NZ reaches Household electrification tipping point

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › NZ reaches Household electrification tipping point

eonsim

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#312174 23-Mar-2024 19:08

An interesting report has recently come out claiming that in NZ electrifying the household has reached a point where it is economically better off than staying with gas + petrol (over a 15 year lifecycle, counting purchasing new appliances/car).

What do people think? Personally we are probably 95% of the way there (lacking household battery and having a PHEV rather than full EV), so little benefit for us. For those who are full on gas (heating, hot water and cooking) plus petrol car, do the number seem to add up?

New Zealand is one of the first countries to reach what’s called the ‘electrification tipping point’, where households can save money and also significantly reduce their emissions by electrifying their appliances and vehicles. On average, homes currently using gas appliances and petrol vehicles could save around $1,500 per year at current interest rates and around $4,500 per year with a low-interest loan if they bought electric equivalents and got their electricity from a combination of rooftop solar, home battery and New Zealand’s already highly renewable grid.

The full report can be found below or from the website: https://www.rewiring.nz/electric-homes-report?downloadreport=1

https://storage.googleapis.com/downloadswebsite/Electric%20Homes%20-%20Rewiring%20Aotearoa%20-%20March%202024.pdf

One of the key images from the report:

1 | 2 | 3

963 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3209950 23-Mar-2024 20:03

All electric here. It’s substantially cheaper than places we were living before.

CYaBro

4582 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#3209953 23-Mar-2024 20:15

Have an EV but still have our Pajero for towing.
Hob is gas but can’t remember the last time we got the 9kg gas bottle refilled.
No solar on the house but I built a small solar system for our shed rather than paying to get power out to it, being about 100M from the house.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

SteveXNZ

59 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3209957 23-Mar-2024 20:23

I can believe it. Previous house in Auckland was gas hob, gas hot water, gas heating, and driving a petrol car. Energy costs were over $1,000 per month. Not to mention the uneasy feeling of burning fossil fuels and all those combustion by-products (CO2, nitrous oxides and particulates) floating around inside and outside the house.

Built a new all-electric house in the Waikato with solar and bought an EV. Energy costs are less than $100/month, and I'm breathing a lot easier. No way I'd go back to fossil fuels - apart from the gas-fired bbq on the patio in case of emergencies. Sure I paid a big chunk in capital costs, but the economics just get better and better over time.

Bung

6477 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#3209988 24-Mar-2024 00:12

Wait until the price of electricity starts climbing. There was a recent report about the Cook Strait cable being end of life and the options ranging between $400M to $3B.

Goosey

2829 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#3209995 24-Mar-2024 06:42

Bung:

Wait until the price of electricity starts climbing. There was a recent report about the Cook Strait cable being end of life and the options ranging between $400M to $3B.

This

The main retailers are mostly the main generators, The grid operator is owned by taxpayers, the lines companies are for most part owned by ratepayers...

People want less taxes and rates, thus the operator and lines companies need to return more profit to service that
Shareholders in the retailers and generators want more returns (those shareholders being investment companies and banks who want the cash).
The infrastructure is definitely aging with respect to the national grid....

eracode

Smpl Mnmlst
8846 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3209998 24-Mar-2024 07:29

SteveXNZ:

I can believe it. Previous house in Auckland was gas hob, gas hot water, gas heating, and driving a petrol car. Energy costs were over $1,000 per month.

That sounds incredibly high. We are ostensibly in an identical energy situation as you - Auckland, gas, petrol etc. Over the past 12 months our combined gas/electricity bill from Genesis averaged $150/month. Our average petrol cost for two-litre, 4-cyl car is $170/month. Total $320 per month.

We are a household of two, retired and in a medium-sized double-glazed house. Maybe you have four kids, a large house, and drove a five-litre V8 with a long commute.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

SteveXNZ

59 posts

Master Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3210002 24-Mar-2024 07:47

eracode:

SteveXNZ:

I can believe it. Previous house in Auckland was gas hob, gas hot water, gas heating, and driving a petrol car. Energy costs were over $1,000 per month.

That sounds incredibly high. We are ostensibly in an identical energy situation as you - Auckland, gas, petrol etc. Over the past 12 months our combined gas/electricity bill from Genesis averaged $150/month. Our average petrol cost for 4-cyl car is $170/month. Total $320 per month.

We are a household of two, retired and in a medium-sized double-glazed house. Maybe you have four kids, a large house, and drove a five-litre V8 with a long commute.

80s multi-level medium-sized townhouse with no energy efficiency. Monthly energy cost averaged $350. Long commute in turbo Forester running 95 octane typically took $700/m. Everyone's situation will vary, but I'm certainly in a lot better position now and would recommend going all-electric with as much efficiency and self-generation as you can afford.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

Jase2985

13457 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3210004 24-Mar-2024 07:51

eracode:

SteveXNZ:

I can believe it. Previous house in Auckland was gas hob, gas hot water, gas heating, and driving a petrol car. Energy costs were over $1,000 per month.

