Home Electrification in Geelong
Getting the gas out of the house, in a sensible order, with the switchboard sorted first. Heating, hot water and the electrical work under one job.
- Reverse cycle, heat pump and switchboard work
- Accredited Master Electrician
- Energy Safe Victoria registered
- Rebate applications handled
Replacing gas, one appliance at a time
Electrification means running the house on electricity rather than gas. In practice that is three appliances: heating, hot water and cooking. Do all three and the gas meter comes out, which removes the daily supply charge as well as the usage cost.
It is not an ideological exercise for most of the people who ring us. It is that the gas ducted unit is twenty years old, the hot water is on borrowed time, and replacing both with efficient electric equipment costs less to run and attracts a rebate that gas does not.
Heating
Gas ducted or wall furnaces replaced with reverse cycle. Efficient, and it gives you cooling in the same system, which gas never did.
Hot water
Gas storage or continuous flow replaced with a heat pump. Usually the largest single rebate available on a domestic job.
Cooking
Induction instead of gas. Needs a dedicated circuit and usually a board with capacity, which is why it is worth planning with the rest.
The switchboard underneath it
The part nobody thinks about. Do it once, sized for everything you plan to add, instead of three times.
Plan the whole thing, do it in stages
The mistake we see most often is three separate contractors doing three appliances over four years, each one adding a bit to a board that was never assessed properly.
Assess the board and mains first
Capacity, protection, condition of the consumer mains and whether there is physical room. Everything else follows from this.
Work out the order
Usually the appliance nearest failure goes first, but if the board needs work we do that at the point it saves the most later. We give you the sequence in writing.
Size for the end state
Circuits and board capacity sized for the induction cooktop you will buy in three years, not just the heat pump you are buying now.
One set of certificates
Refrigeration, electrical and cabling done under one job by our own people, with the compliance paperwork issued together rather than chased from three trades.
How an electrification job runs
1. Site visit
Board, mains, existing appliances, solar if you have it, and how you actually use the house. Usually an hour.
2. A staged plan
What to replace, in what order, with a price for each stage and the running cost difference. You can do stage one and stop.
3. Electrical works
Board upgrade and circuits where needed. Doing this first keeps every later stage simple.
4. Appliance stages
Heating, hot water and cooking as you are ready, with the rebate applications lodged by us at each step where they apply.
Old gas ducted and old gas hot water?
That is the combination where electrification stacks up hardest. Call and we will run the numbers on your house.
What the stages cost
Supplied and installed. Most households spread these across a few years rather than doing them together.
Switchboard upgrade
$1,200 to $3,500
Consumer mains upgrade
$1,500 to $4,000
Heat pump hot water
$3,500 to $6,500
Reverse cycle ducted, replacing gas
$14,000 to $22,000
Reverse cycle splits instead of ducted
$2,000 to $5,500 each
Induction cooktop circuit
$450 to $1,200
Indicative only and before any rebate. Several of these activities are supported under the Victorian Energy Upgrades program, which can reduce the installed cost meaningfully. Eligibility and value depend on the existing equipment, the property and the current program rules, so we confirm your position before you commit.
The variables in an electrification plan
Condition of the switchboard
This is the swing factor. A modern board with spare ways costs nothing to work with. Ceramic fuses, no RCDs or aluminium consumer mains change the budget.
Whether you keep any gas
Keeping a gas cooktop means keeping the meter and the daily supply charge, which removes a chunk of the saving. It is a fair choice, but it should be a deliberate one.
House suitability for ducted
If the gas ducted is being replaced with reverse cycle ducted, the roof space and the existing duct condition decide a lot of the cost.
Solar and tariff
Whether you have solar, and what tariff you are on, changes which order makes financial sense. It does not change the work, but it changes the sequence we recommend.
Where we work
Electrification work is spread right across our service area, with the strongest case in the suburbs built between the 1970s and 1990s where gas ducted and electric storage hot water were both standard.
We work across Geelong, the Bellarine and the Surf Coast.
Areas we work in
- Belmont and Grovedale
- Corio and Lara
- Highton and Waurn Ponds
- Leopold and Ocean Grove
- Geelong West and Newtown
Electrification questions
Every house is different and the order matters more than people expect. A phone call sorts most of it.
Related: heat pump hot water, ducted reverse cycle and VEU rebate applications.
What does electrifying a home actually involve?
Replacing the gas appliances with efficient electric equivalents: gas ducted or wall heaters become reverse cycle, gas hot water becomes a heat pump, and a gas cooktop becomes induction. Once the last gas appliance is gone the meter can be removed and the daily supply charge stops. Most households do it in stages rather than all at once.
Will my switchboard handle it?
Sometimes, often not without work. A lot of Geelong homes still have a board with limited spare capacity, no RCD protection on older circuits, or ceramic fuses. Adding a heat pump, a reverse cycle system and an induction cooktop puts real load on it. We assess the board and the consumer mains at the start, because it is the thing most likely to change the budget.
Is it actually cheaper?
For most households, yes, and the gap widens with solar. The two savings are the efficiency of heat pumps against combustion, and the removal of the gas daily supply charge, which you pay whether you use gas or not. How much depends on your usage and tariff, which is why we work it out rather than quote an average.
Do I have to do it all at once?
No, and most people should not. The usual order is whichever appliance is closest to failing, then hot water, then heating, then cooking last because it is the one that changes how you cook. The only thing worth planning up front is the switchboard, so each stage does not trigger its own upgrade.
What about my solar?
Electrification and solar work well together, because heat pumps and hot water can be scheduled into the middle of the day when you are generating. If you have solar already, tell us the system size and we will set run windows to use it. If you are considering solar, doing the electrical work in the right order saves paying twice.
Get an electrification plan
Tell us what gas appliances you have, roughly how old they are, and whether you have solar. A photo of the switchboard is genuinely useful.
We will come back with a staged plan and a price for each stage, so you can start where it makes sense rather than committing to everything.
Where a rebate applies we lodge the application ourselves and confirm your eligibility in writing first.
Phone (03) 5214 8711
Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Weekends by appointment.
Air Conditioning Geelong
Unit 2, 112 Balliang Street
South Geelong VIC 3220