A NUMBER of research, education, data collection and aged care organisations from across the Illawarra have formed a consortium to take part in a project aimed at increasing household energy efficiency among the elderly.
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Energy Efficiency in the 3rd Age (EE3A) is a $3.5 million project that will study the energy usage of 800 households from across the Kiama, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, Wollongong and Wingicaribee local government areas.
Of the $3.5 million, $2.3 million has been provided by the federal government, while the remaining $1.2 million has been provided by the consortium of Regional Development Illawarra, the University of Wollongong, IRT Group, Warrigal, Illawarra Forum, WEA Illawarra, the Southern Councils Group and the Royal Freemasons Benevolent Institution.
The EE3A project will run for the next two years, during which the participating households will take part in energy efficiency awareness programs, trial energy usage methods and have their energy usage habits, and any changes to them, monitored.
These aspects of the project will be carried out by the University of Wollongong's Centre for Health Initiatives, Sustainable Building Research Centre and Australian Centre for Cultural Environmental Research.
Sustainable Building Research Centre director Professor Paul Cooper said the three research bodies hoped to get an overall picture of energy use within the participating households.
"We're looking at everything about how people use energy in their home, how much energy their fridge uses, what type of hot water system they have, how they position their heaters," Professor Cooper said.
"The Centre for Health Initiatives has been working with focus groups to come up with an idea of the things people want to get from their homes and appliances.
"When we roll those out we'll then ask those involved what changes may have come as a result and then go away and analyse all the information."
EE3A is one of 20 projects forming the federal government's Low Income Energy Efficiency program, which aims to identify better ways to improve the energy efficiency of low income households and enable them to better manage their usage without impacting on their quality of life.
Speaking at the EE3A launch at Warrigal, Albion Park Rail, last week, Parliamentary Secretary for Industry Bob Baldwin said the program was part of the government's commitment to providing cheap and reliable energy to all Australians.
