ES efficiency in terms of associated energy consumption. The role of household equipment penetration and equipment technology is discussed using these efficiency outcomes.

Results

PURPOSE
1. Evaluate comparative efficiency of households using ES with respect to energy consumption
2. Analyse the role of household equipment and technology using such efficiency

MethodSurvey/questionnaire (sample size: 98 from two Mexican locations, retrieved in 2012)• Four ES in a satisfaction scale: illumination, transport, communications and temperature regulation(Cravioto, 2014, 2017; Sovacool, 2011; V. Modi, 2006), using the following item:•EQUIPMENT: Ownership of more than one car did not have a significant effect onefficiency
TECHNOLOGY: Car technology also did not show correlation with transport efficiency:
 car age (‐0.05)

Energy consumption / # household appliances / appliances’ age (y)(appliance age is considered here a proxy of TECHNOLOGY)

Data Envelopment Analysis• Mathematical technique for comparative
efficiency (Cook et al, 2007):
Cuauhtémoc [income: 15,636 dls/year]• In this DEA model ES are outputs and energy consumption inputs:(they associate as shown in the table of spearman corr. below)
Illumination
Transport
Temp. regulation
Communication

Electricity
0.6

Gas

0.46
0.644

0.544

EQUIPMENT:
Appliances More appliances’ penetration was also negative on the ES‐energy efficiency: TV, video player, computer (all similar to computer – seeplot left below)
 Radio (inverted U: efficiency increases from not having tohaving at least one but it decreases after – see plot below)
 For vehicles no significant effect on the efficiency
TECHNOLOGY:
Appliances Newer appliances did have an important effect on theefficiency of communication:
TV (0.47), Radio (0.29), Computer (0.21)*but only TV resulted significant, technology of otherappliances such as phone, DVD or printer was not relevant.
Vehicles Better car technology also did not correlate withcommunication efficiency.

TEMPERATURE REGULATION:
EQUIPMENT: More equipment penetration was negative on temp. reg.
efficiency
For appliances, main tendency is negative:
 Iron, hairdryer (same pattern as computer –see plot)
For showering‐related equipment, similar:
 Shower head, bath and boiler (same pattern ascomputer)For heating/cooling equipment, partially similar:Electric fan, AC, electric heater significantly associatedwith less efficiency (all similar to electric fan ‐ see plot)*but central heating systems and gas heaters without
significant effects (both similar to gas heater plot)
For cooking equipment, no relation:
 Stoves (gas and electric) did not have significant effects
on efficiency
TECHNOLOGY: Some appliances’ technology had a meaningful effect on
temperature regulation efficiency:
Appliances Iron (.4), Hairdryer (.3)
Showering equipment
 Bath (0.37), Boiler (0.2), Shower head (0.2)
Heating/cooling space equipment
 Heating system (0.48), Heater (gas) (0.21), Fan (0.2)*But not AC / electric heaters, probably because in theselocations there is no strong need for ac and thus no impact
on the efficiency
Cooking equipment
Electric stove (opposite direction) (‐0.3421), probably
because newer electric stoves associates with richer
households that mix cooking for heating space.
*not so for gas stove

Conclusions

References

 In general, higher penetration of appliances has a negative effect on the efficiency of any ES and its related energy
consumption. This is plausible because higher access to consumption facilitators would create higher consumption.
 On the other hand (and contrary to common understanding) not all technology associated with better scores ofefficiency. In fact, technology in general did not have a meaningful effect on ES efficiency, except for certain ES.
 The findings also suggest that temperature regulation is mainly concerned with heating (and not cooling) space in these
Mexican locations. With this respect the most common way of heating is through gas, yet electricity takes certain
importance through a couple of appliances (iron, hairdryer). Technology on gas heaters and showering equipment is themost meaningful.
 As for communication, tv and radios might be the most common way of communicating with outside, but computers
are taking its importance. Technology is quite relevant for tv and to a lesser extent to radios and computers.
 Further research should aim to understand these findings in more detail and expand the analysis to cover other ES.

communities: A study on demographic, household, equipment and energy related predictors. Energy
Policy, 73, 110‐126.
Cravioto, J. and Yamasue, E. (2017) Energy services and life satisfaction: a study on households in two
Mexican communities. Energy for Society: 1st International Conference on Energy Research & Social
Science. Sitges, Spain. Apr 2017.
Cooper, W.W., Seiford, L.M. and Tone, K. (2007). Data envelopment analysis: A compre hensive text withmodels, applications, references and DEA‐solver software. Springer Science and Business Media.
Fell, M. J. (2017) Energy services: A conceptual review. Energy Research & Social Science, 27, 129‐140.
Modi, V., McDade, S., Lallement, D. and Saghir, J. (2006) Energy services for the millennium development
goals. New York: Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme, United Nations Development
Programme. UN Millennium Project and The World Bank.
Sovacool, B.K. (2011a) Conceptualizing urban household energy use: Climbing the Energy Services Ladder.
Energy Policy, 39(3), 1659‐1668.

Cravioto, J., Yamasue, E., Okumura, H. and Ishihara, K.N. (2014) Energy service satisfaction in two Mexican

Petrol
0.64

Zoquitlán [income: 2,208 dls/year]

Acknowledgement: Global Center of Excellence of the Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University and the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (S‐16) of the MOEJ

0.662

Circular use of Materials Lab (Yamasue lab)

Contact

TRANSPORT

Temp. regulation - electricity[DEA efficiency]•

Most analyses have taken ES for end‐uses (allocating physical/economical units)
In reality, ES contain end‐uses of energy in conjunction with other elements (Sovacool, 2011)
 they represent a benefit for human well‐being (Fell, 2017; Cravioto, 2014)
ES have already been measured in a satisfaction scale and analysed in relation to material andwell‐being indices (Cravioto, 2014), but still many aspects are yet to be explored: how certain households can report higher levels of ES with modest energy consumption
 the role of household equipment and technology in the most‐efficient households

ILLUMINATION:

Communications-electricity[DEA efficiency]

Energy services (ES)••COMMUNICATION:

EQUIPMENT: Mid‐range correlation of illumination and no. of lightbulbs (0.46),
 turned negative when seen through ES‐energy efficiency:
 Total lightbulbs (‐0.76)
 bulbs per member (‐0.73), Bulbs per room (‐0.51)
TECHNOLOGY: Better lightning technology correlated with higher illumination (0.31),
 but it did not reflect in the ES‐energy efficiency (probably consumption
improvements are too small to be accounted)
 % efficient lightbulbs (0.1)

Communications-electricity[DEA efficiency]•

Household‐scale descriptions are crucial in energy research,
 because overall energy consumption is reflected at the household
In household‐scale analyses, energy services (ES) are driving research interest,
 because ES can disaggregate energy consumption (Sovacool, 2011) and ES can link energy use with social aspects (Cravioto, 2017)

Temp. regulation - gas[DEA efficiency]

Introduction•

College of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University
1‐1‐1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu city, Shiga 525‐8577 Japan
Tel. +81‐77‐561‐4866

Email: jordi‐c@gst.ritsumei.ac.jp

For more information on our research

http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/~yamasue/index.html