2001 Survey Methods
Overview
The
Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS)
- was
designed by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) to provide
information about energy consumption within the residential sector.
- was conducted
in two major parts: the Household Survey and the Energy Suppliers
Survey.
- The Household
Survey collected information about the housing unit through personal
interviews with a representative national sample of households.
- In the
Energy Suppliers Survey, data concerning actual energy consumption
were obtained from household billing records maintained by the energy
suppliers. The data are collected by questionnaires mailed to all
the suppliers for the households in the Household Survey.
Detailed
tables based on results of the Household Survey are now available
on the web.
The data
collection contractor collected and processed the 2001 RECS data for
EIA. The data was collected using the Household
Survey Questionnaire (PDF
format).
NOTE:
To View and/or Print PDF's (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader) -Download
Acrobat Reader for viewing PDF files.
This section
contains detailed information about the RECS sample design, Household
Survey, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Supplemental
Sample and confidentiality of the survey information.
Sample
Design
Overview
Multistage
Area Probability Sample
In a multistage area probability sample design, the universe is broken
up into successively smaller, statistically selected areas. The process
starts with the selection of primary sampling units (PSUs) and ends
with the selection of individual households.
Primary
Sampling Units (PSUs)
PSUs are either metropolitan areas containing a central city of 50,000
or larger population, or they are counties or groups of counties containing
small cities and rural areas. In the sample design used for the 2001
RECS, the total land area of the 50 States and the District of Columbia
was divided into 1,786 PSUs. These PSUs were based on county and independent
city boundaries and on Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as defined
in June 1990. The primary mode of stratification of PSUs was by the
nine Census divisions. Strata were separately defined within Census
divisions for four populous States (California, Florida, New York, and
Texas) and for two States with unique weather conditions (Alaska and
Hawaii). Stratification was also based on MSA or nonMSA status of PSUs
and, to the extent feasible, on dominant residential space-heating fuel
and weather conditions. PSUs were grouped into 116 strata with one PSU
selected from each strata. The PSUs that were selected for the 1993
RECS were also used for the 2001 RECS.
Secondary
Sampling Units (SSUs)
A number of SSUs, usually eight or more, were selected in each PSU.
SSUs consisted of one or more Census blocks, selected directly from
Census statistics. Blocks were combined, as necessary, to create SSUs
that contained at least 50 housing units. SSUs that contained very large
numbers of housing units were divided into smaller listing segments
and one listing segment was selected for detailed address listing.
New
Construction Canvass
The starting point for the SSU new construction update procedure was
the set of SSUs selected for the 1997 RECS. The first step was to expand
the 1997 SSUs to include selected blocks in the same PSU, creating groups
of blocks with at least 400 housing units. A new construction update
procedure was used to determine if significant new construction--defined
as groups of 50 or more housing units--had occurred within the expanded
SSUs since 1997. This was based on a canvass, primarily by telephone,
of local sources of information, such as building-permit-issuing agencies,
zoning boards, and tax offices. If no significant new construction had
occurred, the SSU selected for the 1997 RECS was used for the 2001 RECS.
If significant new construction had occurred, rough counts of the number
of housing units by block were obtained for the expanded SSU, the expanded
SSU was divided into segments, and a segment was selected. The selected
segment was then used as the SSU for the 2001 RECS.
The detailed
field listings of all housing units in the 2001 RECS SSUs were either
carried over from the 1997 RECS or were created by field workers who
visited the SSUs and identified each housing unit by street address,
apartment number, or other obvious features.
Addresses
of these housing units were placed in a database used for actual sample
selection.
Sample
Selection--Ultimate Clusters
Specific addresses chosen from each of the field listings comprised
the ultimate clusters of the 2001 RECS sample. An ultimate cluster of
housing units to be contacted for interview (averaging over four 4 housing
units for the 2001 RECS) was randomly selected by computer from the
penultimate cluster; these housing units constituted the assignments
given to interviewers.
Population
of Special Interest
The
2001 survey featured a supplemental sample of LIHEAP recipients designed
to be merged with the main RECS sample and to meet special analytical
needs of the Office of Family Assistance, Family Support Administration
(FSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The FSA is interested
in households living below the poverty level. The initial RECS housing
characteristics report will use only the households selected as part
of the area probability sample.
RECS
Household Survey
A
complete RECS interview consists of data for a completed household questionnaire
and a signed Authorization Form. The large majority of interviews were
completed via a Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) system.
