THE ROLE OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND THE HOMEMAKER
ABSTRACT
The study investigated the measures adopted by homemakers in the management of domestic energy within households in urban and rural areas of Abia State. Specifically, the study identified the various sources of domestic energy used within households. Also, the study determined the measures taken by homemakers to improve the use of domestic energy. Two research questions and one hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significant guided the study.
The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The study was carried out in Abia State of Nigeria. The population of the study comprised of 442,693 households in the area of the study. The sample size was 400 homemakers who were purposefully drawn from the population. Questionnaires were used for the data collection. The instruments were face validated. The internal consistency of the instrument was 0.89. Data were analyzed using means for research questions while ANOVA was used to test the hypothesis at the level of significance. (energy management)
The Scheffe’s post hoc test was used for comparison of means of items that were significantly different… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Chapter One to Five Project Material)
INTRODUCTION
In the olden days, before the advent of civilization, homemakers depended on a source of domestic energy for household activities. Also, with the advent of civilization, they still rely on a device as a means of generating the energy needed for the household activity. Thus, the above information shows that from the pre-civilization era, to date, homemakers have been accessing their domestic energy needs through a source. Energy sources are grouped into non-renewable sources such as biomass, solar and biofuels, secondary sources such as electricity, solar, and hydropower. The sources of energy for household activities are electricity, liquefied natural gas, kerosene, charcoal, fuelwood, solar power, and petrol. (energy management)
A. Kuper and J.Kuper (2004) said that the ability of any society to survive depends on its continuing access to energy inappropriate qualities (energy management), quantities, and its acceptable cost, so domestic energy is one of the most important utility households need to achieve their goals. Domestic energy is the energy used in the home on the various appliances used within households (energy management). These are also energy applied for various purposes in the households including cooking, lighting, water heating, powering appliances, cooling of the space, laundry, and sterilization of equipment. (energy management)
The amount of energy (energy management) used per household varies widely depending on the standard of living of the household, price, age, climate, and type of residence (Varghese, Oghale, 2005). Management is the skill of putting all the resources to work for the family (Campbell, 2008). He further asserted that Management involves identifying and using resources, making decisions, and solving problems. Management in this works is the ability of the homemakers to utilize resources and household members to meet the needs of households. (energy management)
Therefore, domestic energy management is the effective use and control of domestic energy to achieve definite goals with maximum efficiency. Further, management of domestic energy is the ability of the homemakers to apply the components of management in the utilization of domestic energy such components are planning, organizing, implementing, and evaluating to meet the needs of the households (Sethi, 2008). (energy management)
Sunrise every household is a consumer of domestic energy (energy management), therefore, homemakers should also be efficient in the usage of the domestic energy. M.Sethi (2008) stated that the management of domestic energy (energy management) needs some elements of skill acquisition. He distinguished three types of management skills namely (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Chapter One to Five Project Material)
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of Energy Use
The amount of energy consumption is influenced by the level of development (energy management) and as such varies from one country to another. Researchers have shown that the industrialized nations used most of the world’s energy, while less developed nations used much less; this is supported by the findings of Enger and Smith (2004) which stated that the industrialized nations use energy equally within three sectors i.e, residential, transportation and industrial as against the predominant use of energy for residential purposes (cooking and heating) by less developed countries. (energy management)
They further reported that the amount of energy required for commercial and residential use varies from country to country. They said this because though a country with high GDP uses a large amount of energy, a lower percentage of its energy per capita is used for residential and commercial needs than does a less developed country. They went further to explain that while 30 percent of the energy used in North America is for residential and commercial purposes, in some developing nations 90 percent is used in the residential sector. They also talked about variations in residential energy use between countries and regions. (energy management)
They recognized that energy in the residential sector to the tune of about 75 percent is expended on air conditioning, refrigeration, water heating, space heating as well as internet issues in North America. This contrasts sharply with about half of residential energy in Africa being used toward cooking they explained.
Like other less developed countries, most of the energy consumed in Nigeria is in the residential, and it is mostly for cooking, heating, and lighting. Olajide and Odugbenro (1999) identified the household sector as the largest energy consumer in the economy, accounting for about 90 percent of the traditional fuels, especially fuelwood and 25 percent of the commercial energy… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Chapter One to Five Project Material)
SOME MOTIVATING FACTORS FOR HOUSEHOLD ENERGY CONSUMPTION PATTERN
The pattern of energy (energy management) use at household level varies according to the educational level of the user, climate, rural-urban dichotomy, cultural background, purchasing power as well as availability and distance of the energy source and of course government policy, which sometimes dictates the rate of supply which may also modify energy demand. All these factors overall could influence population distribution, while the population dynamics itself ultimately affect energy consumption patterns. (energy management)
Education and Seasonality As It Affects Energy Consumption
Survey of energy use in Northern Nigeria by Silviconsult (1991) identified that households whose heads have little or no formal education (western education) consume more wood than those with some background of formal education. The reason could be that modern education has motivated people to use of cleaner and less healthy risky energy sources than traditional wood commonly used.
