ClimateSmart Home Service, Queensland, Australia

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In 2009, the ClimateSmart Home Service program was launched by Local Government Infrastructure Services (LGIS) in Queensland, Australia. This program aimed to reduce the electricity required for lighting and water heating in residences, enabling customers to achieve cost savings and giving participants a practical way to track the impacts of their changing behavior. Upon registering for the program, residents were visited by a licensed electrician who installed a variety of energy-efficient products, including a wireless energy monitor, conducted an energy audit, offered recommendations, and provided materials and prompts for the resident. Once a home-visit concluded, LGIS used data collected by the wireless energy monitor to create a customized plan that was sent to the homeowner approximately six weeks after the visit that included: the top five recommended changes based on the household’s actual energy usage data, a graph depicting the dollar savings possible if all recommended behaviours were implemented, details about other local, state and federal government initiatives, and log-in details to My ClimateSmart Home, a customized web portal where customers could track what they had achieved so far and how they compared to others in a similar demographic. Voluntary household energy challenges in conjunction with tracking via wireless power monitors and an on-line help portal were tools used to continually motivate and empower participants. By August 2011, 300,000 homes had been retrofitted and housholds that had received the service had reduced electricity use by an estimated 3.96 kWh/day or 1,445 kWh/year, with total savings estimated at $600 million (Australian dollars).

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