This project aims to provide an analysis of housing retrofit and its links with household energy costs.
The urgency of mitigating and adapting to climate change, meeting emissions reduction targets, and addressing energy poverty and energy vulnerability as systemic problems necessitates research into existing housing.
Funded by the Australian Research Council, the Housing Energy Efficiency Transitions (HEET) project has been researching energy efficiency retrofit since 2019 with industry partners including Master Builders Association of Victoria; Brotherhood of St. Laurence; Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning; and previously, Australian Energy Foundation.
The HEET team has researched experiences of housing and energy efficiency retrofit with diverse households. Household accounts reveal complex relationships between heterogenous housing, affective and changing relationships with home, retrofit capabilities, practices of homemaking, and place and time. People’s stories uncover how vulnerability and housing inequity are produced through structures associated with property, socio-economic disadvantage, access to information, infrastructure and services, and meanings.
Governance of energy efficiency retrofit has been analysed through interviews with a range of stakeholders to map the retrofit industry, understand the development and uptake of energy efficiency products and services over time, and identify opportunities and challenges that enable and constrain industry development – all part of retrofit transitions.
In 2023, the team is undertaking the final stage of the project, which is to build on this work and co-develop a 10-year policy plan to embed energy efficiency retrofit as a default practice in existing dwellings in Australia for a post carbon, socially equitable future.
Publications
- Willand, N., Moore, T. Horne, R., and Robertson, S., (2020), ‘Retrofit Poverty: Socioeconomic Spatial Disparities in Retrofit Subsidies Uptake’, Buildings and Cities, 1(1), pp. 14–35, DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.13
- Willand, N., Middha, B., and Walker, G., (2021), ‘Using the capability approach to evaluate energy vulnerability policies and initiatives in Victoria, Australia’, Local Environment, 26:9, pp. 1109–1127, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2021.1962830
- Middha, B., Robertson, S., Willand, N., and Horne, R., (2022), ‘Man caves, granny flats and alternative living spaces: Low carbon home retrofit and implications for policymaking’, Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 87, May 2022, 102470, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102470
- Middha, B 2022, Multiple vulnerabilities – Examining the fuel and food poverty nexus, Fuel Poverty Research Network, viewed 9th November 2022, https://www.fuelpovertyresearch.net/projects/multiple-vulnerabilities-examining-the-fuel-and-food-poverty-nexus/.
- Willand, N., Middha, B., Horne, R., and Torabi, N., (2021), ‘We have to talk about energy poverty’, The Fifth Estate, https://thefifthestate.com.au/energy-lead/we-have-to-talk-about-energy-poverty/
- Armstrong, G., Pears, A., Delafoulhouze, M., and Moore, T., (2022), ‘7-star housing is a step towards zero carbon – but there’s much more to do, starting with existing homes’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/7-star-housing-is-a-step-towards-zero-carbon-but-theres-much-more-to-do-starting-with-existing-homes-189542
- Isley, C., Baker, E., Daniel, L., and Moore, T., (2022), ‘If you’re renting, chances are your home is cold. With power prices soaring, here’s what you can do to keep warm’, The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/if-youre-renting-chances-are-your-home-is-cold-with-power-prices-soaring-heres-what-you-can-do-to-keep-warm-184472
- Thredgold, C. J., Daniel, L., and Baker, E., (2022), ‘Reducing everyday consumption: Mapping the landscape of grassroots social movements and activist households in Australia’, Energy Research & Social Science, 91: 102741, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102741
Click on the links below to find out more about the team.