Stop laying gas traps for the uninformed

Eight years ago, independent energy advisor and researcher, Tim Forcey published some research with the University of Melbourne that showed how people could heat their homes using reverse cycle air conditioners for a third of the cost of burning gas.

The news was surprising at the time, and although the media covered the story, Forcey wanted more people to know how they could save money on their heating bills by getting off gas.

In an interview with the SwitchedOn Australia podcast Forcey says it was his kids who suggested he set up a facebook group, even though he he didn’t know what facebook was.

My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH) started as a place to discuss heating homes with air conditioners, but people wanted to branch out and talk about solar panels, heat pumps for hot water, draught proofing, and insulation – in fact anything to do with energy upgrades and electrification.

The size of the group has doubled every year since it started and now has over 100,000 members, who all help each other to make their homes more comfortable and deal with the cost of living.

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“People want tailored trustworthy advice from people with a deep understanding of what’s needed and no vested interests," says Dr Hedda Ransan-Cooper, Research Fellow at ANU, who researches the socio-political dimensions of the energy transition and technology.

Ransan-Cooper says My Efficient Electric Home is one of the few places people can get the sort of practical information they need and trust, which is vital for householders who want to participate in the energy transition.

However, there is a massive gulf between the information consumers need and want, and what government websites or private companies currently offer.

Making homes more comfortable, safer and cheaper to run

People join the MEEH facebook group, and contact Forcey seeking advice, for a range of different reasons. Some are driven by climate change and want to stop using fossil fuels in their homes and cars. Others want to reduce their energy bills.

Forcey says the desire to make their homes more comfortable is a real driver for people wanting to upgrade their homes. What really gets his phone ringing and an increase in membership on the My Efficient Electric Home site is a cold spell coming across Australia.

“That's not the energy bill. That's the realisation they will wake up in the morning and they've got moisture all over their windows, or it's just bloody freezing out in the kitchen,” says Forcey.

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One issue that has featured prominently on My Efficient Electric Home is the fee householders are asked to pay when they want to disconnect from the gas network.

Around the country people who no longer want to use gas in their homes are being charged disconnection fees – anything from zero dollars to several hundreds.

“[Homeowners] have to pay the gas industry to get their property off of your property,” says Forcey. “If you change phone companies, they don't ask you to pay a fee to change the phone company or to switch a superannuation plan. Or if you buy an electric car, you don't get a bill from the petrol station to help them to decommission the petrol station.”

Tim Forcey says gas disconnections should not be the homeowners issue, and disconnecting one house at a time from the gas network is not an organised or cheap way to decommission gas. He thinks we need to find more creative ways to decommission gas without treating each home as a special case.

“Get all the houses in a street off gas all together, and then all you’ve got to do is find some pipe connection at the end of the street that you seal off.”

Forcey is not generally in favour of bans, but until everyone knows that gas is a hazardous, dangerous and expensive fuel source for our homes, he thinks we have only two choices regarding new gas connections.

“Either ban it, or put a whole lot of useful information in front of people so they can make a valid decision,” says Forcey, and if we don’t ban gas from new home builds “it's just the people that are uninformed that are going to walk into the trap [and get hooked on gas].”

Rather than setting traps for people, Forcey says we should “do the blindingly obvious thing and not be connecting these homes to gas.”

You can hear the full interview with Tim Forcey on the SwitchedOn podcast here.