Working more, consuming electricity differently? Activity network analysis of the UK time use survey

Máté János Lőrincz and Jacopo Torriti

Introduction

Research on energy demand tends to treat work and home separately, despite the fact that the two are interconnected. The aim of this presentation is to investigate the relationship between the duration of work and energy-related activities in the home, such as dish washing, ironing, food preparation, laundry, and watching TV, video or DVDs. It presents a network analysis of data from the 2014-2015 UK National Time Use Survey. The research questions addressed in this presentation relate to (i) how the duration of work affects the cohesion between energy-relevant activities; (ii) how the centrality parameters of energy-relevant activities change between and across work days; (iii) how changes in the timing of some energy-relevant activities may impact on how the day is configured; and (iv) how working from home and flexible working hours can affect the timing and amount of people’s energy consumption. Findings are presented in terms of the cohesion between activities based on the duration of the work day, inter- and intra- day variations in connections between activities, energy relevant-activities with an intermediary role, and an example on the clustering of food preparation as an activity.

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