China's household cooking consumes too much energy

Energy use by rural families is more inefficient than in urban homes, as many rural people still use materials such as firewood and straw and bottled liquefied natural gas, the survey found.

It was based on 1,450 household interviews in 26 provinces and was the first residential energy consumption survey in China, according to Wei Chu, a main author and an associate professor at Renmin University School of Economics.

The survey was conducted from December 2012 to March 2013. Sixty-four percent of the samples came from cities and the rest from towns and counties.

Apart from cooking, average home energy use in China is much lower than that in Western countries. For instance, electricity use per person in China only accounts for half the world average and less than one-tenth of that in the United States, according to the survey.

Home electricity use per person in China stood at 382.9 kilowatt hours in 2010, compared with the 726 kWh world average and 4,677.9 kWh in the US during the same period.

Heating usually accounts for the largest share of home energy use in China, similar to most countries. This proportion is expected to increase as more families in southern regions install heating systems.

Electricity use for appliances in China only accounts for about one-tenth the figure in the US, the survey found.

Non-weather-related energy use for electronic appliances, water heating and lighting accounted for 52 percent of total consumption in the US in 2009, according to the US Energy Information Administration.