Fuel preference also affects the pattern of energy use, hence in the same study, Anodeisus leiocarpus (marke) tree species was the most preferred for cooking due to its burning speed, convenience and relative cost. On the issue of seasonality, the same study identified that 85 percent of households use more wood during cold season for heating and lighting, while 25 percent use charcoal, kerosene gas, and electricity.
This study, therefore, identified the cold season as a motivating factor for more consumption of energy in the household, especially for heating… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Chapter One to Five Project Material)
METHODOLOGY
This study employed a survey research design (SRD) method. The area of the study is Abia State. Abia State is in the South-Eastern part of Nigeria. Population for the study comprised all households in the state. A typical household is made up of husband, wife, children, and other persons. Each household occupies a single housing unit and utilizes domestic energy. Available records indicate that there are 442,693 households in the area of the study (National Population, 2006). (energy management)
The sample for the study was 430 households which were used for the questionnaire and the focus group discussion session (FGD). Taro Yamen formula for the finite population was used to determine the number of households (Uzoagulu, 2011). Multistage sampling was used for selecting the number of the households while one Local Government Area was purposely selected from each zone. These gave three LGA’s. Each of the three LGA’s was represented by a town that is the head-quarter of the zone and a village. In the third stage, systematic random sampling was employed to select every 5th street and every house in the street. (energy management)
According to Abia State Town Planning Authority (2012) there 75 streets in Umuahia, 160 Streets in Aba, and 38 Compounds in Eben Ohafia. This gave Umuahia 15 streets, Aba town 32 streets, and Ebem 8 compounds, giving a total of 55 streets on the whole… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Chapter One to Five Project Material)
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The following findings were made:
- the homemakers in urban and rural households of Abia State adopted the 14 measures identified in the study;
- all the strategies for improving the measures adopted by homemakers were all accepted by the respondents.
Table 1: Mean scores of the respondents of the homemakers on the measures adopted in the use of domestic energy
| S/N | Measures adopted by homemakers |
U |
R | XG | SD |
Remarks |
|
| 1 | Remove fuelwood from fire after each cooking |
3.43 |
3.27 | 3.36 | 0.81 |
A |
|
| 2 | Hide it from children to avoid wasting the energy |
3.24 |
2.99 | 3.12 | 0.83 |
A |
|
| 3 | Switch off lights immediately after each use |
3.41 |
3.40 | 3.40 | 0.73 |
A |
|
| 4 | Use good quality fuelwood for good flames |
3.30 |
3.26 | 3.28 | 0.71 |
A |
|
| 5 | Use thermostats to control the temperature |
3.22 |
2.90 | 3.07 | 0.86 |
A |
|
| 6 | Put off energy that is not being used |
3.03 |
2.8 |
A |
|||
| 7 | Clean equipment regularly to save energy |
2.96 |
3.02 | 2.99 | 0.89 |
A |
|
| 8 | Unplug electrical appliances after each use to avoid explosion |
3.13 |
3.24 | 3.19 | 0.79 |
A |
|
| 9 | Maintain equipment to ensure it is 00working well |
3.06 |
3.01 | 3.03 | 0.86 |
A |
|
| 10 | Buy good appliances to save energy |
3.38 |
3.29 | 3.34 | 0.75 |
A |
|
| 11 |
Reduce the flame when food is almost cooked |
3.17 | 3.16 | 3.17 | 0.81 |
A |
|
| 12 | Cook large quantities of foods at a time |
3.28 |
3.30 | 3.29 | 0.74 |
A |
|
| 13 | Teach family members how to use each energy |
3.42 |
3.24 | 3.34 | 0.78 |
A |
|
| 14 | Children are used in building domestic to teach them that it is an expensive resource. |
3.44 |
3.26 | 3.36 | 0.76 |
A |
|
Key: U = urban homemakers, R = rural dweller homemaker,
XG = grand mean, total respondents = 344, SD = standard deviation.
Table 1 shows that the 14 items on the measures adopted in the use of domestic energy were all accepted. This is because the means ranged from 2.94 to 3.40 which were above the cutoff point of 250 and above. The SD of all the items ranged from 0.71 to 0.92 (Table 1). This indicates that the respondents were too far from the mean of each item and were close to one another in their opinion… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Chapter One to Five Project Material)
CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions were drawn based on the findings of the study. The homemakers in households of Abia State adopted positive measures in the management of domestic energy in order to avoid accidents and waste of domestic energy. Creating awareness of these measures are needed for effective management of domestic energy, it will help to improve the practices that they are presently adopting in households of Abia State and this will bring improvement in the welfare of the individual households… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Chapter One to Five Project Material)
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the findings of the study, it is hereby recommended that:
- The government should support the households with the purpose of making the cleaner domestic energy easily accessible and affordable to both rural and urban homemakers because the emergence of a stable household is not possible without domestic energy… (Scroll down for the link to get the Complete Chapter One to Five Project Material)