Getting off gas: the right order to do it

Most homes going all-electric do it piece by piece as appliances die. Which is fine, except the order matters enormously. Do it wrong and each installer reworks what the last one did.

The rule: capacity first, appliances second, solar third

Every electric appliance replacing a gas one needs a circuit, and the big three, heat pump hot water, induction cooktop, reverse-cycle heating. Are substantial loads. If your switchboard is already full, each new appliance triggers its own scramble.

Sorting the board first, once, with the whole plan in mind, means every appliance after that is a straightforward connection.

Step 1: Assess the switchboard against the full plan

Not "can it take a cooktop". "can it take a cooktop, hot water, heating, and eventually a car charger and battery." That's a different answer, and it's the one that saves you money. A board laid out with spare ways and adequate protection costs marginally more than a minimum-compliance one and saves a full second upgrade later.

Step 2: Hot water — usually the biggest win

Hot water is typically the largest gas load in the house. A heat pump hot water system runs at roughly a quarter of the energy of resistive electric, and paired with solar it's close to free. It's also the appliance most likely to fail at the worst moment, so replacing it on your terms beats an emergency swap.

Step 3: Cooking

Induction is faster than gas, more controllable, and doesn't vent combustion products into your kitchen. It needs a dedicated circuit, usually 32A, which is exactly why Step 1 matters.

Step 4: Heating and cooling

Reverse-cycle split systems or ducted units replace gas heating and give you cooling in the same box. Bigger installs may need three-phase or careful load management, which again comes back to the board.

Step 5: Disconnect the gas

Here's the bit people miss: while the gas connection exists, you're paying the daily supply charge whether you use gas or not. Over a year that's real money for a service you've stopped using. Once every gas appliance is gone, abolishing the connection stops that charge for good.

Step 6: Solar and battery (or plan for them)

An all-electric home with solar is where the economics get genuinely good, you're generating what you now run on. Even if solar's years away, having the board laid out for it now costs almost nothing.

The staged approach

Most people can't do it all at once, and that's fine. What matters is that the plan exists before the first appliance changes. We'll map the whole changeover for your house, what needs doing, in what order, roughly what each stage costs, even if you're spreading it over a couple of years.

That assessment is free, and there's no obligation to do any of it with us.