AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR ENERGY USE AND BEHAVIOR IN THE DOMESTIC SECTOR

Energy consumption patterns are a complex technical and social phenome non and thus to fully understand this phenomenon, it must be viewed fr om both engineering and social science perspectives. Over the last 20- 30 years, energy research within each of these disciplines has progres sed relatively independently, however, it is now being realized that i n order for further development to take place these two perspectives m ust be integrated to form a single and coherent view of energy use. Th is paper proposes an integrated descriptive framework for energy use a nd behaviour, based on systems theory. This framework begins to indica te where the various models and theories from both the engineering and social sciences relate and thus is a first step towards a more integr ated and coherent view of energy use.