We talk with local residents who have embraced environmentally friendly lifestyles and practices, and invited them to give their tips on how you can do the same!

James and his all-electric home, Blackburn 

James is a scientist and works as an energy economist in his day job – so he is naturally concerned about how much energy his family is using. He has been reducing his energy bills for decades, but knew he wanted to go all-electric when they acquired their 1972 3-bedroom house. “Working around the industry, I knew we'd do what we could when we could”, said James. “Every appliance you replace with electric is at least 300% more efficient than gas, so you use less than a third of the energy for the same task, and most likely you pay less for that energy.  You win and so does the environment.” 

House renovation 

James’ family wanted to refresh their old home, but instead of demolishing and rebuilding, they did a sympathetic renovation. This was also an opportunity to make the house more sustainable. 

James said, “The renovation included a total insulation upgrade, double glazing the floor to ceiling north facing windows in existing frames. We disconnected from gas, installed heat pump space heating/cooling and heat pump hot water. It was important not to oversize the hot water tank, otherwise you waste money heating water you never use. The kitchen is all-electric.” 

The house takes some passive house concepts into consideration (such as draught stopping, double glazing and using the sun for heating) which improved the NaTHER rating from 1.5 to at least 7.  

With the renovations, the house is more comfortable and energy efficient. “If we have sunshine in winter, it can get to 22 degrees and autumn/spring 26 degrees. We need heating for about two hours on very cold mornings, about 6 weeks a year. We use shades to protect north facing windows. Our bills basically halved.” 

The house also has solar panels. James admits, “We were tardy with solar, it was always part of the plan, we just took time getting to it. Our solar system monitors solar production and consumption. Over the year we produce about the same as what we use – but not at the same time. So it is more obvious that we shift our daily tasks to maximise our solar use.” 

Going EV 

James has also upgraded from a petrol-fuelled car to an electric vehicle (EV). James said, “We haven't bought petrol for three years. Filling the battery costs about $5-6 even on grid energy, and our solar is free. We need to charge the car about twice a week (which is normal). Our electricity bill has risen, maybe 25-30%, but that is now our total home and transport bill.” 

Any surprises?  

James said, “The comfort and passive energy of insulating the house shell was surprising – what we thought was a heating problem was actually a cooling problem – including cross ventilation, which meant changing some windows to be openable. Choosing and specification of a heating/cooling system suitable for the size, layout and thermal shell of the house is where we ultimately made a mistake – we could have used something much simpler”. 

Tips and recommendations for other people 

James recommends four key steps: 

1. Work on the energy efficiency of your house – DIY draught stopping; fill insulation gaps; manage heating and cooling controls; research and plan to electrify your home, including prioritising space heating, switching to over to a hot water heat pump before your old one dies, and installing solar panels to generate your own electricity. 
2. When replacing space heating and hot water units, make sure you size these correctly to your needs and floor plan. 
   
   “We received good advice from the installer not to oversize the hot water. We'd had a personal reference to an insulation/efficiency specialist, who went through what each action would achieve for the price, especially changing the glass in existing windows. We thought through how we actually use a cooktop, how we actually use a car”, said James. 
3. Get practical advice and feedback from your friends and family. “Talk to people, lots of people that have done it and both found it easier than you think and made errors you can learn from. All these technologies are well established and well understood. There are a lot of online resources from energy groups to help”. 
4. Understand your car requirements. “For an EV, be honest about how you actually use your car. If you commute even 100km a day, you won't need to recharge a 300km range EV more than every second day. More likely you travel 30-50km per day, and you'll do it 2 maybe 3 times per week”. 

The outcome 

James is living the good life. He says, “Our house is very comfortable, life is sweet. And our annual energy bill, now including our car, is about a third what it was excluding our internal combustion engine (petrol) car. I don't know what the price of petrol is”.  

When asked what’s next, James said, “We’re still thinking about a battery, I’m really excited about ‘vehicle to home’ capability and using our car's battery to time shift when we get our energy to when we want to use it”. 

Specifications 

Heating  

Heat pump hydronic heating. “In retrospect this is wrong for the climate in a well-insulated house – it is slow when we need fast, so standard reverse cycle air conditioning would have been better. We didn't know the performance of the house beforehand, we just knew it was old and cold”. 

Cooling  

Same system 

Hot water  

Heatpump hotwater 

Cooking 

Induction cooktop. “As fast and flexible as gas, but my kids can cook with a tea towel next to their cooking pot without causing a fire”. 

Rooftop solar  

“6.6kW system, no battery, but monitoring means we can see production and house consumption. Currently solar-battery systems make most sense when installed together. Our EV charger is designed to work with solar and provide solar only charging”. 

Energy efficiency   

“Underfloor, ceiling, wall insulation in brick veneer building, double glazed windows, door and window gap seals. Estimated change from NaTHERs 1.5 to at least 7.  Lights are all LEDs”.  

Electric vehicle  

“MG ZS, which is a good family and dog size family car. It came in at the right price at the right time when we were needing to make a change, and knowing it would be electric”.