Influence of socio-demographic variables on electrical energy management practices among residents of Niger State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of socio-demographic variables on electrical energy management practices among residents of Niger State, Nigeria. The study adopted Cross Sectional Survey Research Design. The population of the study was made up of 191,416 heads of households in residential buildings. The sample for the study consisted of 1,290 heads of households in residential buildings, three null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 19) was used for data analysis. Levene’s test Statistic, one–way analysis of variance (ANOVA), post-hoc (Tukey Honest Significant Different (HSD) test) was used to test hypotheses at (P ˂ 0.05). The finding of the study shows that, low and high income residents in Niger State wasted more of electricity, young aged (18 to 39 years) wasted more electricity compare to other aged groups and residents with low education contributed significantly to energy wastage. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made: The electricity management board in collaboration with energy commission should intensify effort to organize enlightenment campaigns on electrical energy management practices targeting low and high income earners, the enlightenment campaigns on electrical energy management should focus on young adult (18 to 39 years) as they wasted more of electricity and residents with low educational qualification should be well informed on implications of electrical energy management.