Surprisingly easy, straightforward and fun - a 3 year journey to electrify in northern Sydney

As more homeowners realise the benefits of home electrification, there is a genuine need for advice and guidance in this process.

This article details the actions we took to electrify our home in Wahroonga, Sydney. (Spoiler: it was surprisingly easy and straightforward, and we are saving thousands per year.)  

We did the work at a leisurely pace over about 3 years (2019 - 2022) which allowed us to assess the benefits and amenity of each change. We had no grand plan - we just did ad-hoc upgrades as we got around to them.  

All we needed to know was that we wanted to achieve the maximum financial savings and maximum climate impact, so we set a goal for a fully-electric house that was as energy efficient as possible.  

Achieving this would guarantee we minimised our cost and consumption of energy, which is a tangible and impactful way to help address global climate change.  

If you are already part-way on the electrification journey, feel free to skip to the sections relevant to you.  And please note that every dwelling and lifestyle differs, and so too will the applicability of our decisions to your situation. My aim here is to provide advice as generally as possible.  

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Solar

We initially installed 6kw on our north-facing roof, and after 12 months of observation, installed an additional 8kw, which is pretty much the max for single-phase on Ausgrid (NSW).  

How did we find a reputable installer?  We submitted a request to the trusted SolarQuotes website and had 3 installers come out to give us quotes (this happened within about 1 week), and we picked the middle one by cost as they also happened to be the least pushy.  

It turned out great and they installed the initial array and the upgraded array (and later batteries) in a matter of hours on the scheduled date.  

We opted for an Enphase inverter system using micro-inverters in order to minimise the impact of partial shading throughout the day. We also had two medium gum trees and a Jacaranda taken out and replaced with smaller native trees, after carefully assessing the carbon impact of removing trees to reduce shade on the solar panels.  

We learned it is far and away justified from a climate perspective to remove trees to reduce shading, as long-term solar panel use reduces CO2 emissions considerably more than trees absorb it.  

An 8kw array is the equivalent of planting 50 full-sized trees in terms of carbon offset. (See source here.) The panels we chose were “premium” LG panels (and LG no longer makes panels!), but my understanding now is that the lower-cost panels are a perfectly good choice as the solar manufacturing sector has matured (and of course there are no moving parts), so failure rates of all types of solar panels are extremely low at 0.05% and declining (See source here).  

If solar is an option for you, my advice is simply plan to install the largest amount of solar you can with your budget and roof space.  

EVs

We had a reservation for a Tesla Model 3 long before we knew how EVs would come to take over the world, and finally took delivery in 2019 of the first mass-manufactured long-range EV.  

We drove it more than 70,000 km around eastern Australia (QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS, ACT) with 3 kids in the back since then and have had no charging or maintenance issues to speak of.  

Instead, we enjoyed our family holidays much more thanks to stopping at parks instead of truck stops and local cafes instead of highway fast food.  

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We loved it so much we quickly replaced our other petrol car with a low-cost second-hand Nissan Leaf ($18,000) in 2020, which to this day has had exactly $0 service costs and probably only a few hundred dollars in charging costs despite being used almost every day for kids school pickup, shopping, sport and work commute in Sydney.  

If you need any convincing to buy a 2nd hand leaf, just watch this awesome Aussie petrol-head review of his leaf.  The convenience of home-charging is awesome, and the cost of the fuel (electricity) is a third of the cost of petrol for the same number of kilometres driven (or free if you charge during the day from solar!). Our cost of charging the Model 3 for 2022, compared to the petrol equivalent is shown in the Tesla app:

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And despite being a physically smaller car than what many would consider a “family car”, the absence of an engine means you have a front boot, and the absence of a petrol tank, and transmission means you have more room in the back boot as well as the cabin (no hump).  

So we have gone camping, to the snow with toboggans and regional road-trips and have had plenty of space for everything.  I should mention however, that since our kids have since grown up a little (oldest is now 15), we are in the process of trading our Model 3 for a Model Y to gain a little extra room in the back-seat area.

