For years, the energy industry has operated under a flawed assumption, according to digital sociologist Yolande Strengers. She argues that it expects consumers to behave like miniature versions of energy professionals—engineers and economists—when managing their household energy use.
However, Professor Strengers, who leads the energy team at the Emerging Technologies Research Lab at Monash University, highlighted this fundamental misunderstanding is a major obstacle to the renewable energy transition, in a recent episode of the SwitchedOn Australia podcast.
Rather than being driven purely by cost or technical know-how, household energy use is shaped by habits, routines, values, and social norms. While the industry remains fixated on market research and surveys, Strengers specialises in ethnographic research—studying how energy fits into daily life—and has consistently highlighted the problems with the way the energy industry thinks about consumers.
“Not everybody is going to or needs to care about energy in the way that the energy sector does,” Strengers points out.