Ginninderry development to trial gas-free homes in Stage 1

You were fibbed to. With solar hot water you still need a booster. An electric one would be cheaper than gas which these days is a joke.

Evacuated tube solar hot water .. works fine for most people in all but a few cloudy winter days. Boost it with an electric heater.

I don’t know of solar hot water heaters that don’t have boosters. The use of the booster though can be decreased if you work with the hot water heater not against. Evening showers for instance, before the water has had all night to cool down.

Yeah I have a booster but didn’t need to plan with gas or worry about when I had a shower
If I knew all that I don’t think I would have bothered 😕

Archie Mac If you have evacuated glass tubes, the amount of hot water can be increased by adding more tubes. I don’t have enough tubes, but at present just turn the booster on when I need it during one or two months a year, rather than the expense of adding more tubes. A friend has more tubes on his house, and he says he rarely needs the booster; a lot less than I do. Throwing some insulation over the tank might help too, because they are often not as well insulated as they should be.

Julie Macklin or morning showers having only had the boost for an hour or so on off-peak rates just before you get up. Then let the sun have first go for heating all day. The tank should not cool very much overnight if insulated properly.

Still has mains which these days is cheaper than off peak. I have gas cooking and hot water in a house I built 2 years back and wish I had of went electric for the lot. Save on not having connection charge and electric cheaper than gas especially with solar which offsets peak daytime use

Understand the mains switch over but most power for heating would be used of an afternoon/night time I would assume most houses are empty during the day?

Build a house properly and virtually say good-bye to winter heating!

John Wilson Exactly! And NO air-conditioning needed at all in the summer. Houses like that already exist in Canberra.

Do you believe that electricity prices won’t rise in parallel? I agree that PVs reduce electricity costs but, mine anyway, only work when the sun shines (doh). I buy most of my electricity at night. Same for my gas. They pay me a pittance for the power I feed into the grid.

If I was buying a house, I would want the choice of utilities to be mine. I don’t want to defer that choice to a politician.

David Brown Solar panels still generate some electricity when it’s cloudy. http://www.directenergysolar.com/blog/will-my-solar-panels-work-when-its-cloudy-or-rainy/

Julie Macklin I am sure if there is UV hitting the PVs when it is cloudy then they generate some electricity but unless you have a vast array you will be paying through the nose for the energy you buy off the grid. Unfortunately mine tend to rest once the sun has set. 😟

Electricity generators are in big trouble. As they jack up prices more people install solar. To maintain profits, they need to further jack up the prices, making solar more attractive still. It is a death spiral. I am wondering when the government will intervene on behalf of the power companies.

Absolutely and hence my final observation.

Yep. Yet they will not allow trees to be cut to get efficient use of solar. What happens when the trees grow?

Thatd when they turn to the underground methane from the tip that was once there. There is already a stigma to the area, why exacerbate it with ridiculous restrictions.

My gas heating bill for last winter (3br house) was ridiculously high – my usage was down on 2016. So yes, gas per whatever unit has well and truly gone up. I’ve put in split system units in the bedrooms and will put another one in my loungeroom because my electricity bills are very reasonable in comparison.

I agree with Simon. Avoid gas if you can because it’s expensive. (I have gas heating, cooking and hot water.)

Lin Van Oevelen that is the setup we want to go as we love gas but maybe not

Look I’ve been doing some testing – I have a portable induction stove as well and over the three months from October to December I used it over the gas stove, plus didn’t need to use the heating obviously. I do have gas water but that’s a fairly new unit. My gas bill, just from using the hot water, was far less than the quarter beforehand. Ducted gas chews it big time, but stove and hot water is fine I have found.

I went from electricity to gas ducted for a 4 bed last April. Slightly higher bill over winter but the heat is so much better I can live with a few extra $$

Sad you didn’t purchase a house that rarely needs heating.

Julie Macklin it has a 6.5 energy rating but a Canberra winter is still a Canberra winter and old heaters are rubbish.
Old windows don’t help.

Peter Caldwell My house rarely needs heating (and no cooling). Because it is built for the climate it didn’t need a heater as an inclusion. I was told if I needed extra heat all I needed was a small blow heater, and that has turned out to be correct, and not always running on full either. I did later add a wood burner, but only use it a few times a year, but it was added, not only for heating, but emergency cooking if the power goes off. I don’t like to be completely dependant on electricity. My electricity use is one third of an average, similar sized household, and I’m not trying, as I know I could do better if I did.

In a fairly well insulated house, I have done the sums and found I would save some money if I got off gas and used an induction cooktop and heat pump for space heating. It’s the next thing on our agenda.

Induction stovetops .. superb!

Everyone who has induction stovetops rates them as good or better than gas, and, if you really have to have a gas cooktop, you could use bottle gas and avoid the service charge for gas.

Everyone? 😖😖