We are a lot more aware of how we use energy in our homes these days. Choosing energy efficient appliances and being more mindful of how we use them is second nature to many of us. Installing solar hot water systems and solar panels to generate our own power is also common. But are we reaching our full potential? Can simple lifestyle changes help us go even further in making our homes more comfortable, save us money and reduce our carbon emissions?
The 10 households in our Living Labs study are all making efforts to reduce their operational environmental footprint and the first year of monitoring reveals that all of them are using less energy than the local average. In this episode we visit the participants to conduct an audit of their homes to see where extra energy savings can be made and ask them to commit to personal reduction goals. We give them access to their real-time operational energy data so they can see the immediate impacts of their actions, as well as see how they compare to their peers in the study.
Other Living Labs Episodes
Series Introduction
Ten suburban homes sign up for a two-year experiment tracking their behaviour and collecting data in order to prove that small changes can result in big wins whether you are living in a high performance home or not. Episode 1 explains the research objective and introduces the participants.
Saving Water
In this episode we take a closer look at water use. The research team works with the householders to identify where savings can be made. We discover some surprising spikes in water use and help track down where the water is going.