EV charger

Our Model 3 came with a high-power 32 Amp wall charger for free since we were early adopters, and it was easy to find a Tesla certified electrician to mount it in our carport. The cost of installation was$1,210.  

Admittedly, since we were EV noobs, we just assumed that this high-power charger was really needed, but found out quickly that charging from a regular 10Amp powerpoint is also actually fine, it just takes a bit longer.

I think the main reason you should install a high-power charger is if you drive quite far each day, say more than 100 km per day, but if you have the budget and use your car daily, I wouldn’t discourage it, it’s nice to be able to charge quickly.

On my request, our Nissan Leaf came with a 15 Amp charger, so we had an electrician install a 15 Amp powerpoint in our carport. However, in retrospect I would have opted for the10 Amp charger since that is much more ubiquitous and the added charge speed isn’t really needed.  

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Batteries

We started with a single Tesla Powerwall 2 battery (14kwh) which performed brilliantly for about a year, at which time we did some calculations and determined that we were exporting sufficient solar (more than 14kwh on average per day) that could be stored in a second battery.  Both batteries cost $14k (installed) and we calculated payback at around 8 years(warranty is 10 years).  

So it made sense economically since we planned to be still living in this house for that time, but with the longish payback it was mostly the environmental benefit, as wel las the added benefit of having power during a blackout, although we are lucky that blackouts are fairly rare in our area.

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In 2022 we joined the Tesla Virtual Power Plant, which meant handing over control of the batteries to Tesla in return for “grid credits” ($1.20 per day) and a doubling of the battery warranty.  Tesla then automatically charges the batteries when renewables are high in the grid(mid-morning), and then discharges the batteries during the evening peak, when renewables are low.  

Our bills for the past 12 months are shown in the below chart. This is for a fully electric house with 7 people (we rent out upstairs to two tenants, so there are two kitchens, two laundries etc.). We're charging two EVs which are driven daily and also have a pool with a pool pump.

Induction cooktop

We had a gas stove, but after installing solar we realised that it made financial sense to use the energy we were producing on our roof to power everything, and eliminate our gas bill.  

The cut-out in our kitchen bench was a few cm short of the standard 600mm width needed, so we got that enlarged, and bought a Smeg SI7633B cooktop for $1399 (the price has since increased), primarily because it only needed a 32Amp circuit, and it had the simplest user-interface with just 3 slider bars for the 3 hotplates and no additional useless functions like most appliances come with these days.

Cooking on induction has been SO much better than gas. It’s easier to use (no more hand-held gas lighters), temperature control is better, it’s safer (automatically switches off when pot is removed, there's no risk of gas explosion, no naked flames and no asthma-causing gas fumes in the house). It’s far easier to keep clean since there are no raised metal grates.  

I feel much more comfortable teaching kids to cook meals on induction.  And it looks better too.

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Gas disconnection

We had bottled gas, which was used for cooking and space heating, but after the gas company tried to charge us $80 for “gas bottle maintenance” - and they didn’t even turn up to do anything - I called them and asked them to remove the gas bottles.  

They turned up within a few days and took them away, and we haven’t had a gas bill since.

Before installation, we had a plumber who was doing some tap maintenance to disconnect the gas pipe from the cooktop, and between then and the installation of the induction cooktop, we used a sunbeam electric grill for any frying, and our microwave and regular electric oven.

Hot water

We had an old electric resistance hot water heater on a ‘controlled load’ tariff and after doing extensive research we decided to sell it and install a Sanden Heat Pump, since it would use a fraction of the electricity, could be set to run during daylight hours only, powered straight from solar, and allow us to remove the ‘controlled load’ daily charge on our bill.  

We assessed the payback time for this purchase as it was one of the more expensive hot water systems at $4590 installed, and we calculated it would take 2.5 years based on savings in electricity, which was well within the expected product lifetime.  

