Energy planning of any region should be based on existing levels of energy consumption. Sectorwise disaggregated information of energy usage is developed for the Uttara Kannada District to assist in the regional energy planning exercise. This paper provides comparative analyses of village level domestic energy consumption patterns across coastal, interior, hilly and plain zones considering regional and seasonal variations. Cooking, water heating and space heating are the major end use activities. The results, based on eighteen months of field research in five taluks of Uttara Kannada, reveal that the average energy consumption norm does vary significantly for cooking and water heating in various seasons across the zones, Among the five taluks, 90 villages (out of 119) and all divisions of Kumta town in the Kumta taluk and 190-220 randomly selected households in selected villages of Sirsi, Mundgod, Siddapur and Ankola were studied. A survey of 1304 households from 90 villages in the Kumta taluk shows that most of them still use traditional stoves for cooking (97.92%) and water heating (98.3%). Average consumption (kg/person/day) for cooking ranges from 2.01 +/- 1.49 (coastal) to 2.32 +/- 2.09 (hilly). Seasonwise cooking fuel wood requirement for coast and hilly zones, ranges from 1.98 and 2.22 (summer) to 2.11 and 2.51 (monsoon), respectively, while for water heating (for bath and washing), it ranges from 1.17 +/- 0.02 (coast) to 1.63 +/-0.05 (hilly). Seasonal variation is evident from the range 1.12 and 1.53 (summer) to 1.22 and 1.73 (monsoon) for coastal and hilly zones, respectively. Analysis of other sources of energy for domestic purposes shows that kerosene is used for cooking and lighting in the coast. Kerosene consumption (1/person/month) for cooking ranges from 0.05 (hilly) to 0.34 (coast) and for lighting ranges from 0.75 (coast) to 0.99 (hilly). Availability of bioresources in hilly zone is the main reason for less consumption of kerosene for cooking. In the hilly zone, electrification of all households has not been possible, as they are scattered. Because of the erratic supply during all seasons (especially monsoon), electrified households also depend on kerosene for lighting. Based on fuel consumption norms (regionwise, seasonwise and end use wise), (a) the total fuel wood required (cooking, water heating, space heating, jaggery making and parboiling) works out to 1.668,698.23 tonnes/year, (b) the electricity demand, excluding irrigation, is about 32.65 million kWh/year and (c) the kerosene demand for cooking and water heating is about 15.86 million litres per year. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.