Dale and Duncan electrified while renovating their North Fitzroy terrace
Dale is a solicitor and Duncan is a plumber who lead busy lives with their son Angus in their Victorian terrace in North Fitzroy.
Their all-electric house reflects their personal actions to address climate change, including a flourishing vegie garden and stormwater harvesting.
Their description of why they electrified was simple - “climate change!”
Their electrification journey
When they renovated their home about four years ago, Dale and Duncan took the opportunity to change to induction cooking, and install electric hot water and rooftop solar. This was a significant renovation and it gave them the chance to build-in appliances along with the necessary plumbing and wiring.
The hot water storage tank fits beautifully in a central light well - it’s almost totally hidden by the plants around it. Their rooftop solar system consists of twelve panels on top of their second story extension which has radically reduced their energy bills.
Heating and cooling was previously done with a hydronic system which had a gas boiler, plus a split system installed some time ago. When they renovated they installed a bulkhead unit in the kitchen and meals area.
Their next move was to disconnect from gas, leaving the meter sitting idle and just recently they have installed a heat pump unit to replace the gas hydronic boiler. This is quite a large, expensive unit but far more efficient than the gas boiler and it works with the existing wall panels.
The system heats the house impressively - while it’s yet to be fully tested in a cold Melbourne winter, the option to enlarge some of the wall panels is there if needed.
The heat pump unit supplied by Melbourne Hydronic working with Get Off Gas fits nicely in the back garden (next to water storage tanks) and sits above a small buffer tank, with a small compressor unit in the shed next to it.
Lessons learned
Dale mentioned one of the down-sides of fully electrifying when undertaking a major renovation:
‘If we had our time again we would have spent more time looking into the options for hot water. We went for a conventional electric storage hot water system, and these aren’t nearly as efficient as heat pump units - but when you are in the middle of renovating, there are hundreds of decisions that need to be made really quickly”
While they have disconnected from gas, we discussed the option of returning the gas meter, or arranging for a ‘service abolishment’ - a permanent removal of the gas service pipe from the street. For others considering disconnection or abolishment, this needs to be done through a gas retailer like AGL, who then manages the process through the relevant gas distributor, in this case AusNet. Details and (regulated) prices can be found here - the price of abolishment is capped at $234.
What’s on your wish list?
Duncan said they are working through whether a battery is worthwhile with their current solar system and whether they can expand that with some more panels. We talked through the current ‘Cheaper Home Batteries’ discounts and the upcoming changes to this program, outlined here.
Dale and Duncan think they will definitely switch from their current internal combustion transport to electric at some time. A possible challenge is whether they can squeeze an EV into their back yard for charging to take advantage of their rear laneway.
