DECO3200 · Week 4 Pitch
Understanding
the Invisible
Apartment residents' experiences of energy use. A study of university students renting in Sydney who pay for electricity they cannot see.
ElectricityQuarterly
$487.60
Total amount due
— and that is all it says.
The challenge
A bill arrives with one number on it, and no way to open it.
Can't see
One total covers air conditioning, hot water, common areas and the performance of the building itself.
Can't attribute
The hot water system may run continuously inside a wall the resident never opens.
Can't change
Meter rooms are locked. Some buildings sit on embedded networks. And the resident is renting.
One apartment
Shared & fixed load
Drag to rotate · click a floor
Why it matters
Renters carry the worst housing and the highest bills.
1in5
Australian households experiencing energy hardship, or at risk of it. Renters are over-represented across every indicator.
+8%
What renters spend on electricity compared with homeowners in comparable properties.
Relative spend, owner = 100
80%→37%
Insulation in owner-occupied homes, versus insulation in rental properties.
Energy Consumers Australia (2025) · AHURI Final Reports 338 & 400
Insight 01 — Survey, n=38 · 34 full-time uni students
So they guess.
2.87/5
Average confidence in identifying which appliance uses the most electricity.
12345
31 of 38 rated themselves 3 or below
"How do you determine which appliances consume the most electricity?"
"Common sense"
"By past experience"
"No idea"
"I don't care"
"TikTok is really great"
Insight 02 — Survey, n=38 · 34 uni students · the turn
They are already
saving.
18/38
described cutting back on their own — switching off lights, unplugging devices, giving up air conditioning.
"I stop using air conditioner any more"
"close all the unnecessary light"
"run the AC only during daytime and turn it off at night"
"Using air conditioning 6 hours per day cost me $270 last month, so I just stop using it."
Respondent 23
They don't lack motivation. They lack a way to know which one to cut.
Insight 02, continued — one respondent, two answers
Cutting blind has a price.
R05
Q21 — What did you do?
"Having more detailed, real-time information would make it much easier to know where energy could actually be saved."
R05
Q28 — What would worry you?
- [x]The information is inaccurate or misleading
- [x]Anxiety about what counts as normal usage
- [x]Forced to sacrifice the comfort of life
53%
fear being forced to give up comfort
50%
fear anxiety about normal usage
Without attribution, the only way to save is to cut the most visible thing. The saving is paid for in comfort.
The opportunity
Help residents know which one to cut — instead of cutting everything.
Better aim means a real reduction in consumption rather than a reduction in comfort — the same effort, spent where it actually moves the meter.
Appears only when something changes
Always watchingCompletely invisible
CoreAttribution
Split the total
Separate what the resident caused from what the building caused.
OpenTrigger
Stay silent
Surface an explanation only when consumption actually changes.
OpenHandoff
Hand over evidence
Turn the finding into something a resident can take to a retailer or landlord.
Why this is a climate project
Willingness isn't the bottleneck. Aim is.
Already willing
18 of 38 residents are actively cutting consumption without being asked, prompted or incentivised.
Cutting the wrong thing
Without attribution they cut what is most visible — the air conditioner — which may not be the largest load in the apartment.
Missing the big share
Hot water, insulation and shared services often carry the larger load, and stay invisible until the total can be split.
Blindsame effort, small cut
Aimedsame effort, real cut
Attribution is what turns willingness into actual reduction.
What happens next
Four things before we commit.
01
Interview 6–8 student renters
Testing one thing: what makes an explanation trustworthy enough to act on, without creating anxiety.
02
Recruit the residents we missed
10 of our 38 have electricity bundled into rent. Seven of them can see nothing at all.
03
Converge on one branch
Attribution is the core. Whether it stays silent, and whether it hands over evidence, is what interviews decide.
04
Prototype the explanation, not the dashboard
Test one bill, explained three ways, with students — and measure whether it reads as help or as surveillance.
Students are already trying. We want to make the trying count.
Understanding the Invisible
The problem
01 / 09