Learning the Hard Way: Energy Practices of CALD International Students in Rental Accommodation – Final Report for Energy Consumers Australia

<p dir="ltr">This report presents the results of the multi-stage multi-method project investigating the energy experiences of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) international students living in private rental accommodation.<br></p><p dir="ltr">The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods provides indepth insights into the hardships encountered by this vulnerable group of energy consumers. This is a collaboration between the Sustainable Buildings Research Centre (SBRC) at the University of Wollongong and the University of Technology Sydney in fulfilment of Influence grant #INAPR22007 for Energy Consumers Australia (ECA).<br></p><p dir="ltr">The multi-method multi-stage project spanned an 18-month period and included:<br>• A targeted survey of energy literacy and thermal comfort with international students<br>• Semi-structured in-home interviews<br>• Scorecard home energy and thermal comfort assessment<br>• In-home monitoring of temperature for comparison with external BOM weather data<br>• Collection and analysis of household energy bills<br>• Heating appliance plug-load monitoring</p><p dir="ltr"><br>Results demonstrated this group of energy consumers is 1) hard to reach and 2) extremely vulnerable in terms of thermal comfort, energy costs, housing quality and housing security. Though this research is based on a small sample size (n=32) we were able to gather rich qualitative and quantitative data that highlights experiences of energy hardship.<br></p>