Chloe’s story
Chloe is a teacher and climate advocate who lives in a four-bedroom, weatherboard, period home in Hawthorn West with her husband, two dogs and two of her four sons aged 17 and 19.
Why are you electrifying your home?
I've always been very environmentally conscious, and my husband Glen has always been very economically and energy conscious. We thought it was important for us as a family and our children’s future to reduce our energy bills, increase our comfort and reduce our emissions into the environment.
The journey so far
We bought our home in 1999. It came with an 1980s extension and apart from extending the deck, all the work we have done has involved retrofitting it to reduce our energy use and make it more comfortable.
We started with putting one kilowatt of solar panels on about 15 years ago and added more panels over the years. We now have a 10 kilowatt solar system.
Due to getting the early high feed-in tariff, we have been making money through summer or we’ve been in credit. The solar panels give me a real sense of security. It’s great knowing we're not going to be caught up with whatever happens with energy prices going up and down.
The 1980s extension was always colder in winter and warmer in summer. During lockdown, we pumped insulation into all walls and put a second layer of pink bats in the ceiling and laid them over the existing bats so that all the cracks were blocked. That same year we also double-glazed all the windows on the northern and western side of the house.
The gas ducted heating that came with the house was pre 1980s and isn’t efficient, so we bought a reverse-cycle air conditioning unit and a couple of additional efficient plug-in appliances to make things more comfortable in small rooms.
More recently, we changed over to a heat pump hot water system, installed a battery, and upgraded our gas stove top and 14-year-old oven to an induction stovetop and new electric oven. One of our children has asthma and now Glen gets asthma too, so we wanted to get off gas. The negative health implications associated with cooking with gas meant getting rid of our gas stove became a no brainer.
Our home is now really comfortable, and we don't have to turn on the cooling and heating nearly as often.
What’s on your electrification wish list?
Our next step is to double-glaze the windows for the bedrooms and bathrooms because we still lose some heat through those.
Eventually we’d like to get an EV. We currently have a Holden Commodore, but we don’t use it much because we use our ebikes and standard bikes to cycle everywhere and have such good public transport.
We looked at getting an EV when we bought our current car in 2020, but we want a car we can take on outdoor adventures, so it needs to have a decent range. The cost of EVs is also an issue and there were no second-hand options then. That’s when we decided to get two ebikes – one for Glen and one for me.
I love that I can get dressed for work, hop on my ebike and not be worried about turning up all hot and sweaty. I can lock up almost outside the door and know exactly how long it's going to take every time, regardless of the traffic. It’s so cruisy - it’s awesome.
What advice would you give to other homeowners in Boroondara?
Get lots of information and quotes and plan ahead. Look for subsidies that can bring your costs right down. Consider insulation, gap sealing, heat pump technology, reverse-cycle air conditioners and an induction cooktop. Getting a home energy assessment is really worthwhile and will help you prioritise what changes will have the biggest impact.