Identification of Effective Sociological Factors on Household Consumption Energy (A Systematic Review on Energy Studies in Iran)

Having lived on this planet for many years, using and exploiting its resources, man has been confronted with limitations and environmental damage. In this regard, in order to find a new way that can reduce these damages and establish justice, it is of great importance to pay attention to the constraints. Can the problem become more understandable by introducing social variables? Therefore, this study was conducted to identify the factors that affect household consumption in order to understand the various related problems and pave the way for researchers to determine future research perspectives.

In this field, numerous studies have been conducted to identify the consumption and consumption patterns in the household sector as one of the most energy-intensive sectors. In this regard, the derivation and synthesis of previous findings are absolutely necessary, so in this study, through a systematic review by reading 176 articles and reviewing them in several stages and finally a comprehensive review of 40 scientific articles, an attempt was made to present the effective factors for household energy consumption. Credibility, confirmability and reliability criteria were used to validate this study.

The concepts of coding were divided into subthemes and themes. Results discussion and conclusion from the data studied 46 subtopics and themes and in the next stage 13 themes and in the final classification; Three categories including macro (governance), medium (society) and micro (family) were collected and then direct and indirect relationships were developed at each level in the form of causal model, so that the relationships between the level of governance (education system and media, energy policy and legislation, executive management of government and energy-related organizations, production, management, distribution, and consumption of energy, technology development, and standard of urban planning and architecture) and at the level of society (interpersonal factors, social and cultural factors, and public awareness) and at the level of family (lifestyle, social and economic status, and characteristics of household population) were described.

The combination of research results and the compilation of different effective factors for household energy consumption and their classification into different levels (macro, middle, and micro) can show the importance of a comprehensive approach to energy and sociological factors for future research, so that energy experts are able to evaluate energy issues in an interdisciplinary way. It also shows policy makers a better and more comprehensive view of policy making and planning in the area of household energy consumption at the macro level.