Electrifying our cottage with Goodbye Gas
Electrifying your home is more than just a choice that's good for the planet - it's a transformation that enhances your health and well-being. It's about appreciating the benefits of clean energy, experiencing the quiet efficiency of modern systems, enjoying the improved air quality of a gas-free kitchen, and embracing the comfort of renewable heating solutions.
Home energy use accounts for over 40% of domestic emissions and can be a major expense. Electrifying your home can significantly reduce your energy bills, and you can also check if you’re eligible for any electrification rebates from your local government. If you’re still connected to the grid, make sure to choose a green electricity option to avoid relying on fossil fuels.
I’ve photographed high performing, (mostly) all-electric homes for a few years now, whilst living in a leaky old 1890s cottage in the country. I've been procrastinating and feeling paralysed by the decision to electrify our current home. The hesitation stems from our plans to move soon and build a high-performance house of our own. So doing it for financial reasons didn’t make sense - the payback period wasn’t there. So should I do it for the next owners? The planet? To live by my values? And what about our beloved AGA stove that runs on gas - do we electrify that (for the pricey sum of $10,000) when we had decided not to take it to our next home? Or do we just turn it off and use our split system for heating in the kitchen? Do we put in solar and a battery? The decisions were all too hard, so I did nothing. But after doing nothing for more than a year, I decided to not go after a perfect solution - but to just start the journey.
So I enlisted a fantastic Melbourne-based business called Goodbye Gas. They are expanding north into NSW soon and provide an incredible one-stop shop experience. Goodbye Gas does all the research for you, organises the trades, buys the appliances, sorts out any applicable rebates, and installs everything in one day. As someone who loves to research extensively to find the best solution, outsourcing to the team at Goodbye Gas was a huge relief and time-saver! I started with heating/cooling, cooking and hot water - solar and battery and the AGA stove are still undecided, but at least our house can now be run on all-electric appliances.
I love our new Smeg induction stovetop from e&s - induction is incredibly efficient, easy to clean, safer and much healthier. For any haters of induction, I think it gets confused with the old electric systems that were slow and hard to regulate. To put the efficiency and speed of induction in perspective, one experiment took under 2.5 minutes to bring a litre of water to the boil on an induction stovetop, while a gas cooktop took over four minutes (this will depend on the gas cooktop and the cookware you're using of course). Induction cooking also doesn’t emit harmful gases like gas stoves. This keeps the air in your home cleaner and healthier. Gas stoves are linked to around 12% of all childhood asthma cases. With induction, there are no lingering gas smells or carbon monoxide risks.
Imagine a home where your energy is clean, renewable, and perfectly responsive to your needs. While I’ll miss the heat of our fireplace, I definitely won’t miss the triple handling of firewood, the ash, dust, and the poor indoor air quality. This is the future of sustainable living, and it begins with the essentials: cooking, heating, cooling, and hot water. Give Ben and Marcella at Goodbye Gas a shout if you’re interested in electrifying but don’t want the hassle of researching and organising everything!
I documented the beginning of our electrification journey, and two case studies have just been published - one in Sanctuary magazine and one in Inside Out. Remember, done is better than perfect!
More reading
Rewiring Australia - a climate non-profit advocating for household electrification. They research and demonstrate how electrification is the fastest way to reduce carbon emissions.
Yarra Energy Foundation has some excellent info on all things electric - energy literacy, efficient hot water, heating, cooking, electric cars, and then a page with many more helpful links. I learnt about the general costs of efficient heating here (11 cents/hour for a split system vs 70c to $1.20/hour for ducted heating for instance).
My Energy Efficient Home (MEEH) facebook group - a leading database of information about improving the comfort and energy performance of Australian homes.
My Efficient Electric Home Handbook by Tim Forcey - this isn't just any book, it's your secret weapon against high energy bills, courtesy of Tim's adventures from chemical engineer to Melbourne's home energy hero.
