Electrify Your Home

Electrify Your Home:  What to Know, Where to Start

To electrify our homes, we need to think about the transition from fossil fuel appliances to electric ones, and we were privileged to have James Williams from Australian Energy Assessments to talk to us about the Residential Efficiency Scorecard which helps to personalise this transition journey. The Residential Efficiency Scorecard assessments, provide households with valuable insights, practical recommendations and meaningful steps to improve energy performance and create a more efficient home.

Why use the Residential Efficiency Scorecard you ask?, well, it gives you:

  • a efficiency star rating for your home, just like your electrical appliances,
  • a clear pathway to reduce your energy costs and emissions.

The Electrify Your Home journey involves transitioning to electricity for all energy needs and includes heating, cooling, cooking, and powering appliances. The goal is to create a more sustainable and efficient home environment with benefits in:

  • cost savings: switching to electric appliances can save on energy bills.
  • environmental impact: reduce our carbon emissions generated in/by the home.

The interactive seminar answered many audience questions which can be summarised into the following steps that one would take:

Assess the current home setup: Identify which appliances and systems can be replaced with electric alternatives, such as heat pumps for hot water, heating and cooling, induction stoves for cooking, batteries for storage and solar panels for generation, insulation and even draft proofing, all in a language that is understandable by us mere mortals. Knowledge is power.

Plan the upgrade: Prioritises the steps based on available budget and needs. Consider starting with heating and cooling systems, as they often provide the most immediate savings.

Explore Incentives: Take advantage of available State and Federal credits and rebates. These can significantly reduce the upfront costs.

Use qualified service providers: Experienced professionals will guide you through the installation process and ensure that your upgrades are efficient and effective.

With these steps you can successfully electrify your home, leading to more sustainable and cost-effective energy usage.

Reach out to Australian Energy Assessments on 1300 241 149 or the website https://ausenergyassessments.com/book-an-assessment and book your free Residential Efficiency Scorecard assessment.

 Chris Colavizza, Seminar Convener

How to Enrol

On-line: after bookings have opened

On-line enrolments are preferred as this significantly reduces the amount of back-office work for our volunteers.

  • Login to the U3APP.org.au website.
  • Go to the Courses & Enrolling page.
  • Scroll down to find the course that you are interested in.
  • Does the course have spaces available?
    • Click on the course name to go to the booking page.
    • Click on “Book for this course or event”.
    • You will receive a confirmation email.  Please check your Junk/Spam folders as these automatically-generated emails often finish up there.
  • OR is the course shown as FULL?
    • Click on WAITLIST.

Paper Enrolment Form: before bookings open for First Semester

  • Obtain a paper Enrolment Form either from the Office or by printing an online copy available here.
  • Complete the paper Enrolment Form and submit it to the Office.

The start date for acceptance of paper Enrolment Forms for first semester is published on the U3APP website and in the e-Bulletin. Enrolment Forms received before this date are treated as though they had been received on the start date (ie there is no advantage to be gained by submitting early). On the start date and thereafter, paper Enrolment Forms are numbered in order of receipt.  Paper Enrolment forms are processed by U3APP volunteers on the same day as on-line bookings.

If your enrolment is successful, you will receive a confirmation email.  Please check your Junk/Spam folders as these automatically-generated emails often finish up there.

If your enrolment is unsuccessful,  you will receive an email telling you that you have been waitlisted.

Via the Office: after bookings have opened

  • Contact the office in person, or by email or phone.