this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2023
22 points (89.3% liked)

Australia

3595 readers
244 users here now

A place to discuss Australia and important Australian issues.

Before you post:

If you're posting anything related to:

If you're posting Australian News (not opinion or discussion pieces) post it to Australian News

Rules

This community is run under the rules of aussie.zone. In addition to those rules:

Banner Photo

Congratulations to @[email protected] who had the most upvoted submission to our banner photo competition

Recommended and Related Communities

Be sure to check out and subscribe to our related communities on aussie.zone:

Plus other communities for sport and major cities.

https://aussie.zone/communities

Moderation

Since Kbin doesn't show Lemmy Moderators, I'll list them here. Also note that Kbin does not distinguish moderator comments.

Additionally, we have our instance admins: @[email protected] and @[email protected]

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
22
5 tips for getting off gas at home – for a cleaner, cheaper, healthier all-electric future (theconversation.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
10 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/1305841

TL;DR: Tip 1 – Find trusted, independent information, Tip 2 – Plan your approach, Tip 3 – Access available rebates and resources, Tip 4 – Wait for a sale or negotiate a better deal, Tip 5 – Know the issues.

If you're contemplating upgrading gas appliances in your home, or even disconnecting from the gas network altogether, here are a few handy tips and resources to cut through the confusion.

You will avoid ongoing fixed gas supply charges once you disconnect from the gas network, but you may be required to pay an "Abolishment fee" for permanent disconnection.

Just stop using gas appliances in favour of existing electric appliances that do the same job, such as a reverse cycle air conditioner for space heating.

Undertaking a wider energy retrofit may mean you can buy a smaller, cheaper reverse cycle air conditioner when replacing gas heating.

Many of us have grown up with gas in our homes and when one appliance breaks, the easiest thing to do is replace like-for-like.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not fully. It's on the list of things to do if our income ever decides to match living expenses ever again.

We took off an old solar HWS, put panels in its place and bought a 400L element HWS on a simple timer. The HWS functions as a "battery" as it will stay warm for 4-5 days if we turn the timer off. We downgraded the element so it wouldn't use more than the panels supply.

If you have the roof space, a solar HWS could be the go, or a heat pump. Heat more water while the sun is shining, it's an efficient power store if the HWS is insulated well.

We also bought a cheap IKEA induction to use instead of gas where we can.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you have the roof space, a solar HWS could be the go,

Nah, it's better to have panels that produce electricity so they can only heat water when they need to and sell power to the grid the rest of the day (which will be most of the day).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

The energy to heat water from panels takes more panels than the footprint of a solar HWS. Not everyone has a lot of roof space.