Smart household electrical appliance usage behavior of residents in China: Converging the theory of planned behavior, value-belief-norm theory and external information

With the rapid development of China's power industry and the improvement of residents' living standards, the electricity consumption of residents has increased significantly. With smart electrical household appliances are walking into resident's household, residents can change their appliance's usage behavior by using the built-in software to save electricity without sacrificing the electricity usage comfort a lot. This paper studied the influence of residents' smart electrical appliance usage behaviors. We establish a comprehensive theoretical framework model based on TPB and VBN theory, in addition, we considered external information influence, including resident's usage knowledge, policies, and so on. We design a questionnaire and employ structural equation model (SEM) model to analyze the influences, and we find that the attitude, social norm, and external information have a significant direct influence on residents' smart electricity usage behavior, altruism awareness, and personal norm have no direct significant influence on residents' smart electricity usage behavior, however, they work through the external information and then have an indirect influence on residents' smart electricity usage behavior. As a result, we put forward some specific policy suggestions to promote residents' behaviors for the government, smart electric household appliance manufacturers, and the power service department.