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Health danger to kids if we keep using gas
The Eastern Melburnian has written about the health risks of household gas. The story includes a mention of our move off gas here in Emerald, along with our own unflattering photo of Tom. The angle is health rather than cost. It quotes Australian modelling from 2018 that attributed 12.3 per cent of childhood asthma to gas cooking, and a 2013 study that found children in a home with gas cooking were 42 per cent more likely to develop asthma. About 80 per cent of Victorian homes still have gas piped in. https://www.easternmelburnian.com.au/p/kids-asthma-coalition-one-nation-gas-plans
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A month of cooking on induction
We have cooked on gas and on electric elements for years. This is our first month with a Westinghouse full induction cooktop in place of the gas. We had trialled induction on a small scale first. We bought a portable hotplate last year (also Westinghouse), as a spare in our kitchen — on the bench at home, and in the back of the car on road trips. Induction still gets confused with the electric cooking most people remember, a metal hotplate or a coil glowing red, sometimes under glass. Induction works differently — it makes the pan itself the heating element, so nearly all the energy goes into the pan rather than into the kitchen, and the glass beside the pan stays cool enough to rest a hand on. Here is what a month of it has been like. What stands out is how fast and how responsive it is. It comes on instantly, goes off instantly, and changes power the moment you ask. It boils faster than the gas did. CHOICE's testing has induction boiling a litre of water in about half the time gas…
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Did going all-electric cause our mould?
We spent 2025 and 2026 getting off gas — heat pump hot water, a multi-head air conditioner replacing the ducted gas heater, and finally an induction cooker. Then we found mould on the bed slats. Was it due to electrification? We first found this same mould, on these same slats, in December 2024 — fourteen months before the air conditioners went in, while the gas ducted heater was still doing all the heating. Whatever causes it was here first, and it was here while the gas was. Gas cooking turns out to actually make it worse. Burning gas makes water: roughly 1.6 kilograms of water vapour for every cubic metre burnt. That is on top of the water coming out of the food or boiling water, which happens whatever you cook on. Going induction removed the extra moisture. Not to mention the benzene, which is a known carcinogen. What did change is the ventilation. The old ducted system leaked, and those leaks quietly brought in outside air. Reverse-cycle doesn't leak. Better heating, staler air.…
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Off the gas for good
91.16 cents a day for a pipe we no longer used. Cancelling it took a chatbot, a $9.13 fee, and a question about whether the house was being demolished.
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Rebate for replacing our gas stove
The rebate is worth about $200. I'll get $120. You cannot claim it yourself — and the app only accepts documents from your phone's photo gallery.
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Installing our induction stove
The crew arrived at seven. By lunchtime the gas was capped, the old Smeg was gone, and 40 amps of new circuit ran from the switchboard to the kitchen.
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Quotes to install an oven and induction cooktop
I thought connecting an oven was an afternoon and a few hundred dollars. The first quote was $3,014 — so I went looking to understand why it's such a big job.
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Oven bought in March, arrived in July
The docket said “ETA 3 weeks”. It took 106 days, six phone calls, and an oven posted back to the warehouse because nobody read the email saying hold it.
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Our last gas appliance
Our Smeg 90cm oven and cooktop. We’re replacing it with a Westinghouse 90cm oven and induction cooktop, from The Good Guys. Then we can finally get off the gas.
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Does size matter? Tesla Model Y vs YL.
A six-seat Tesla Model YL turned up at the Worldwide Light Show meet — parked right next to our red Y, captain's chairs and all. Tesla had loaned it to Garry from TOCA (Tesla Owners Club of Australia), Victoria for a few days to bring along to events like this one, so we got to climb all over it before the show started! Likes: - The captain's chair armrests in the second row — cleaner than the bench in our Y. - The sub-trunk lid that magnetically clings to the back of the seat when you flip it up. Lovely bit of engineering. - V2L! We would love to have vehicle to load on our EV, like most models now have. If only we could cook food on our induction cooktop, while camping, from the massive battery in the car. The Tesla Model Y L and new Model Y Performance both have V2L. Unsure: - Six seats vs our five. The third row is tight — elevated floor, very little leg room. I had to stick a leg out into the aisle just to half-fit. Climbing in and out takes some practice. - The captain's-chair…
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Goodbye gas — disconnecting the ducted heating
Goodbye gas! I finally organised disconnecting the ducted gas heating at our home. If only we could see the burnt gas pouring into the air, all the time, and not just when the condensation highlights it (as in the photos). Pumping carcinogens and greenhouse gases into the air that we breathe. It’s nuts. It was costing us up to $528 per month to run the heating in winter. Our replacement air conditioning will be closer to free, thanks to our solar and battery. We recently also replaced our gas hot water with a heat pump. Our one remaining gas appliance is our stove top. Once that’s gone, we will save $35 per month just for the connection fee. And no more gas! We’re replacing the gas heating with some split air conditioners. For those who might say “what about in a blackout”? Note the power point connection on the old gas heating. Our old gas hot water heat pump had one too. They both needed electricity to run. In fact, in addition the gas consumed, the heating used about 1kW of…
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Savic test rides through the Dandenongs
While driving in our town of Emerald to get some Emerald Thai for dinner, I did a double take when I saw a Savic Motorcycles sign, randomly on the footpath. It turns out that they were running test rides today “winding through the beautiful Dandenong Ranges”. What a great idea! Test drives at dealerships and even EV shows tend to be within urban sprawls, which doesn’t offer much of a driving or riding experience. We’ve seen Savic at a few EV shows, including the recent Everything Electric in Melbourne (pictured). I wish I had known it was on, and that we weren’t recovering from a cold right now. Hopefully next time. Savic is an Australian company building electric motorcycles.
