{"id":579188,"date":"2026-04-01T19:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/579188\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:45:12","slug":"home-battery-rebates-and-soaring-diesel-costs-bring-electrification-to-the-masses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/579188\/","title":{"rendered":"Home battery rebates and soaring diesel costs bring electrification to the masses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What does it take to make a petrol-head tradie curious about home electrification?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cabinet maker Matt Imlach says the extra $500 a month in diesel costs will do it \u2013 when combined with the federal home battery rebate and the real possibility of going just a little bit off-grid.<\/p>\n

Imlach designed and built his family\u2019s Frankston, Victoria, home in 2022 with a view to electrification: a roof angled just so and sized for maximum solar capacity that will heat a spa and a future electric vehicle (EV), double glazing even on the curved windows and thermal blankets in the ceiling, and all-electric heating.<\/p>\n

But after more than a year of humming and hawing over installing solar, it was only this week that the whole vision made sense.<\/p>\n

That was when he saw the size of the dent the federal battery rebate is making to the total cost of a 12 kilowatt (kW) solar system and a 33 kilowatt hour (kWh) battery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe utopian situation is you have solar, a battery, you have at least one electric car, and then you can be self-sufficient with power,\u201d he told Renew Economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really considering the whole electrification thing generally.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll keep the gas on our house, literally just for the cooktop because I love cooking with gas, but the continuous gas hot water I\u2019m happy to make that electric once we\u2019re all set up with solar.\u201d<\/p>\n

War, rebates make electrification relevant again<\/p>\n

Imlach is one of the next wave of Australians who are catching the electrification bug \u2013 they love their gas cooktop and V8, but can see the benefits of solar, batteries and EVs as a second car.<\/p>\n

Smart Commercial Solar managing director Huon Hoogesteger says the Iran war has pushed people who were indifferent, as well as those who were ideologically opposed, into taking a serious look at home electrification.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people who were resistant to renewables, particularly EVs, were doing so as a push back not against the technology itself but what it means. And that resistance now has been superseded by something much bigger than that,\u201d he told Renew Economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor them, it\u2019s now about sovereignty and national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s made the big capital investments of solar and batteries, the ones that catalyse those other decisions such as buying an EV, relevant for people like Imlach who put off the decision when feed-in-tariffs began their precipitous fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubt that this Iran war will do more for the renewable energy industries in Australia and catalyse more investment in electrification than any rebate, and be more enduring than any rebate,\u201d Hoogesteger says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By this week, 300,000 households<\/a> had used the federal battery rebate scheme, with many more expected to flood in ahead of changes scheduled for the start of May when the rebate for batteries larger than 14 kW will be cut. <\/p>\n

Battery installer VoltX Energy said today that inquiries for both home batteries and solar are up 200 per cent in the last fortnight, partly due to the May deadline and partly due to fears about the Iran war oil price surge spilling over into other energy costs.<\/p>\n

And last week, Carsales released its search data and said queries for EVs tripled between February and March, with the popular brands being BYD, Tesla, Polestar, Zeekr and Geely.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that electrifying the home cuts bills, as organisations from IEEFA (about $1,200 annually<\/a>), to Rewiring Australia (up to $4100 a year if you add an EV<\/a>), to the Grattan Institute (bills can halve)<\/a> have modelled the cost savings.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s taken petrol and diesel prices at eyewatering levels and the federal rebate reducing by a third the cost of a home battery, to create the push factors to encourage the indifferent \u2013 and the resistant \u2013 to try electrification out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By the end of February this year, Clean Energy Regulator data showed South Australia and Queensland were still leading solar installations, with 56 and 53 per cent of households respectively.<\/p>\n

They are followed by Western Australia, the ACT, NSW \u2014 even though as the most populous state it is the second highest by number of installations \u2014 Victoria, the Northern Territory and Tasmania.<\/p>\n

Family EV the next step after solar<\/p>\n

Electrifying family cars is the next step after the solar-battery investment \u2013 Hoogesteger says his landcruiser-driving sister-in-law bought an EV last week.<\/p>\n

The landcruiser was costing $400 a tank to fill, and their local Ampol petrol station in Dural, New South Wales (NSW), has not had fuel for more than a week.<\/p>\n

Imlach is now seriously looking at swapping the family car in the next two years to electric.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a huge petrol head. So I\u2019ve had plenty of V8s, I\u2019ve got a super bike that I ride at Phillip Island, and I love the noise and the power and all that sort of stuff,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m also a bit of a data guy, and you can\u2019t really argue when it comes to bills. You can\u2019t really argue with electric cars if you can get your house independent from the electrical grid.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for a work car, he needs something that can do a lot of kms in a week and carry a lot of stuff. He\u2019s hanging out for an electric ute that can match his Ranger Wildtrack.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I\u2019m a tradesman and I need a dual cab \u2013 for carrying tools, carrying materials, having a trailer and also dropping off and picking the kids up from school \u2013 I\u2019m kind of limited to what kind of vehicle I can use for work,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Imlach seriously looked at an electric Ford Transit last year, until he realised it only had a range of 180 km \u2013 he travels up to 800 km a week between jobs on the Mornington Peninsula and throughout the east of Melbourne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given the options available \u2013 MG\u2019s latest ute<\/a> for example doesn\u2019t have the non-braked towing capacity, Imlach says \u2013 tradies might be the hardest, and in some ways also the easiest cohort of people to convince, says the Smart Energy Council\u2019s Tim Lamacraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cTradies are one of the most electrified cohorts in the country. Their tools are battery powered, solar panels on roof racks, coupled with batteries, running fridges and microwaves, are a common sight,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTradies epitomise the DIY, energy independence ethos that electrification brings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy prediction is that in under 10 years EV vans and utes will be the norm on building sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Matt Imlach, as of today he\u2019s trading in his Ranger for a Byd Shark.<\/p>\n

If you wish to support independent media, and accurate information, please consider making a one off donation or becoming a regular supporter of Renew Economy. Please click here. Your support is invaluable.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What does it take to make a petrol-head tradie curious about home electrification?\u00a0 Cabinet maker Matt Imlach says…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,284011,99,27310,38340,56254],"class_list":{"0":"post-579188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-battery-rebate","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-electric-car","13":"tag-home-battery","14":"tag-rooftop-solar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}