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With Vietnam's countrywide electrification rate approaching 100 percent, electricity has become ever more indispensable and essential to the quality of everyday life. The steady upsurge in household electricity consumption over the past years has been driven by a growing technification of the domestic sphere. Modern households are increasingly equipped with a variety of electric appliances that not only provide convenience and comfort but also serve as markers of social distinction. This essay explores the history of domestic electrification and people's aspirations to live electrically in urban Vietnam, from the colonial era until today. Inspired by recent advances in the anthropology of electricity, it investigates the meanings that people have attributed to electric home appliances through the ages and asks if, how, and why some of these have come to define what it means to live a good life. In the current era, however, living electrically has also come to reflect a global sense of "cruel optimism" in which people become increasingly attached to certain understandings of what constitutes a good life that are unsustainable in the long run, and detrimental to their well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rooftop solar is increasingly promoted as a source of low-carbon household energy; however, there is a plausible concern that solar installations might influence energy consumption patterns in ways that undermine potential environmental benefits. In this study, we examine the impact of residential rooftop solar panels on energy usage in Vietnam. Leveraging a comprehensive and unique panel dataset, we employ a difference-in-differences identification strategy to estimate the effects of solar installation on consumption. Our models reveal that households installing solar panels reduce grid consumption (typically carbon-intensive) by approximately 3.6 %. This reduction occurs concomitantly with an increase in total consumption of around 16 %, indicating a substantial rebound effect from solar panels. Nonetheless, dynamic models suggest a diminishing trend over time for both the decline in grid usage and the rebound effect, leveling off to 1.5 % and 3.5 %, respectively, within one year of solar installation. Acknowledging the marked differences in household consumption behavior and electricity demand dynamics between developing and developed nations, our research provides valuable insights into the understanding of the solar rebound effect and its dynamics over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]