A household that fully electrified their home had a nasty shock after subsequently receiving a huge gas bill. Here’s what happened.
Why The Big Gas Bill After Electrification?
According to James William, founder of Australian Energy Assessments, the customer had installed a heat pump hot water system, induction cooker and reverse cycle air-conditioner and then called his firm after receiving the big gas bill.
“The culprit? Gas meters aren’t smart meters, they’re read manually. If the meter reader doesn’t come after you electrify, your supplier will often apply assumed usage based on your old gas habit,” he says. “That gets corrected later once an actual read is taken… but the ‘assumed’ bill can look scary in the meantime. So if you’ve made big changes at home, let your gas retailer know and request a meter read before paying anything. Saves a whole lot of confusion.”
But depending on the situation, which isn’t entirely clear, the customer in this example may still keep getting bills after the real read is taken (just not so big).
Ceasing Gas Use Vs. Disconnection Vs. Abolishment
Getting off gas is a great move financially and environmentally speaking; and for the sake of your family’s health.
But simply ceasing gas use won’t stop the bills from rolling in. As with electricity, gas customers are subject to a fixed daily or service charge for maintaining the gas connection. You pay this charge even if you don’t use any gas.
Ranging from 19c to $1.24 per day, these charges can add up to hundreds of dollars a year. To avoid such charges and never see another gas bill again, you’ll need to choose between disconnecting and abolishing your connection.
- Disconnection involves plugging/sealing the gas pipe on a property just before it enters the gas meter, which may also be removed.
- Abolishment often involves pulling out the gas pipe (and meter) from a property out to the street mains and capping it at that point.
The process for disconnecting gas may only take a few days and is usually quite cheap, whereas abolishment can take months and can cost anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars to more than $1,500, depending on the state you’re in and your energy retailer.
You can learn more about gas disconnection vs. abolishment here.
How Much Can Be Saved By Getting Off Gas?
While replacing gas appliances with electric can involve a significant investment, for most households this will pay for itself within an acceptable period of time; particularly if they have installed solar panels. And as with solar and batteries, there are rebates and subsidies to support the shift.
As for what the simple payback period is, that will vary according to circumstances. But earlier this year, SolarQuotes’ resident fact-checker Ronald Brakels crunched some numbers to produce estimated savings for solar and non-solar households; his conclusion being:
“There are currently over 5 million Australian homes with gas connections. The number that would be financially better off if they stopped using gas is, by my calculations, over 5 million.”
Home Electrification Picking Up Pace In Australia
A survey report from Energy Consumers Australia early this year indicated 35% of homeowner households using mains gas are considering cancelling their supply within the next 10 years; and close to 1 in 10 say they will probably cancel in the next two years.
Some states/territories are pushing the home electrification shift along. For example, From January 1, 2027 in Victoria, *all* new homes will need be built all- electric. New homes and apartment buildings in the state needing a planning permit have been required to be all-electric since the beginning of 2024. Another example is the ACT, where the Territory’s government is aiming to transition away from fossil fuel gas and phase out its use entirely by 2045.
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It wouldn’t matter if gas and electricity cost roughly the same, getting rid of one of the daily connection fees is worth a lot of money over a year, and last i looked no one does gas lighting anymore, so gas it has to be.
Mind you we lost power 3 days ago in the storms, and haven’t noticed the difference with our solar and our battery doing the job. Getting rid of the second daily connection fees is looking attractive!
There’s a third alternative. Just ring your gas provider and tell them to cancel your account. I did this and although “the property” got a few bills with small amounts for a while, I didn’t pay any of them since they had no account in my name. My gas meter still stands but I’ve turned the lever to off and wound it with a wire to keep it off. Cost was $0.
Hi Michael, on the subject of getting off gas, I live in Victoria, My father a long time gas hater had a heat pump installed 2 years ago, he informed his provider that he no longer required their service, job done, but no, for the next year and a half they kept sending bills and threatening to cut off his gas.
