Causal Effect of Time-Use Behavior on Residential Energy Consumption in China

Energy is essentially consumed to support residents' productive and consumptive activities arranged in their timeline. Hence, analyzing residential energy consumption from the perspective of how people use their time for participating different activities would provide more underlying insights. However, the relationship between time-use behavior and energy consumption has not been comprehensively and accurately quantified. Here, we go beyond pervious literature to investigate the causal effect from the initial generation of activity to the final energy consumption and explore the potential energy changes in the residential sector by shedding light on residents' time-use behavior. To fulfill this research, we improve the time-use survey framework used worldwide by including the equipment dimension. The results show that the average residential energy consumption in a Chinese household was approximately 1570.5 kgce in 2015, among which cooking consumed most of the energy. Through promoting energy-efficient equipment and eliminating the equipment usage during non-primary activities would lead to 3.5–13.2% energy reductions; however, the increasing popularity of online activities and services (E-life) might increase the residential energy consumption by approximately 18.1% even after avoiding the energy consumption of related travel. •Investigate the causal effect of time-use behavior on residential energy consumption.•Explore the potential energy changes in the residential sector from the view of time use.•Average residential energy consumption in a Chinese household was 1570.5 kgce.•Energy-intensive activities, time periods, groups and equipment are identified.•E-life is likely to increase the residential energy consumption by 18.1% in China.