Water- and energy-efficient households are a necessary element of sustainable cities. Water-related energy usage in households is a point of overlap where water and energy utilities could work together. Improving the combined efficiency of water and energy management requires a better understanding of the inter-relationships between these systems and associated water and energy use. lt also requires collaboration with householders. In order to progress understanding of water-energy links within households, a research project has commenced with the Smart Water Fund and The University of Queensland. With funding support from the Australian Research Council, the research focuses on elucidating and quantifying water-carbon-energy links in individual households in Melbourne, as well as collective groups of households in a district. The work is a new initiative for Australian water utilities, in that it looks in detail at how water industry actions and policies influence energy use in private households. In this way, the work goes beyond the boundary of traditional water utility energy use analysis, which typically assesses the energy implications directly connected with the utilities themselves, such as the energy demands of the water and wastewater infrastructure and assets. The project runs between 2013 and 2016. This paper presents the background and objectives of the work, including preliminary results.