He rang a few times at first, but gave up, as it was like talking to a wall.
if he not using the gas. tell the gas company feel free to cut it off. it their problem if your family not using it. it your right to move all power to solar and the grid. or keep the gas for water heating and oven. your family can go 100% to anything even fire word and recycle paper. off grid or power into the grid for the neighbors. be you own power wholesaler. just wish it was not 1.5 c if they bill us 45c we should get at least 1/4 as the supplier. fair or up and overflow the state and big business it our asset the sun and our roof. and backyard. a man house is his castle be it 1 room or 3 or a business roof. more Solar more Batties. invest in Australia going forward it near 2026+… 1 month to go. happy Xmas and New Year. wind farms/units also for power. got toy Lego version to play with $80 on the internet this month.
You might just tell the gas supplier you are moving house so need to discontinue service.. Circumstances can always chage!
Home elctrification is a great idea until you run into the issue of trying to get 3 phase connected yo tour home. I live in Ballarat and Powercor will not connect me to 3 phase even thought the infrastructure is in place.
Why do you need 3 phase?
We run a large (efficient) house, including a Tesla without any drama at all.
Because we exceed the single phase amperage if we use too many appliances and it throws the breaker. We have a large home with individual split units in each room plus Tesla charger, washer/dryer and large tropical aquarium.
Peter,
I suggest you investigate Home assistant: it is possible to set up a system to unload some loads to limit the power demand. Also, a big battery would help, but you would need a large PV system to charge the battery.
I would also suggest performing a power audit: you can buy (or even borrow from some libraries) plug in power monitors so see demand from some appliances. Also you can see the wattage on the spec plate on items such as Air conditioners. For more efficient laundry, consider Front Load washing machines & condensing dryers. The trick is to see where your biggest loads are, then try to reduce their demand by replacing with a more efficient version, or moving the use to Off-peak times. I suggest not running unnecessary equipment in the morning or evening peaks: 7am>10am & 5pm>8pm.
Hope that helps. Remember, new appliances are often much more efficient than ones 10yrs+. I was a voluntary energy coach with Enova Energy, hence my knowledge.
Ducted AC alone apparently requires 3 phase – though I believe some of the smaller systems can get away with single phase.
And of course if you have a jug, stove, hot water tank, and microwave all drawing power at the same time you’ll likely be getting close to the limit of your single phase capacity. Have a few other high draw things on and …
John,
ducted A/C is less efficient than other A/C. The problem is the ducting often runs in the roof space above the insulation. This allows heat transfer from roof space to the air in the duct. It is more efficient to run the ducting on the room side of the roof insulation.
The advantage of heat pump a/c is that it is easier to control. If a room is not used, the door can be closed & the A/C left off.
Doug, I’m not sure what you mean by heat pump A/C – as far as I’m aware heat pump is a euphemism for AC in countries where cooling isn’t the focus e.g. NZ or the UK. Did you mean split?
Yes ducting (usually) runs through the roof so you get a blast of roof temperature air before the system pumps out the hot\cold\dry\fan mode air. Comparing ducted with split is apples to watermelons though. The way it was told to me is that split does a room, ducted is climate control for a house. It’s more efficient in terms of scale, but can’t be run for small areas.
Ducted AC does allow you to close rooms off to reduce the total size covered e.g. everything door off the living area where the intake vent and a couple of ducts are. Split allows you to close doors and just cool a single bedroom or office, which is better for a budget.
us country people still use gas for oven and heating water as backup for when we did not have power or as a cooking tool, with air flyer and microwave oven and hot plate and kettle. water pump and lights and computers and free to air and pay tv, radio and vac unit and clothes washer, and cameras and speakers. life in 2025 as we move into 2026 with solar and batteries….
life outside the big cities, clean air and houses we can live in work from home. as we age…
also, car a bit of fuel, water and working battery for around township.
all those tools we use that have usb plugs to make our life better off solar power, Batties and powerpacks or network power from coal, others solar, Batties on the grid, that should have 1 to 2 days system supply! govt and big business get on and build them, super funds goin to clean power backup. each township should have a backup/transfer station so when their a problem the whole grid don’t go down.more power for internet/phone network. a week or more we have floods and fires. build better smarter network. demand going but our co2 levels must drop fast. going 100%+ solar in December from last 14 years 2.4 kw old system. 2nd gen of Solar. nice investment in my home and small mini business, taking care of self, for the next 40 years plus. house value up. renew/replace old/broken parts bit by bit. go Solar, Gas, Petrol for car, till next car. we should have an EV charger in all townships not just the “Big” dumbtowns
I went all electric about 15 years ago there was a big saving