Renovators’ delight: Jodie and Angus go electric
Angus and Jodie’s home is now about 67% self-sufficient in power in the winter and up to 90% in the summer.
As part of their renovation plans in 2019, Darebin couple Jodie and Angus and their two teenage children chose to move to an all-electric, energy efficient house. They extended their family home and installed 5.4 kW of solar PV, an induction cooktop, and heat pumps for hot water and heating. Through sustainable passive solar design they have been able to avoid the need for cooling altogether, other than an air conditioner in the upstairs room.
‘Renovation is the time when you can do it. The costs are in perspective in a different way.’
A Tesla Powerwall helps them maximise their power use in their home or divert to the grid if they can.
Angus and Jodie’s enthusiasm for the elements that make a sustainable, efficient electric home is evident. When asked about their new favourite appliance, they couldn’t settle on just one!
‘The hot water heat pumps – they are just so efficient!’
‘And the battery – the software attached means we can manage it well and it is either full for our use or we are exporting power’.
‘The induction stove top! It talks to the rangehood, it is easy to clean and it is very fast to heat and cooks really well.’
‘Get lots of advice from different suppliers. We knew a lot because Angus is a builder and very interested in sustainability, but we still asked lots of people.’
They feel lucky to have been able to renovate and extend to convert their Edwardian era home to all-electric because ‘we have the [financial] resources and it is the right thing to do because of the climate issues: morally we don’t feel bad about turning a light on.’
They took the opportunity while renovating to make the switch to all-electric, and took advantage of government rebates for their solar and heat pump hot water. As Angus says ‘renovation is the time when you can do it. The costs are in perspective in a different way.’
Find out more
Follow the six steps to an all-electric home.