Electrification talking points

Thanks to everyone who stopped to chat with the volunteers from Sustainable Homes Action Group and Go Renewable Energy Group at the Woodend Community Farmers’ Market on Saturday 7th October.

We were exploring the level of interest in electrifying home heating and hot water (which consume about 40% and 25% of home energy respectively) and powering them from home solar with a battery. We were also keen to find out about the obstacles to electrification.

Our key learnings:

• Many of the people we spoke to already have rooftop solar (42% of homes in Woodend do!) and are interested in installing batteries. Some people signed up for a free consultation with MRSG’s Community Buy Partners to explore the potential for their sites.

• Home heating is typically provided in multiple ways. People were happy to tell us that they use a reverse cycle aircon to heat (saving 70-75% of the energy used by conventional gas and electric systems). Some were interested to hear this could work and would give it a go.

• There’s a wide spread of applications for water heating. The most energy-efficient option available at the moment is electric heat pump. We heard that people don’t know much about this technology and its ability to supply homes in the Macedon Ranges with adequate hot water.

  (The charts we used to record our chats are shown in the photo gallery below)

For major appliances (heating and cooling, hot water), the opportunity to upgrade is most economic at the time the existing appliance fails. We’d like to help households explore their replacement options and be prepared with a plan. We heard that you want:

• information about batteries, including accessing the battery capacity of an electric vehicle and updates on the proposed community battery

• information about reverse cycle air conditioning (not just for cooling!). They’re not the ugly, rattly box on the wall (or worse: in a window!) they used to be

• information about heat pumps for water heating

• information about rebates for upgrades

We’ll target activities for these topics over the coming months. First up: rebates! Join a 1 hour information session at Gisborne Library at 6pm on Tuesday 24th October. Book here.

If you’re already ready to upgrade, or exploring your options in detail, please consider signing up for a consultation with our Community Buy Partners through MRSG’s Go Renewable Energy Group (GREG)

We will be planning more interesting activities relevant to Electrification and Renewable Energy. Keep an eye on MRSG newsletter for details.

Sue (Sustainable Homes) and Stephen (GREG)