EIA personnel programmed the survey instrument in the BLAISE software
system. The paper version of the survey instrument can be found in Form
EIA-457A, "Household Questionnaire." When technical problems
were encountered, interviews were completed using the paper version
of the questionnaire. At the end of each interview, the household respondent
was asked to sign an Authorization Form. The signed Authorization Form
gave permission for EIA to obtain the housing unit's energy bills from
each fuel supplier provided by the respondent during the course of the
interview. The case management system employed was SurveyTrak, which
was developed by the University of Michigan.
- A
total of 7,037 housing units were selected to participate in the 2001
RECS.
- Completed
interviews were obtained for 4,822 eligible households.
- This section
describes the procedures involved in collecting the completed interviews.
Conducting
the Interviews
Interviewer
Training
To
accommodate interviewers from various parts of the country, two main
training sessions were held-each of which were 4 1/2 days long. The
first session was held March 21 through March 25, 2001, in Atlanta,
Georgia; and the second session, March 28 through April 1, 2001, in
Grapevine, Texas. Only interviewers with little or no CAPI experience
attended the first day of each of these sessions. To augment the staff
lost to attrition and to provide extra coverage for low-response-rate
areas, a third training session was held June 7 through June 10, 2001.
Because all the interviewers attending this training were experienced
with CAPI administration, this session was 3 1/2 days in length. Approximately
190 interviewers were in attendance across all sessions (80 at each
of the main trainings and 30 at the supplemental training). Each session
was led by a group of trainers who had attended a 3 day workshop in
Princeton, New Jersey. Department of Energy staff, who also participated
in the training, monitored all training sessions.
The Interviewers
A total of 158 interviewers completed one or more personal
interviews for this study. Sixty-one interviewers (39 percent) had completed
interviews during a prior RECS. The remainder were conducting their
first RECS, but had prior interviewing experience, either with other
survey research organizations or with the US Bureau of the Census.
Interviewers
conducted an average of 29 interviews. Forty interviewers completed
fewer than ten interviews each, with an average of five per interviewer.
Twenty-five interviewers completed 50 or more interviews each, with
an average of 72 per interviewer. Thirty-two percent of the personal
interviews were verified by telephone or mail to ensure that interviews
were conducted as intended.
The Interview
Household interviews were conducted with the householder or the householder's
partner. The questions covered energy-related features of the household,
such as the type of heating and cooling systems; the fuels used for
heating and cooling; household appliances and their usage; the receipt
of government assistance for the cost of heating and cooling; and demographic
data on household members. Interviewers also asked permission to measure
the household's living quarters.
Data Collection Procedures
Multiwave, Multicontact Approach
In an effort to minimize nonresponse and, therefore,
maximize the validity of the survey data, a multiwave, multicontact
approach was employed. Before the initial personal contacts, a letter
stressing the purpose and importance of the survey was sent to each
household with a street address. Beginning in late March 2001, interviewers
made several callbacks at different times of the day and different days
of the week in an effort to minimize the number of uncontacted households.
The interviewers also queried neighbors regarding the most opportune
times to contact the prospective respondent.
After initial attempts to complete interviews at the
selected housing units were exhausted, field supervisors determined
which cases would be reassigned to another interviewer. Types of non-interviewed
households that were reassigned included cases where the householder
refused to participate and cases where the householder was not available
or not at home. Types of non-interview households that were not reassigned
included cases where the householder would be unable to complete an
interview during the field period due to absence or illness and cases
where the household had moved after the initial contact. Reassignments
continued throughout the field period.
Data Collection Period
The data collection field period lasted 6 months. Approximately
three-quarters of the personal interviews were completed between the
end of March through the first week of July 2001 (15 weeks). Ninety-nine
percent of the personal interviews were completed by September 29, 2001.
In a few sample locations with low response rates, interviewing continued
through October 7, 2001.
Mail Questionnaire
In late August, mail follow-up attempts were made at
households that had not completed a personal interview. An abbreviated,
self-administered version of the questionnaire was mailed to 1,991 of
these households with a letter asking that they return the completed
questionnaire in the business reply envelope provided. The mailing also
included a copy of the Authorization Form for the respondents to sign.
A mail questionnaire was considered usable if the respondent had completed
the majority of the questionnaire and the Authorization Form was signed.
A total of 241 usable mail questionnaires were returned by the end of
October 2001.
