Going all-electric in a Melbourne home

There's plenty of loose talk about gas being banned. For an existing home you own and live in, the rule is narrower. From 1 March 2027, a gas hot water appliance that breaks and can't be repaired must be replaced with an electric alternative. Gas space heating and gas cooktops can stay, although the Victorian Government encourages owners to switch to lower their energy bills.

New homes and rentals are held to more. Homes needing a planning permit have had to be all-electric since 1 January 2024, and from 1 January 2027 all new homes must be built all-electric. From 1 March 2027, a rental's hot water or heating appliance that breaks and can't be repaired must be replaced with a heat pump water heater or an efficient electric reverse cycle air conditioner in the main living area.

The regulations list exceptions to the hot water rule, including where there isn't enough space, or where fitting a non-gas water heater would need an alteration to the main switchboard or a distribution board. That's no reason to leave an old board alone. Your heating and cooking plans will probably lean on it too.

Walk around the house and list every gas appliance with its rough age: hot water, heating, the cooktop or oven, and any gas log fire, plumbed-in barbecue or pool heater.

The ages set the order. Whatever is likely to wear out first is usually the first thing to replace. In the post-war brick veneers and weatherboards of Altona and Laverton, that's often a storage hot water unit outside and a space heater in the lounge. In the newer estates of Point Cook, Tarneit and Truganina, it's more often ducted gas, a continuous-flow unit on an outside wall and a gas cooktop.

The common mistake is treating each appliance as its own job. A heat pump water heater, reverse-cycle heating, an induction cooktop and perhaps an EV charger all land on the same switchboard and the same connection to the street. One at a time, each looks fine. Together on a cold evening, with dinner on and the heating running, it's a different picture. Have the assessment done against the finished house, even if the work is spread over years.

Older homes can have a small single-phase supply, and the wire from the pole to the switchboard may need upgrading before everything goes electric. Often that means a larger single-phase connection. Three-phase makes sense when the finished house has big combined loads, such as a large ducted system, more than one EV charger or a workshop, so total up the plan before choosing.

If the board is replaced, Energy Safe Victoria's guidance says the Wiring Rules require RCDs on all final sub-circuits, and power can't go back onto a new main switchboard until a licensed electrical inspector has inspected the work. Ask how the inspection will be arranged before you book. Doing this once, up front, beats two outages.

Hot water is the appliance most likely to force your hand. It's the one the 2027 rule covers, and it rarely gives notice. A gas unit that dies on a winter morning after 1 March 2027 means an electric replacement in a hurry, and possibly switchboard work squeezed into the same rushed job.

Choosing while the old unit still works gives you time to compare systems, check the switchboard and settle where the outdoor unit goes.

A heat pump water heater needs a suitable circuit, and Energy Safe Victoria notes the Wiring Rules require every final sub-circuit in a home, the hot water service included, to be RCD protected. The outdoor unit has a compressor and fan, so keep it away from bedroom windows, yours and the neighbours'. Capping the gas line is gasfitting work, which Energy Safe Victoria says is illegal for unlicensed people to do.

Victorians typically use more energy for heating than cooling, so the Victorian Government suggests looking for a unit with higher heating efficiency. Reverse-cycle air conditioners move heat rather than make it, and Australian Government guidance puts them at 300% to 600% efficient. Ducted systems are less efficient than wall units, but still more cost-efficient than gas heating.

The Zoned Energy Rating Label puts Melbourne in its Cold zone, where performance in frosting conditions below 5.5°C is critical to a unit's overall performance. July's mean minimum at the Bureau of Meteorology's Laverton station is 5.2 °C, so that's no edge case out here. Compare the Cold zone heating figures, not whichever number the brochure leads with.

Heating stages well. A ducted gas home can go to ducted reverse-cycle in one step, or add split systems to the living areas first and keep the gas ducting as a backup for a winter or two. While any gas heater stays in service, Energy Safe Victoria recommends a qualified gasfitter services it at least every two years, including a test for carbon monoxide leakage. It also warns that weather-sealing a home with an open-flued gas heater may alter the ventilation needed to clear carbon monoxide.

An induction cooktop usually needs its own circuit, sized for the exact model. It's a smaller electrical job than heating or hot water, but it tangles with benchtops, cabinetry and the gas line, so plenty of households leave it for the kitchen renovation.

Once the cooktop is the only gas appliance left, keeping a gas connection for one appliance starts to look like poor value. That's often what prompts the last step.

Keep each gas appliance working until its replacement is chosen and booked. Pull out a working heater or cooktop early and you can be without it for longer than you'd think, especially if switchboard work has to happen first.

Keep the paperwork together. Whenever a licensed electrician completes electrical installation work, they must give you a Certificate of Electrical Safety, and that includes air conditioning and hot water work.

Call once you have your list and want to know what the house can carry. Our electricians check the switchboard, the supply and every load in your plan, then tell you plainly whether the board copes, needs changes or needs a bigger connection first. You get a staged plan, with the price for each stage before we start.

As one local team for electrical, heating and cooling, we can handle the board, the heat pump water heater, reverse-cycle heating and the induction circuit. Gas disconnections need a licensed gasfitter, and we'll show where that fits in the sequence. If keeping gas a little longer makes sense, we'll say so.