Greener Landlords
Tom, Toffee and his new double-glazed windows
Thomas and his family live in a renovated duplex apartment in Vaucluse, which has a garden apartment that they rent out. They have electrified both their apartment and the rental, optimised the energy efficacy of the properties, and installed solar, which is shared between the two households. They are enjoying energy cost and emissions savings while noticing cleaner, healthier living spaces.
I’m originally from Germany and have a strong passion for sustainability, a lot of which is just common sense. There were several reasons why I was motivated to electrify my home. After we installed solar, I wanted to use our solar energy wisely. We also had unflued gas space heaters, which I realised were bad for us and our tenant’s health. Finally, we had some condensation on our window panes in winter as a result of the gas heating. This problem disappeared once we installed the air conditioner.
We removed the gas instantaneous hot water, and now both dwellings share an electric hot water system. We also replaced the gas cooktops with induction cooktops and the gas space heating with a reverse cycle air conditioner in both properties. We bought moderately priced electrical appliances, so not to break the budget. We also upgraded to double-glazing in our home to make the heating and cooling more efficient.
Both the house and rental are off the one meter, and the tenant pays a flat rate for power in addition to the rent. The financial benefit from the solar system is shared between the tenant (adjusted flat rate) and the owner to cost-recover the solar investment.
Removing gas makes maintenance simpler, you have one less service cost - only one connection fee is required for the electricity and only one type of tradesperson for the repairs. I also find that electricity is safer than gas. There was less dirt (soot) after removing the gas space heating and cooking, so the units stay cleaner. I was also able to depreciate the solar system, air conditioner and induction cooktop at tax time.
The internet has a lot of great educational resources. Solar Quotes is useful if you want to learn about solar, and some of the user groups on Facebook, such as My Efficient Electric Home, the Amber Energy Group and the BYD EV Owners Australia, have also been very educational to me.
I use Catch Power to optimise my use of solar during the day for different appliances, and to heat my hot water system. I am also currently charging my EV on an AGL Nightsaver EV energy plan between 12 am to 6am at 9 cents/kWh, which is very economical.
Tom, Toffee and his EV
I’ve purchased a second-hand battery and hope to get this up and running soon. I like the idea of using what you make by shifting my energy production and consumption around.