Energy Consumption in Greek Households During the Economic Recession

Greece has been hit particularly hard and insistently long by the economic recession since 2008, a development which inevitably affected the households’ behaviour regarding energy consumption and space heating in particular. The results of a field study conducted over two consecutive heating periods are presented and evaluated in the current paper. It is of great interest to analyze and identify dissimilarities of the consumers’ behaviour between different winter periods, that is the time period 2011-13, but also between Northern and Southern urban regions, belonging two different climate zones. Consumers’ behavior is assessed with respect to the prevailing energy prices and the disposable household income. In that sense determining the degree of elasticity of residential energy consumption can be determined in a bottom-up approach and compared to the national average values for the same period. Reduced income and increased energy cost on the other hand may trigger different reactions, from environmental unfriendly solutions to intensive need for technology innovation. Energy Consumption in Greek Households During the Economic Recession