Households to which a mail questionnaire was sent were
given the option of completing the questionnaire via the Internet. Seven
sample households responded via this mode.
Authorization Form Follow-up
A follow-up contact was attempted with all respondents
who completed a personal or mail interview and reported paying for at
least one fuel but did not sign an Authorization Form. Sixty-four additional
forms were obtained through this effort.
Overall Response Rate
After all data collection attempts (both personal interview
and the mail questionnaire) 4,822 households completed a personal interview,
241 households completed a mail questionnaire, and seven households
responded via the Internet.
Response
Rates and Household Characteristics
Various response and non-response rates will be compared across Census
region, urban status, and housing structure type later in the analysis
stage.
Data
Editing
Data for completed interviews were transmitted to the data collection
contractor's headquarters via modem using SurveyTrak sample management
system. All completed interviews were combined into one Blaise database
for further processing. All paperwork, which included the Authorization
Form, Measurement Booklet, and Housing Unit Address Lists were mailed
to the data collection contractor's headquarters. Contact information
from the Blaise interview, the Housing Unit Record from the SurveyTrak
sample management system, and the Authorization Form were reviewed to
ensure that each had been completed correctly and that the correct housing
unit had been interviewed.
Checks
and edits were programmed into the Blaise data capture instrument for
the Household Questionnaire to reduce the amount of missing or invalid
responses. In addition, to ensure the overall quality of the data, checks
were programmed in SAS and used to identify range, logic, and consistency
problems.
The
data collection collection contractor attempted to resolve inconsistencies
or ambiguities in the data by referencing interviewer notes and other
parts of the questionnaire. When these efforts failed to resolve important
problems, particularly those involving heating fuels or heating equipment
and/or relationships between questionnaire responses, a follow-up telephone
contact with the rental agent or with a member of the household in question
were made.
Rental
Agent Survey
In addition, 401 follow-up contacts were conducted with rental agents
for households who did not pay for their fuels, who rent their living
quarters or own and occupy living quarters in a condominium or cooperative
building or community were attempted with rental agents, landlords,
and apartment managers. Respondents to this survey were asked about
the heating, water heating, and cooking fuels used by tenant households;
the household's heating equipment; and method of bill payment (i.e.,
included in rent or paid by household).
The
interviews with rental agents or their representatives were conducted
in November 2001. Altogether, 57 landlords or rental agents were interviewed;
these interviews covered 127 households. Comparisons were made between
rental agents' and household respondents' reports on their main space-heating
and water-heating fuels; main space-heating equipment; fuel for cooking
range; and how the fuels for all of these uses are paid. Each discrepancy
was examined, and changes were made to the household data whenever it
was judged that the rental agent was more knowledgeable than the household
respondent on the different items of information.
Generally,
the person who paid for a specific fuel for a specific use was deemed
the most knowledgeable person. However, error resolutions were made
only after careful examination and consideration of all available sources
of information including the rental-agent questionnaire, the household
questionnaire, and questionnaires of other households located in the
same building. Landlords and rental agents were usually judged to be
more knowledgeable about the type of main heating equipment; household
respondents were typically deemed more reliable sources concerning fuel
for cooking range.
Special
Supplemental Survey of Low-Income Home
Energy Assistance Program Recipients
LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program)
- is
a federally funded program to help eligible low-income households
meet their home heating and/or cooling needs.
- The Administration
for Children and Families (ACF), within the US Department of Health
and Human Services, is responsible for Federal programs that promote
the economic and social well being of families, children, individuals,
and communities and also administers LIHEAP at the federal level.
- ACF oversees
and finances a broad range of activities in partnership with State,
local and tribal governmental agencies. These agencies provide direct
services and assistance to children, youth, families, persons with
developmental disabilities, refugees, migrants, Native Americans,
legalized aliens, and others eligible to receive help under ACF legislative
authorities.
- ACF also
conducts research, collects and analyzes data, prepares budget documents
and reports to Congress, issues regulations and policy materials,
publishes various technical assistance reports, and develops the Annual
Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Plan.
Overview
The
supplemental sample included 840 LIHEAP-recipient households, with a
goal of completing 500 interviews. The purpose of this supplemental
sample was to obtain statistically reliable home energy estimates for
LIHEAP-recipient households. Sample management protocol differed from
the main sample, but the same survey instrument was administered to
both samples.
Of
the 840 households selected to participate in the LIHEAP Supplement,
completed interviews were obtained for 497 households. This section
describes the sample plan and the procedures involved in collecting
the completed interviews.
