Relationship Between Indoor Air Temperatures And Energy Bills For Low Income Homes In Australia

Energy poverty is a prevalent issue in Australia and other countries across the globe especially for people with a low income. This paper seeks to investigate the relationship of energy consumption and indoor air temperatures and is separated into 3 sections; a comparison of actual electricity consumption to energy benchmarks provided by the Australian Energy Regulator, monitoring results of living room air temperature for the winter of 2015, and an analysis of living room air temperatures versus electricity consumption. The results of a comparison of electricity consumption of 119 low income elderly peoples (60+) dwellings to that of the energy benchmarks found that over 75% of the Independent Living Units consumed less electricity than the benchmark values with some households consuming less than half of the benchmarked electricity values. The analysis of living room air temperatures found that approximately 10 % of the dwellings experienced temperatures below 16°C for over 65% of the total hours for the winter of 2015 with some as high as 95% of the total hours. The results of this paper highlight a need to investigate this cohort separate from the average Australian cohort as their energy consumption practices can vary greatly and impact their living room air temperature.