This research comprises a longitudinal study of a cohort of residents moving into a low-carbon development and their pre- and post-occupancy household practices that consume energy and water.

In this paper, residents of an Australian low-carbon development (LCD) are studied in order to discover the expectations and motivations driving them to move to their new home, the emotional landscape of the home, and their subsequent experiences living in an LCD.

When people move into sustainable houses, they bring practices with them that have temporally evolved along with their daily lives. A common misconception is that change to individuals’ resource use can be persuaded without consideration of previous practices.

The structure of this report is based on the CRCLCL RP3033 project activities which included:

Highlights

• A mixed method approach is used to analyze everyday practice in 8 homes over a year.
• Practices are performed in a sequential temporal spectrum as part of a routine.
• Practices are influenced by the interlocked practices and routines of other occupants.
• Highly interlocked and habitual practices are not easily influenced.
• Automation can enable change by dis-interlocking practices from the home system.

Abstract

Abstract