Energy Management For Citizens in a Contemporary World

ABSTRACT - Work group five, Energy, Shelter and Community, was composed of six persons who explored the assignment and tentatively agreed to compile annotated bibliographies of research related to energy management for citizens in a contemporary world.

Citation:

Merlene Lyman, Maryann Paynter, and Emma Auer (1978) ,"Energy Management For Citizens in a Contemporary World", in NA - Advances in Consumer Research Volume 05, eds. Kent Hunt, Ann Abor, MI : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 765.

Advances in Consumer Research Volume 5, 1978      Page 765

ENERGY MANAGEMENT FOR CITIZENS IN A CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Merlene Lyman, South Dakota State University

Maryann Paynter, University of Kentucky

Emma Auer, Purdue University

Raedene Combs, University of Nebraska

Patricia Tripple, University of Nevada, Reno

Judy Van Name, University of Delaware

ABSTRACT -

Work group five, Energy, Shelter and Community, was composed of six persons who explored the assignment and tentatively agreed to compile annotated bibliographies of research related to energy management for citizens in a contemporary world.

INTRODUCTION

Work group number five was organized informally during the Friday morning session. Francis Magrabi, co-chair-person of the ACR-AHEA Interdisciplinary Research Workshop, asked conferees to declare a preference from the five research areas she listed. The six persons who chose "Energy, Shelter and the Community" met together to select a discussion leader and recorder as suggested. They held several discussions Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to select and revise research priorities using the preliminary draft of a project report entitled, "Home Economics Research, Assessment, Planning and Projections'' (HERAPP).

The research topic areas from the HERAPP project assigned to group five included:

1. Housing and Energy

2. Energy Management in Housing

3. Management and Resource Use

4. Community Development

Initially, participants in this section expressed tentative concerns about:

1. the limited interdisciplinary composition;

2. the assumption that these persons represented the expertise necessary to select and revise the research priorities from the HERAPP project;

3. the scarcity of knowledge concerning the origin or selection of the HERAPP lists (Many participants had access to this information from their institutions but were not aware that this was to be the basis for their deliberation at the workshop); and

4. the lack of direction about how this segment of the workshop was to function during the time before it was expected that they would present a review-of- literature-and-theory paper at the AHEA meeting in New Orleans in June 1978.

RESEARCH PRIORITIES

After reading and studying the HERAPP document, suggestions were presented for research priorities. Most of the group favored ranking energy use related to housing as the first priority; others voted for community development or involvement in public policy as a means of influencing consumer energy management.

It was not possible in the time provided to evaluate and re-order all the HERAPP items. However, the following topics were given some precedence over the others.

1. Alternate housing forms

2. Barrier-free housing for elderly and disabled

3. Constraints on achieving home ownership

4. Energy management in the home

5. Extent of discrimination and problems of enforcing laws for ensuring human rights to housing

6. Impact of utilization of home computers

7. Influencing public policy for housing

8. Investments in human capital, new life styles

9. Life cycle cost analyses for housing, furnishings and appliances

10. Other political, economical and social aspects of housing

11. Promotion of democratic decision-making in the home

12. Relationship of public and private energy costs

13. Solar heating and other energy alternatives

14. Spatialization and design of housing

COMMITMENTS

Incidences of completed or current projects related to several of the HERAPP researchable problem areas were cited. However, since they were not funded through agriculture funds, it was understood why they were listed. Duplication of these studies did not seem reasonable. Hence, it was decided that each researcher would begin by compiling an annotated bibliography of research using a variety of sources from many disciplines. These are to be sent to Merlene Lyman by February 1, 1978.

Topics selected for the literature search and persons tentatively committed to compiling the annotated bibliographies were:

1. Cost and Availability of Energy for Housing; Adaptation of Technological Advances-- Merlene Lyman, South Dakota State University

2. Contemporary Spatialization and Design of Housing -- Judy Van Name, University of Delaware

3. Relationships Between Public and Private Energy Consumption -- Raedene Combs, University of Nebraska

4. Public Policy Related to Public and Private Energy Management -- Patricia A. Tripple, University of Nevada, Reno

5. Coping Behavior for Managing Family Energy Resources -- Maryann Paynter, University of Kentucky

6. Alteration of Life Styles for Energy Management -- Emma Auer, Purdue University

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