Research On Factors And Interaction Mechanisms Of Energy Conservation Behaviors In College Students

Increasing campus area aggravates school energy consumption.Students have a greater impact on school energy consumption,it is of great significance to explore the factors and interaction mechanisms of energy conservation behaviors of students(ECBS)for the construction of energy-saving campuses.Therefore,the following research is conducted.Firstly,the relevant factors that affect ECBS are identified through a combination of literature reviews and in-depth interviews,and a theoretical model is constructed.Secondly,the questionnaire for factors of ECBS is developed on the basis of the maturity scale and field investigation,and the reliability and validity of 483 questionnaires were tested.Theremore,the differences of students' social characteristics are tested based on SPSS statistical analysis.Moreover,the mechanism of the factors affecting ECBS is analyzed empirically through the structural equation model(SEM)constructed by MPLUS.Finally,taking an university in Shenzhen as an example,the electricity consumption data of 1427 student dorms within one year is collected,combining with the questionnaire on the use of power-consuming equipment,the results inferred by the empirical model are tested by cluster analysis and statistics analysis to further verify the rationality of this model.The results show that,(1)Energy perception(EP),knowledge of energy conservation(KEC),comfort preference(CP),subjective norm(SN),benefit of energy saving(BES),awareness of energy conservation(AEC)and students' social characteristics including gender,grade,subject category and political identity are the main factors affecting ECBS.(2)Students' social characteristic make differences in ECBS by acting on EP,KEC,CP,SN,BES and AEC.(3)EP,KEC and AEC can directly affect habit-adjusted of energy conservation behaviors(HA),while CP and SN only can affect HA indirectly through intention of energy conservation(IEC).KEC,CP and AEC can directly affect quality threshold of energy conservation behaviors(QT),while EP and SN only can affect QT indirectly through IEC.KEC,SN and BES can directly contribute to interpersonal energy conservation behaviors(IECB),while EP and AEC only can affect IECB indirectly through IEC.(4)Except the CP has a negative impact on ECBS,all other variables have a positive impact,and the most influential factor on HA,QT and IECB is AEC.(5)According to the results of the empirical model,it is inferred that women,freshmen and graduate students,literature and management,communist party members including communist probationary member are more able to make energy conservation behaviors.The results of electricity consumption data and questionnaire also show that women,graduate students and freshmen,literature and management,communist party members including communist probationary member are more saving in all aspects,which is in good agreement with the empirical model.Therefore,the model is considered reasonable.Generally,the factors influencing ECBS are thoroughly explored through a combination of questionnaire and cluster analysis.It has a great help on administrators to formulate effective energy conversation management systems.And the research method verifing the model path through electricity consumption data also provides a new idea for subsequent research.