“It doesn’t happen overnight, but once you channel that aspiration and desire to electrify your home into gathering practical information and reaching out to passionate communities for advice, it feels really achievable,” says Meg.
When Meg and her husband Pat were looking to buy their first home – a new-build in an estate located just outside of Geelong – they took out a loan with Bank Australia. “First and foremost, we wanted to find an ethical bank, especially when it came to lending, and so it was just an incredible bonus that they had a very competitive interest rate and all these great options like the Clean Energy Home Loan for eco upgrades and features like Eco Pause,” she says.
Like many first home buyers, Meg and Pat could not afford a custom-build so they settled for a trusted volume builder. This meant that aside from the small changes Pat was able to negotiate in the building plan – including maximising north-facing window orientation for passive heating of the living spaces and double glazing of these windows for thermal efficiency – they otherwise didn’t have much say on how energy efficient their home was. “We pretty much ended up with everything on gas: ducted heating, hot water, and cooktop,” says Meg.
Within three months of moving in they had installed a 6.6kW solar system using a state government rebate. They further channelled their passion for the environment into plant-based, low-waste living, composting and planting out a thriving veggie patch and backyard orchard.
“About a year after moving in, we attended Sustainable House Day in Geelong, which included a seminar called ‘Getting Off Gas’,” says Meg. “It became immediately clear that it’s so much better for our bills, our personal health and the climate to get off gas as soon as possible. So a slow educational process about energy efficiency and electrification began, and the case studies within the seminar gave us greater motivation to set our own ‘getting off gas’ plan into motion.”
A little help from your friends
Meg spent hours reading about home electrification on Facebook groups like My Efficient Electric Home, where she was inspired by enthusiastic community members who had first-hand experience in making the switch. This enabled her and Pat to work out the best and most affordable path to electrification. “Once we had a sense of what we needed to do, in which order we wanted to do it, and how much it would cost, we paid the deposit for the first works and applied for the Eco Pause. Shortly after the works were complete, I applied for the Clean Energy Home Loan for eco upgrades. These products actually made our dream a reality.”
Time to make an Eco Upgrade?
The Bank Australia Eco Upgrade Clean Energy Home Loan offers a reduced home loan rate to owner/occupiers who’ve either completed three or more energy efficient upgrades or improved their residential efficiency in line with the loan criteria. (This involves using the Residential Efficiency Scorecard – see our fact sheet for more info.) “Once we found out about the Clean Energy Home Loan we selected three eligible upgrades that we wanted to make and put them in our ‘getting off gas’ plan,” explains Meg. “We had the Powerpal energy monitoring system installed for free via a state government incentive, then a few months later we installed a highly efficient Daikin Alira reverse cycle air conditioner and top-of-the-range Reclaim Energy hot water heat pump.” It was important to Meg and Pat to buy the highest quality and most efficient electric products currently on the market, to ensure performance and longevity.
While Meg and Pat were fortunate to be able to install both their air conditioner and heat pump at a bulk buy discounted rate through a local home electrification program, it was always going to be the most expensive part of the project. To fit this into their budget, they applied for an Eco Pause on our existing Bank Australia home loan. Much like the home loan Parental Pause available to customers on parental leave, the Eco Pause offers homeowners the chance to take a three-month break (or six-month reduction) in mortgage repayments while they are making sustainable upgrades to their home.
“It was a game changer because we were able to time the purchasing and installation of our first and most expensive works with the Eco Pause; making the whole thing much more affordable and setting us up to achieve our plan to get off gas in 2024,” says Meg. And it was well worth it in terms of comfort. “The solar-boosted gas hot water system that came with our build was just terrible – it wasted huge amounts of water while heating up,” Meg explains.
Walking the walk
With another reverse cycle air conditioner and induction cooktop in their plan, Meg and Pat aim to have disposed of their gas metre entirely by the end of the year. The pair’s slow and steady approach, coupled with a realistic budget (and a bit of help from Bank Australia), has been the key to realising this extraordinary goal.
“We wanted to invest in the longevity of the house by future-proofing it, while reducing our fossil fuel footprint and ensuring we would have much cheaper energy bills well into the future,” says Meg. “While it takes some time, this has been a really lovely project to be working on together. I have learned a lot, and feel proud taking ownership and accountability for the energy footprint of our home. Our home truly is a reflection of us and our values. Sometimes it feels like we’re just an individual with not much power to create change – but this project has helped me further realise what good we can do, just in how we choose to live.”
Interested in a more sustainable home? Learn more about Bank Australia’s Clean Energy Home Loan here.
