Getting a house connected to the gas network costs $2,000 + additional plumbing and that’s before you’ve bought any (always inefficient) gas appliances. This is great for gas fitters but what about home owners?
What if you want all your services to be electric and you want to power those services with your roof-top solar system or solar + batteries in the future? This option is better and cheaper, so why is it hindered by the building code?
We’re talking Victoria here, but similar perverse subsidies exist in all states of Australia.
Now if you haven’t got gas out the front (and the government has been spending a fortune putting gas out the front of houses just about everywhere) then you’re ok, but if you do you’ll be caught up in this….
Technical Solution Sheet 6.13 6: Hot Water Plumbing
Duplicate solution of 98.01 (Solar Installations) – Applies from 19 April 2013
Q: Do heat pump water heaters comply as a solar option? A: Yes, only under limited conditions. If a reticulated gas supply from a gas company is available for connection to the building, the solar water heater—
Is the building code just a mechanism to protect the gas fitters and fossil fuel industry?
Some people would say that protectionism is a bad thing but it is surely not as bad as forcing home owners to use fossil fuels in the home, which drives climate change, coal seam gas extraction and costs homeowners much more every time a bill comes in.
Home owners need to be able to chose for themselves which option they want to go with: an efficient, all-electric home that will save them money, or a home powered by fossil fuels that will only get more expensive over time. They should not be forced into the latter.
It is time for Victoria to wake up to the all electric revolution: Heat pumps use 80-86 per cent less energy when compared to electric element and gas hot water systems.
All-electric homes can be powered 98 per cent of the year purely off a 10kW solar system, a system size that is, conveniently, banned at the moment.
What can we do in the meantime? It’s best not to comply with the intent of this clause until it is overturned. I’m talking disobedience – going against the regulation. This clause is a disgrace and it can’t be overturned soon enough.
Technical Solution Sheet 6.13 6: Hot Water Plumbing
Duplicate solution of 98.01 (Solar Installations) – Applies from 19 April 2013
So taking Number 2 again:
We can say that the refrigeration pipes in the heat exchanger are not connected to the mains electricity supply (this is the case for any heat pump such as a Sanden that doesn’t have an electric boost element.). So we’re in, there.
In addition, we run the Sanden in the middle of the day when solar is producing and therefore 98 per cent plus energy for the hot water will be solar and renewable ambient heat, 80 per cent renewable ambient heat (10 per cent net solar imported energy, 90 per cent solar on-site energy) to drive the pump.
It is time to end the sneaky fossil fuel subsidies built into the building code. People want choice and have a right to choose a home energy system that will save them tens of thousands of dollars over the lifetime of their home, not one that will line the pockets of the fossil fuel industry and other special interest groups.
Matthew Wright and Paul Szuster are principles of Pure Electric Solutions
This post was published on July 3, 2018 3:22 pm
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Great article calling out the wrongs of the building code. With such a misguided document, it's no wonder energy costs are so high , even in new homes.
In NSW at least, apartment blocks are generally connected to gas for hot water provision to avoid grid upgrade costs. If buildings had PV + heat pump HWS+ LEDS at the outset, then it is unlikely that grid upgrades would be needed in most cases.
Gas trades could be cut out of development costs too.
A service which can model the energy demand to councils and developers would be beneficial.
Wow. That's an abusive code. Perhaps the simplest solution is to go fully off the grid: then you can install a large solar system (the ban is on connecting large systems to the grid), attach your heat pump to it (it's not connected to the grid), and put in enough batteries to operate at night.
''All-electric homes can be powered 98 per cent of the year purely off a 10kW solar system, a system size that is, conveniently, banned at the moment.''
The Victorian limit is 10kW per phase, for a total of 30kW (depending on who your distributor is).
If you are lucky enough to have a giant roof that would take such a system, then good luck to you.