Electrification day in Research
- Natalie Bucknell
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Nillumbik resident story
We finally made the decision to go ahead and completely get off gas in June this year (2025). The ‘should we’, ‘shouldn’t we’, ‘can we afford it’ uncertainty was over. Time to make it happen!
Who to go with for the change over? We looked at the list provided by CEN’s Hot Water Hub and got some figures from a few. We decided to go with Goodbye Gas. They could do it all on one day, and the Managing Director Ben Russell lives locally and called in to check out the situation at our house. He seemed very practical and understood that we just wanted an economical but good quality solution to hot water and a new oven and cooktop.
We already had heat pump air conditioning. Our old instant gas hot water system, while it had not yet broken down, it was rusty and getting pretty old so we thought it would be better to get in before the cold shower stage.
Our cooktop and oven were bottom-of-the-range ex-showroom models, at least 20 years old, and had already had issues, so we decided to upgrade there too. We’d been using one of the cheap IKEA benchtop induction stoves for a couple of years which was great, but that can now be moved to the caravan!
Electrification day was in early August and went very smoothly. The electrician Stirling and apprentice Catherine who came were both lovely and put in a big day pulling out our old (smelly, dirty) oven and cooktop, and re-working the switchboard.
We have a nice shiny new SMEG cooktop and a Westinghouse oven. We had to do a few small cabinet fixes as the new oven doesn’t have a grill so was a slightly different size, but it has worked out very well.
The plumber Simon was great and very efficient. We now have a lovely big new all-in-one Emerald HWS that is working beautifully. All the Goodbye Gas tradespeople were very patient with our questions and curiosity during the process.
Next step was to get the gas disconnected. I thought this might take a while, but it ended up being very quick. We requested the ‘abolishment’, which only cost about $250, and the next week trucks, diggers and traffic control people turned up to take away the meter and dig a hole next to the road outside our fence to seal off the gas at the main. (It was surprising how shallow the gas line is under ground.)
It was very satisfying to see the gas meter go too because it was right in front of the entrance. Now we won’t have to worry about hitting the gas line when we do some earth work to fix our driveway. We were very happy it all happened so quickly and easily.
We will need to come up with a creative way to screen the new hot water system but luckily there is a skilled DIY bloke on the property who will do the usual work arounds.
We will need to downsize before long as our garden is getting a bit too big to look after but we figured the savings (and satisfaction) were worth it in the meantime. Hopefully, it might also make our house more attractive to buyers and possibly even attract a premium price.
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Note: All names and businesses are shared by the resident in good faith and only represents their personal experience.
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