That sounds incredibly high. We are ostensibly in an identical energy situation as you - Auckland, gas, petrol etc. Over the past 12 months our combined gas/electricity bill from Genesis averaged $150/month. Our average petrol cost for two-litre, 4-cyl car is $170/month. Total $320 per month.

We are a household of two, retired and in a medium-sized double-glazed house. Maybe you have four kids, a large house, and drove a five-litre V8 with a long commute.

i wouldnt say incredibly high, maybe higher than average.

We, Family of 4, have a $280-350 per month power bill (all electric), Car 1, 2 tanks of gas at $175 per tank, $350, and car 2, 1 tank per month at $120, total of about $820 per month.

We are frugal with heating and will put more clothes on or sit under a blanket

pih

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3210007 24-Mar-2024 08:50

Family of 7, home is all electric except hot water, no solar. Electricity costs $200-250/mo - we have a very warm house and take advantage of Contact Good Nights. Gas is bottled, costs ~$60/mo as we have short showers. However the killer is fuel for 2 cars and a ride on lawnmower which was an eye watering $1000 last month, higher than normal but yeah, living rural you do a lot of driving just to get anywhere.

Solar plus an EV would be great, but the high cost of an EV is still putting us off, plus we would need something that can tow a large trailer which reduces our options significantly. I've never purchased a car on finance and wouldn't normally do this on principle (depreciating asset), but maybe the savings here start to make it stack up...

eonsim

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3210063 24-Mar-2024 09:45

pih:

Family of 7, home is all electric except hot water, no solar. Electricity costs $200-250/mo - we have a very warm house and take advantage of Contact Good Nights. Gas is bottled, costs ~$60/mo as we have short showers. However the killer is fuel for 2 cars and a ride on lawnmower which was an eye watering $1000 last month, higher than normal but yeah, living rural you do a lot of driving just to get anywhere.

Solar plus an EV would be great, but the high cost of an EV is still putting us off, plus we would need something that can tow a large trailer which reduces our options significantly. I've never purchased a car on finance and wouldn't normally do this on principle (depreciating asset), but maybe the savings here start to make it stack up...

This report is arguing that the savings do stack up even with needing to put it on a mortgage, have a look at the following chart. There is a lot more detail in section 2.1.4 which looks at the various factors related to vehicles. These days there are plenty of EV's that can tow and it's not just the most expensive models. Also in your situation you could potentially change one of the cars to an EV or go for a mix of EV + PHEV (Second hand Outlander?) and get some of the benefit.

As long as one doesn't only use fast commercial fast chargers the EV options look reasonable.

alasta

6701 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#3210067 24-Mar-2024 10:05

It's easy to make generalisations without taking consideration of individual circumstances.

I live alone in a very small modern townhouse, spend relatively little time at home due to work and personal commitments, rarely use my car for local trips, and have no charging facilities in my allocated car park. Replacing my gas appliances and buying an electric car are a totally different economic proposition for me than for a supposedly 'typical' household, whatever that is.

gzt

17104 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#3210073 24-Mar-2024 10:39

Recently replaced gas hob with induction hob. Motivated by increasing cost of gas and health protection and health improvement reasons. Combustion products inside the house are not a great idea. I feel a lot better.

During the selection process I learned a lot about induction hobs. They don't need to consume more power than a standard electric hob.

eonsim

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#3210074 24-Mar-2024 10:41

alasta:

It's easy to make generalisations without taking consideration of individual circumstances.

I live alone in a very small modern townhouse, spend relatively little time at home due to work and personal commitments, rarely use my car for local trips, and have no charging facilities in my allocated car park. Replacing my gas appliances and buying an electric car are a totally different economic proposition for me than for a supposedly 'typical' household, whatever that is.

They are working on an 'average household' 2.8 people and 1.8 cars (got to love averages), if you never use your gas appliances then that will change the picture a bit. It's not going to be applicable to everyone, but going forward if someone in something closer to your situation had a choice between similar townhouses one gas based and the other electric with somewhere to charge a car the later would likely be a better choice financially over the longer term.

Mehrts

1063 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3210079 24-Mar-2024 11:22

The thing that really irks me is the daily charge for natural gas mains. In the Manawatu, you're looking at ~$1.50 per day, however the cost per unit of gas is ~7c/kWh.

During the summer months, I'm paying $45 connection charge for the month, just to use $10 of gas. Winter is a different story though. My usage is right on the threshold of the low & standard gas user rates, so there's no benefit to changing plans.

Since gas is relatively cheap per unit used, it makes sense for higher users of gas. However for smaller households such as mine, it doesn't. If I was starting from scratch with a property, I wouldn't install gas mains.

MadEngineer

4271 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#3210091 24-Mar-2024 12:56

^ we got ours removed from our last house because of that daily charge, ~10 years ago. Sparky that installed our heatpump arranged the disconnect and Genesis Energy arranged for removal of the meter at no cost. They’ll likely charge for that now.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

1 | 2 | 3