Fundamental Characteristics and Four-tier Residential Customer Energy Consumption Behavior Model

The big obstacle for residential energy transition is the lack of a consumption behavior model. At first, special characteristics of residential customer are discussed, including their fundamental purpose of energy use and attitudes against constraints and energy prices, as well as derived demand characteristics on appliance in energy consumption, etc. Then, a four-tier energy consumption behavior model of residential customers is developed with “virtual appliance” being generalized into three time scales as current, near future, future, and the behavior evolution process is sectionalized into cognition, consciousness, demand and behavior. The methodology and technology to implement the four-tier model in real applications will be dominated by the emerging cyber physical social system in energy, and a customized questionnaire survey system is demanded to investigate the consumption behaviors of residential customers.