The heat pump was installed in 2020 and with 7 people in the house has worked perfectly. The tank is made in Australia, and the heat pump was designed in Japan as part of a government energy efficiency program, thus designed to operate in a cold climate (as low as minus 10 degrees celsius).  

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Fireplace

When we moved in there was an old empty fireplace with a gas connection. Having lived in a house with a combustion fireplace we investigated putting another one in, however we learned that although the ambience and heat is good from a wood fireplace, the health effects of smoke inside the house are quite serious, even with a combustion fire.  

And I must admit I was tired of carrying and chopping wood, so we installed an electric fireplace that provides both heating and cooling, as well as a fire-effect that can be customised via remote control.  

It’s way more convenient, provides practically the same ambience, can both heat and cool the room, is powered by solar+batteries, and can be switched on / off with a remote.  It’s perfect!

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Gardening

Now that we had solar it made sense to use that to power our lawn mower and other power gardening tools, so we sold our petrol tools on gumtree and bought a battery-powered mower, edger, leaf blower and hedge trimmer (over time).  

Not only are these lighter and quieter, there’s no need to go fill a jerry-can (or even have a jerry-can) or buy and mix the right ratio of oil-to-petrol which is a total pain. This also makes power gardening much safer for kids (who are willing to help out).

Pool pump

As luck would have it, within weeks of moving into our home, the entire pool system failed due to old age.  But we found out quickly that our local council provided rebates to install variable speed pool pumps, which save a huge amount of energy by throttling down to a lower speed for the majority of the day.  

We also opted to install a passive solar pool heater on our south-facing roof, which still catches plenty of sun in summer, so we could extend the swimming season without adding too much to our electricity consumption. This heats the pool really well in spring / autumn, and it’s spa temperatures in summer.  

BBQ

The last fossil-fuel powered appliance in our house was of course a bbq.  

We’ve had a few BBQs over the years and to be honest they kind of suck.  You have to constantly worry about running out of gas, lug heavy gas bottles around, try not to damage the inside of your car in the process, and you have to worry about running out of gas whilst hosting a bbq.  

This happened enough times that we ended up having two gas bottles, one on standby just in case. And the spark plugs eventually failed which meant we had to use a hand-held gas lighter or long match and gingerly try to keep your face and body away from the igniting gas.  

To make matters worse, the inside of the BBW eventually gets filthy. I won’t mention what manner of filth I’ve found in our BBQ during the yearly clean-out. All I can say is it made me wonder why we cook food on these things.  

Currently there is no really good electric equivalent to a large 4+ burner BBQ. Personally I think this is a gap in the market (I made a pitch to the Australian engineering company I work for to build one but it didn’t get up).  

However, there are plenty of perfectly decent electric grills that are not advertised as BBQs but fulfil exactly the same purpose. So we disassembled and recycled the metal from our gas BBQ (thanks Hornsby Metal Recycling) and now use a Sunbeam portable electric grill, which is powered of course from our solar+batteries, and is simple and quick to clean.  

It strikes me that most of what a BBQ is is a table on wheels, on which a hot plate is mounted.  So you can achieve the same with any table of your own and a portable electric grill.  

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BTW we had a delicious family bbq today in our back-yard and honestly the experience and end-result is the same.  Food for thought.  

Conclusion

It was so much fun electrifying our house. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning new things and upgrading their home and lifestyle, not to mention saving money and improving the environment for future generations.  

We are lucky in Sydney to have a large and skilled workforce of tradies, in particular electricians, and I would like to give a shout to our local electricians in Hornsby who have done most of our household electrical upgrades, Arcs N Sparks Electrical and the solar company in Gosford who installed and upgraded our solar and batteries.

Finally, I would like to recommend to everyone - go all-electric! It will make life easier and you won’t regret it.

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Peter Horsley is a software engineer with a passion for sustainability and the environment.  He volunteers his time for community groups including Solar Citizens, Australian Parents for Climate Action and Greenpeace.  

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You may also want to check out this video that Peter's local council made of his home electrification journey.  ‍