Year - 2024 Partner - Australian Council of Social Service

Most Australian homes are too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, and expensive to run. Our homes are not built to withstand more extreme temperatures and people on low incomes and renters are too often living in homes that reach over 45 degrees indoors in the summer, have been hospitalised due to heat stress, and forced to go without food or medical care to pay their energy bills to stay cool. 

Governments need to step in and directly invest in home energy upgrades of low-income housing to improve the energy performance of homes to reduce costs and make them climate safe. Simple measures like better insulation, draught reduction, window shades, and solar panels, could reduce emissions, make these homes healthier to live in and drastically reduce the cost of energy bills. 

Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) commissioned Springmount Advisory to research and demonstrate the possible benefits for energy bill reduction and emissions reduction of prioritising home energy upgrades for low-income housing. The maps reveal:

• how much households could save a year (thousands of dollars), from quick-fix home energy upgrades

• the accumulative bills savings to the electorate if all low-income housing in that electorate received quick-fix home energy upgrades

• emissions reductions that could be achieved 

• number of jobs that could be created from the manufacturing, supply and installation of home energy upgrades.