Your guide to government incentives to help electrify your home or business

Australia has the cheapest rooftop solar in the world. For homeowners it makes economic sense to install a rooftop solar system, which should pay for itself in as little as 4-5 years (the panels themselves will last for around 25 years). For landlords, it will add value to your property well in excess of the investment. For strata, it’s a bit more complicated, but still doable, either for common area power and/or to share amongst units depending on your roof space.

In most cases, your existing electricity retailer can switch you to accredited Green Power, which supports the development of new wind and solar generation, for a cost of about 4-5 cents extra per kWh. However, by shopping around you may be able to get renewably generated electricity at around the same cost as normal power, by switching to a retailer that contracts its supply from renewable generators.

Don’t worry: your power still comes through the normal poles and wires in your street, but you’ll be actively supporting the transition of the electricity grid to renewables. Check out Greenpeace’s Green Electricity Guide for more details.

Electric cars have a host of benefits – once you drive one you won’t want to go back. They’re very responsive, quieter, have no unhealthy tailpipe fumes, are cheaper to “fuel” (charging can be free if you use your own solar; but even using commercial chargers can be around half the cost of petrol for equivalent distance). Servicing costs are lower too given far fewer moving parts. With many models now exceeding 400km range between charging and some over 600km, they are fine for most driving profiles.

You may not even need an electric car to enjoy emissions-free mobility. Sydney’s trains are switching to renewable power, electrification of the state’s bus fleet has begun, you could get an eBike or eScooter and, of course, there’s always walking or cycling for short trips.

Good insulation and draught-proofing can halve your cooling and heating bills, and allows you can get by with a significantly smaller reverse cycle air conditioner – limiting demand on the grid as we switch to renewables. Windows are a big source of heat gain/loss, so if you don’t have double glazing, ensure you have thermally-backed curtains or blinds. Investors can see a positive capital gain when it comes to spending on insulation and draught-proofing, and it will help ensure your property stands out for tenants.

Reverse cycle air conditioning (RCAC) is incredibly efficient. Whereas a conventional gas or electric heater is, at-best, about 90% efficient, a modern RCAC can use three to five times less energy for each unit of cooling or heating by moving heat from inside to outside or vice versa! Why have a separate heater when one appliance can do both jobs so well?

With gas prices going up and likely to stay high, heat your hot water with a super-efficient heat pump, which uses the same technology as reverse cycle AC. Go from 90% efficiency with gas to 300-500% with a heat pump, cutting your hot water energy consumption dramatically.

If you have solar, you can also use your heat pump like a battery: soaking up your excess solar power during the day and storing piping hot water in the tank. Depending on your starting point there are some compelling incentives to switch to a heat pump hot water system.

Did you know that having a gas stove or oven produces a range of harmful pollution equivalent to having a smoker in the house? In fact, several independent studies have found gas stoves contribute to about 12% of childhood asthma cases!

There’s nothing like the speed, precision, efficiency and ease of cleaning of an induction cooktop. It will boil water twice as fast as gas. And it’s great for cooking in summer because it only heats the food, not your kitchen – there’s no wasted heat.

Professional chefs are turning to induction cooktops in droves, and there are plenty of options for serious wok enthusiasts. (If you have your doubts about induction cooktops, you might be mistaking them for ceramic electric cooktops, which have the same flat glass surface, but use clunky old technology.)

LED lights have come a long way in the last decade. They outlast all other globe types, they’re the most efficient illumination ever invented, and you can retrofit almost every existing fitting. The NSW Government has a program where accredited suppliers will retrofit your lighting to LEDs for next to nothing.

Once you decommission your last gas appliance, you can cancel your gas account and pocket the daily charges. Why have two energy accounts when you only need one?