Socioeconomic factors affecting household energy consumption in Qom, Iran

Petrol is heavily subsidized in Iran which has led both to very high consumption levels and a big smuggling problem as petrol is transported out of Iran's border areas for re-sale in neighboring countries, where petrol prices are much higher. Also, a shortage of refineries combined with wasteful consumption means that Iran regularly imports petrol despite being one of the world's biggest oil producers. To look at the different variables contributing to wasteful consumption of fuel in Iran and the effect of governmental gradual increase of fuel prices, this study questioned 600 family warden views in Qom, Iran. The results showed that more than two third of samples have heard or read at least one news about energy saving and quoted TV as main source of their information while 55% mentioned all fossils resources would be finish in near future and urged optimum energy consumption as the best way to tackle energy crisis (82%), with 85% asked for more media propagation to change wrong cultural behaviors in Qom. Nearly half of the people said that governmental plan to increase domestic price of high octane and regular gasoline annually had little or no effect on fuel consumption and majority of them mentioned cultural changes as the best tools and nearly the same rate were worried about air pollution as the immediate result of uncontrolled fuel consumption in Qom. The results also showed that with increase in each year education of family warden, decreases fuel expenses 11.2% in hot seasons and 1240000 Iranian Rials (IR-R) in cold seasons while increase in family members' size adds 288660 (IR-R) per member to base family size (2) and for each member of family which works outside the house, family energy expenses increase 234470 IR-R. And finally the results showed fuel (or energy) expenses in cold months in Qom is higher than other months and family warden education showed more effect to reduce those expenses during mild months but less during hot months. Therefore it is recommended that urgent actions should be done to change society behavior and teach more about new methods of energy saving while current actions such as increase in fuel price should be revised completely. © 2007 Asian Network for Scientific Information.