People centric research

Researchers, network planners, government agencies and industry can use the NEAC Living Lab to more deeply understand how Australian families and businesses use energy now and in the future, to develop effective infrastructure and programs at lowest cost to consumers. 

Your diverse social research lab awaits

The NEAC Living Lab will give researchers easy access to a pre-recruited pool of Australian households and businesses, to test energy-related hypotheses at scale, fast. The lab will include a diverse pool of participants across Australia including hard-to-reach demographics, streamlined recruitment, and built-in research infrastructure. From researchers needing faster, more diverse recruitment, to innovators seeking large-scale real-world data for investors, to policy makers testing potential interventions, the NEAC Living Lab makes it easy.

We are currently working with government and industry partners to increase recruitment of living lab participants.

NEAC Living Lab users can:

• conduct research ranging from a single survey to a multi-year trial with real homes and businesses
• test new energy products and innovations to understand user feedback, implications for the broader system, or both
• monitor and evaluate energy programs and initiatives and share insights

NEAC users can access anonymised, aggregated Living Lab data to use in their own workflows, or use the tools within the Systems Science Toolbox to derive actionable insights.

If you are interested in using the NEAC Living Lab to better understand how Australians use and want to use energy, contact us to discuss opportunities.

Who and what is in the NEAC Living Lab?

The NEAC Living Lab will consist of thousands of households and businesses across Australia, with a range of demographics, climates, technologies and housing arrangements. Most homes will participate by sharing smart meter data and their views via surveys and polls. Some homes will have additional instrumentation as shown below, to dive deeper into energy use behaviour.

Participants with monitoring devices are able to view their energy and ambient data.

We are creating a representative panel of everyday Australians to give our research better representation. As we recruit households in the Living Lab, we aim for diversity in social demographics, living situations, locations, and level of engagement in the energy transition. We also work with project partners to recruit participants to suit their particular research area.