Comparative Assessment of Awareness and Knowledge of Impact of Energy Use Behaviour among Nigerian Higher Education Institutions Residence Students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to understand and compare residence students’ awareness and knowledge of the impacts of their reported energy use practices, and to explore their attitudes and reported behaviour regarding energy saving using data collected from three different higher institutions in Southwest, Nigeria namely Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic (RUGIPO), Owo and Adeyemi College of Education, (ACE), Ondo. The findings revealed that there is a significant difference between the three tertiary institutions regarding their level of awareness with RUGIPO having the highest and ACE having the lowest awareness level (F = 3.571, p = 0.002). The research also found that ACE exhibits the highest scores for almost all aspects of energy use behaviour. The correlation analysis shows a significant correlation between level of awareness and energy use behaviour (R =0.897**, p=0.001).The result shows no significant difference between the level of awareness and socio-demographic characteristics of respondents except gender in RUGIPO (F = 7.654, p = 0.007). The result shows no significant difference between the energy use behaviour and socio-demographic characteristics of respondents except age  = 23.407, p = 0.000) and academic qualification  = 28.232, p = 0.000) for turning off light when not needed.