On household energy consumption for rural development: a study on Yangzhong county of China

Villages of Yangzhong County, typical of comparatively well-off countryside in Eastern China, are in a period of rapid transformation of their energy consumption from non-commercial to commercial. A five-year questionnaire of rural household energy consumption showed marked change in energy consumption structure, rapid increase in electricity and LPG consumption, decrease in straw and stalks and coal energy consumption, relatively stable per capita energy consumption, but a little increase in effective energy consumption. It is shown that per capita energy consumption relates to per capita income, average number of persons per household, and per capita output of crops. This paper discussed the nature of rural household energy consumption, the general features of comparatively well-off rural household energy consumption in China, etc.