What is Home Electrification?
Home electrification refers to the process of gradually swapping all of the fossil-fuel-powered appliances in your home for electric alternatives. The ultimate goal of home electrification is to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, decrease carbon emissions, reduce energy bills, and increase energy efficiency within the home.
Going electric involves replacing gas-powered appliances with more electric alternatives, such as electric stoves, heat pump water heaters, reverse cycle heating and cooling units, and electric vehicles. It is important to know that in addition to switching to electrical appliances, some households also opt to install solar to offset their energy consumption further and reduce their carbon footprint.
Some situations where you may be considering making the switch to electric include:
- You are building a home and want to make it energy-efficient from the beginning
- You are renovating and want to make your home more reliant on electrical appliances
- You have solar installed and want to make your home as energy-efficient as it can be
- You don’t have solar installed but want to make the change towards electric
- Some of your appliances are reaching the end of their life, and you’re looking to replace them with electric alternatives
Regardless of why you’re doing it, going electric is a huge step toward creating a more sustainable and environmentally friendly living space for you and your family.
Advantages of Electrifying Your Home
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Save Money on Energy Bills
Choosing to go electric is one of the smartest financial decisions you can make as a homeowner. This is because when installed correctly, electric appliances have lower operating costs and are far more energy efficient than gas-connected (fossil-fuel powered) appliances, even more so if you have rooftop solar installed. Meaning, when you switch to electrical, depending on whether you’re doing it all at once or gradually (appliance by appliance), you could save hundreds of dollars per year on your electricity bills.
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Lower Carbon Footprint
Currently, approximately 20% of the carbon emissions in the ACT come from the use of fossil fuels in Canberra households. Although they are effective in their purpose, conventional gas systems emit large amounts of harmful pollutants into the air, such as carbon dioxide and methane, contributing significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. The good news is that electric-powered appliances don’t produce any harmful chemicals, offering a cleaner, more environmentally friendly alternative that can play a huge role in reducing your household’s carbon footprint.
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Improve Air Quality & Safety Inside Your Home
Electrical appliances differ from gas-powered appliances in that they don’t emit harmful pollutants like carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide, which can impact the air quality within your home. Instead, they directly convert electricity into the desired form of energy, completely bypassing the process of burning fuel that produces these harmful byproducts. Even at low levels, exposure to carbon monoxide can potentially cause unwanted health issues like headaches and dizziness. This means that by switching to electrical power, your exposure to these pollutants decreases, making your home cleaner and safer for you and your family.
How Solarhub Can Help
To meet the ACT’s commitment to net 0 emissions by 2045, the ACT will be moving away from fossil fuel gas to renewable electricity by the year 2045, so it’s great that you’re starting to get on top of the transition now. Going all-electric is a huge commitment that involves alot of research and planning. This process may seem overwhelming to begin with, but that’s why we’re here.
At Solarhub, we’re your home electrification experts and are here to guide you through the process of electrifying your home. From assessing your energy needs to developing custom plans to fit your budget and reliable installation services, we’re here to make your transition towards as seamless as possible.
Install Solar & Solar Battery Storage
One of the principles of home electrification is reducing reliance on fossil fuels and transitioning to clean, renewable energy sources. One of the first steps to achieve this is installing solar (a photovoltaic (PV) system) onto your roof. If you want to go one step further, you could even install a solar battery to store the excess energy your solar system generates. By implementing both solutions and integrating them with your electrical appliances, you can eliminate the reliance on grid-supplied electricity and fossil fuels.
Fortunately, at Solarhub, we offer both services, helping you on your journey towards clean energy. With our expertise in solar panel installation and solar battery systems, we can help you harness the sun’s power to reduce your carbon footprint and lower your energy bills.
Install a Reverse-Cycle Air Heating & Cooling Unit
We’re all about helping you reduce your reliance on fossil fuels and save big on your energy bills. At Solarhub, we can help you hit both of these birds with one stone by upgrading your old air conditioning or gas heating unit to a brand new reverse-cycle unit. These types of systems, whether they are split or ducted, are the most efficient home heating and cooling solutions you can buy in terms of energy consumption, savings, and performance.
Even in extreme conditions, reverse-cycle systems can take one kW of energy and generate almost three times as much heat or cold. They can also be connected to your household’s PV system and contribute to even more savings on your energy bills. Talk about efficiency!
Upgrade Your Water Heating System to a Hot Water Heat Pump
Another great way to reduce your household’s reliance on gas-powered appliances and fossil fuels is replacing your existing water heating system with an electric-powered hot water heat pump. Not only do they have a longer life span than gas-powered water heaters, but they are far more energy efficient and can be connected to your home’s solar system, resulting in significant energy savings.
At Solarhub, we stock only the best brands of heat pumps and can help you upgrade your old water heater to a more reliable and energy-efficient electric heat pump. Partnering with ActewAGL, we can also offer you a $500 discount on your heat pump installation and a subsequent $250 credit on your energy bill for the following three years (conditions apply – please contact us).
Install Electric Vehicle (EV) Charger
You may have heard of the increasing trend of individuals going electric in terms of transportation. Well, there is a reason for this —- electric vehicles offer a range of advantages over gas-fueled vehicles. They are cheaper to maintain, have lower operating costs and most notably, (because they rely solely on battery power) produce zero carbon emissions, which has its obvious benefits. They offer so many advantages that the ACT government is offering multiple incentives to encourage individuals to make the switch.
Where does Solarhub fit in here, you may be asking? Well, because electric cars don’t take fuel, they rely on electric charging stations to power up. Charging stations can be found in shopping centre parking lots, petrol stations, and workplaces and can even be installed at home. Fortunately, our team specialises in installing home charging stations to ensure you have convenient access to a power source right in the comfort of your home.