Not all electric appliances are the same

There are lots of reasons to swap your gas appliances with efficient electric ones.

You can reduce your emissions, and save energy.

You can make your home healthier and safer - the mountain of evidence on the health risks of burning gas in the home is growing rapidly.

For many of us, faced with escalating energy bills and cost of living, the potential to save money is the biggest incentive.

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What are efficient electric appliances?

When we talk about electrification, it’s important to know the difference between ‘efficient’ and other – let’s call them traditional – electric appliances.  

Traditional electric appliances have electric elements that get hot. These are inside a tank for hot water, and in all types of space heaters - panel, fan-forced, or oil filled, radiant or convective.

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Efficient electric appliances for space and water heating - split system air conditioners and heat pump hot water systems - have a component called a compressor. Rather than using an element to heat the air and water directly, they use it to drive pumps and fans to extract energy from the atmosphere.

They provide as much heat as traditional electric appliances, but use 70-80% less energy to do so.

The compressor unit needs to located outside- on the ground, mounted to a wall, or at a stretch in a garage – so some people in apartments can’t readily use these. AC split systems also provide efficient cooling, which is why millions of Australian homes already have them, and can use them for cheaper heating without further investment. 

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Electric ovens and other cooking appliances are common and popular. Traditional electric stoves which use hotplates aren’t popular however, because cooking with them really sucks. They are slow to heat, don’t spread heat evenly, and are slow to cool down, making them frustrating to cook with and dangerous. 

The efficient electric stovetop option is known as induction, which is the name of the process it uses. Rather than heating an element, electric coils under a glass surface convey energy to the pot or pan on top of it.

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The cookware needs to be flat-bottomed and ferrous (containing iron), so induction cooktops can’t be used with round woks, aluminium or glass. But they are quick to heat, and are the safest of all stovetops, with no flame and much less residual heat.

Induction cooktops are increasingly popular. Some people prefer gas to induction, particularly for wok cooking, but most people who have tried induction cooking prefer it to gas.

The biggest challenge with installing induction is it often requires a wiring upgrade within the home – typically in the hundreds of dollars, but sometimes in the thousands. 

Will efficient electric appliances save me money? 

Fixed household appliances are often a grudge purchase. If you own a home, you’re going to be spending money on it. When it comes to replacing gas appliances – due to breakdown, renovation or extension – you can turn some of that expense into an investment that pays for itself over and over again. 

For more than a decade, efficient electric appliances have been a more cost-effective choice for heating, cooking and hot water in most homes. The. performance gap between gas and electric continues to grow as the efficiency of electric appliances continues to improve and the up-front cost comes down. 

Efficient electric options cost more up front than gas and traditional electric appliances, but usually pay for themselves within a few years - quicker when there is a government incentive - through lower running costs.

So you can think of replacing an appliance that's failed, or installed as part of a renovation or extension, as an investment, with a return in the form of lower energy bills. 

More savings are there to be had for people who can get off gas altogether, avoiding fixed charges of $100’s per year in addition to usage charges.

Those with solar energy, can bring down the running costs of electric appliances even further, and those who don’t have solar may save through using time-of-use energy tariffs to access cheaper energy from the grid when demand is low (eg. overnight) and when there is surplus renewables (around the middle of the day).

Those with “smart” appliances, that automatically turn on when cheap energy is available and off when it's more expensive, can save even more still when coupled with solar or time-of-use tariffs. Today many households already have super cheap hot water this way, without lifting a finger. 

For most people, if money is a priority, the question isn’t “should I electrify?”, it’s “how should I electrify?” If you can install the efficient electric options and don’t require extensive rewiring, you’ll be better off switching from gas to efficient electric.

In some cases, like when people have a large solar system and low daytime demand, even a traditional electric water heater is more cost effective than a gas one.

But the savings are different for different locations, buildings, households, lifestyles and appliance types. If you’re on gas now, the best option for you is probably different to your neighbour and it’s important you make a decision based on your individual circumstances. 

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Craig Memery, Senior Energy Advisor at PIAC, will be writing more articles for SwitchedOn about how to electrify in coming weeks.