Sample Plan
- The
LIHEAP sample was restricted to 59 PSUs (primary sampling units) out
of the 116 PSUs in the RECS sample, with a cluster size of three expected
completes, and 2.8 clusters per PSU on average.
- The criterion
used to determine the allocation of the targeted 500 LIHEAP sample
cases across the nine Census Divisions was the number of LIHEAP heating
recipients in each division according to administrative statistics.
- This allows
more reliable estimates of fuel usage in cells with small sample sizes.
- Strata
were allocated to divisions in the same proportion as the interviews.
- PSUs were
combined to form strata based on a set of priority rules and then
selected with probability proportionate to the size of the stratum
they represented.
- Using
the number of 1990 Census households, clusters were allocated to each
stratum by multiplying the total number of clusters allocated to the
division by the percentage of total population in the division represented
by the stratum.
- Using
the list of LIHEAP recipients within PSU counties provided by the
state or local LIHEAP offices, clusters were selected based on the
number of LIHEAP recipients in the ZIP Code. Households were then
randomly selected from each of the selected ZIP Codes, resulting in
a total of 810 households selected.
Interviewer
Training
A subset of the 2001 RECS interviewing staff was trained via conference
call on the specific requirements of the LIHEAP Supplement. Such training
was necessary because of the differences in the sample management aspects
of the study between the main survey and the supplemental sample. The
field supervisory staff to whom the interviewers were assigned for the
2001 RECS conducted the training session.
The
Interviewers
A total of
36 interviewers completed 1 or more personal interviews for the LIHEAP
Supplement. Interviewers conducted an average of 12 interviews. Four interviewers
completed fewer than five interviews each, with an average of three per
interviewer. Six interviewers completed 20 or more interviews each, with
an average of 24 per interviewer. A percentage of all interviewers working
on the supplemental sample had passed verification procedures during the
main RECS survey. However, verifications did continue for supplemental
of interviews at reduced levels by mail.
The Interview
Unlike the main sample where the interview was conducted with the current
occupant of an eligible housing unit, interviewers were directed to
interview a member (householder or partner or spouse of the householder)
at a designated housing unit. If the family no longer lived at that
address, the interview was not conducted. Lists of LIHEAP households
were obtained from individual State LIHEAP offices.
Other than the differences in sample management and the identification
of the respondent to be interviewed, the same materials and protocol
as those used in the main study were employed.
Data Collection
Dates
The
data collection field period for the LIHEAP supplement began July 20,
2001, and was completed in December. Each PSU was given a minimum of
4 weeks for completion. There was no mail questionnaire follow-up for
sample households in the LIHEAP Supplement who did not complete a personal
interview.
Data
Collection Procedures
Before the initial personal contacts, a letter stressing the purpose
and importance of the survey was sent to each household with a street
address. For households with only Post Office box addresses, letters
were mailed to those addresses asking the sample members to call to
arrange an interview.
Beginning
in mid-July 2001, interviewers made several callbacks at different times
of the day and different days of the week in an effort to minimize the
number of uncontacted households. The interviewers also queried neighbors
regarding the most opportune times to contact the prospective respondent.
For the most part, a single interviewer was responsible for a PSU. If
that interviewer was unable to achieve the targeted goal for the PSU,
an interviewer traveled from another PSU to complete the assignment.
Response
Rates and Household Characteristics
Various
response and non-response rates will be compared later in the analysis
stage.
Data
Editing
Data for
completed interviews in the LIHEAP Supplement will be were subjected
to the same data editing steps as those cases in the main sample.
Confidentiality
of Information
- EIA
does not receive nor take possession of the names or addresses of
individual respondents or any other individually identifiable energy
data that could be specifically linked with a household respondent;
the data are collected for statistical purposes only.
- All names
and addresses and identifiable information are maintained by the data
collection contractor for verification purposes only.
- The household
records that are placed on the public-use data file do not have name
or address information.
- Additional
measures have been taken to mask the data for further confidentiality
protection. Unlike other EIA surveys, the consumption surveys pledge
confidentiality to their respondents.
Contact:
- Derrick
Pinckney
- Survey
Statistician
- Phone:
202-586-5744
- Fax Number:
202-586-0018
- Eileen M. O'Brien
- RECS Survey Manager
- Phone: (202) 586-1122
- Fax: (202) 586-0018
-
URL: http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recs2001/append_a.html
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