Barriers to Energy Efficiency: Low-Income Households in Australia

Abstract

Low-income housing plays an important, but frequently overlooked, role in energy use reduction. Barriers persist for low-income households to participate in energy efficiency programs and adopt efficient lifestyles. However, there has been only limited research into energy efficiency barriers faced by low-income households. Existing energy research studies primarily focus on homeowners whose demographic and socio-economic profiles are likely to be very different from low-income households or renters—limiting the applicability of previous findings to low-income households. This study aims to identify and evaluate the importance of the energy efficiency barriers faced by low-income households. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 212 low-income households in Australia. After randomly dividing the data into calibration and validation samples, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the calibration sample identifies four energy efficiency barrier factors of financial, decision-making, information, and split incentives. These four factors are then validated by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the validation sample in terms of goodness-of-fit, reliability, and validity to confirm financial as the most highly rated energy efficiency barrier. This research contributes to bridging the knowledge gap of the energy efficiency barriers of low-income households and providing a validated CFA model as a tool for assessment. The results provide a better understanding of the barriers involved and research evidence to facilitate the formulation of policies to overcome them.