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Heat pump installation
We finally got around to installing a hot water heat pump, to replace our gas hot water system. We were paying about $40 per month for our instant gas hot water (plus $40 connection fee). Now we’re paying nothing, because the heat pump is just using our excess solar power. Without solar, I estimate it would be costing us $8 per month to power it from the electricity grid. There are a few incentive schemes around to replace gas (or other old inefficient systems) with a heat pump. An installer will factor these into their quote. The subsidies can be significant. In our case, the total price was $4480, but it was reduced to $1650 for us to pay, after subsidies were subtracted. A hot water heat pump uses the same principle as an air conditioner (which is also a heat pump). It “pumps” heat from one side to the other. In this case, it pumps heat from the outside air into the tank of water. The basic physics is that when you compress air in a confined space, it gets hot, and when you expand…
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Final day at Everything Electric Melbourne
Starting and ending with Jack Scarlett. Test drives, a panel talk about road tripping, EV conversions, and a flux capacitor, some of the highlights.
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Snapshots from Everything Electric Melbourne
Some random shots from Everything Electric Melbourne today. After a few years in Sydney, this is their first showing in Melbourne. It’s noticeably smaller, but understandable for the first appearance. Interesting panel talks. Informative staff at product booths. Huge variety of test drives available, including self driving Tesla cars. A few food truck offerings. They need more undercover seating (from sun or rain). We recommend the falafel wraps.
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Why we ordered a Model Y 'Juniper' launch edition
Back in January, we took the plunge and ordered a new Tesla Model Y “Juniper” launch edition. “Ultra Red”, white interior, 20” wheels (which was the only option for the launch edition). We chose the same battery and drive as our Model 3: RWD (rear wheel drive), LFP battery (no nickel or cobalt), 0 to 100km/h in 5.9s. The main reason for the upgrade is for the greater ease of getting in and out of the car, which has been increasingly painful on Fran’s arthritic hips. As those of you who follow our Tesla Tripping blog will know, we have looked at and test driven quite a lot of other options. The best contender was the XPeng G6. In the end we stuck with the Tesla Model Y because of the huge storage space, driving performance and the tech. The Tesla app has guided us through the whole process up to now, with registration, trade-in, insurance. Today is delivery day. The final `Start` button is still disabled in the app. I’m guessing it will enable at exactly 3pm, when we’re at Tesla…
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Kia EV6 vs Tesla Model Y, test drive
Feb 1: Test drive of a Kia EV6. Forgive the dust in the photos. Highlights, comparing to Tesla Model Y: - Good acceleration. Handles okay. - More physical buttons (good or bad, depending on preference). - Manual, not auto, adjusting steering column. - Much less storage. - Smaller main screen. Blind spot camera is on an additional smaller screen, behind the steering wheel … in a blind spot! At least, I couldn’t get a good view of it, which defeats the purpose. - HUD (heads up display) was a new discovery for me. It’s terrific to see your speed within the field of view of the windscreen. - 240V V2L outlet in the car, which is great. Apple Car Play. Missing in a Tesla.
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Our 25-minute Model Y 'Juniper' test drive
Our first (and only) test drive of the new Tesla Model Y “Juniper”, at Tesla Mulgrave. We only had 25 minutes in the car, which isn’t much to fully test it. Not enough time to drive to some winding country roads, but we did manage to find a tightly curved on-ramp to a highway. Driving at speed around it, we definitely noticed more body roll compared to our sportier Model 3. This did freak out my passengers. They also found the acceleration more noticeable in the back seat, which seems to tilt down. Tim described the acceleration as prolapsing his sphincter. The Model Y absorbs bumps much better, finding a good median between sport and comfort. This new model has the same acceleration as our Model 3, 0 to 100km/h in 6s., one second faster than the previous Model Y. This is the RWD (rear wheel drive) model, standard range, not the AWD long range. We prefer the RWD because it has an LFP battery, which has no nickel or cobalt, and a longer life span. It’s also cheaper. But slower…
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XPeng G6 — second test drive
We took another test drive of an XPENG G6, this time from a new dealership in Berwick, Victoria, which is closer to us. Nice interior, comfy seats, great tech. The handling wasn’t bad on some windy roads, but not as sporty as the Tesla Model Y. Disappointing storage. The auto driving hesitated quite a bit around bends. The lack of full stop on one pedal driving is annoying, but they will reportedly solve that in a few weeks via an OTA (over the air) software update. The G6 includes auto parking and lane change, which costs extra in a Tesla. It has vehicle to load, but it requires some adapter plug into the external charge port, which wasn’t available. We had a chance to play with Apple CarPlay, which is great to have. But the XPeng doesn't seem to support pinch and zoom in Apple Maps, which makes it very limited. Acceleration was terrible (doesn’t move for a second), until I turned in “launch mode”. I couldn’t figure out how to enable launch mode and regenerative braking (x-pedal) at…
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XPeng G6 — first look at the Everything Electric Show
The Xpeng G6 is a strong competition against the Tesla Model Y. We viewed both at The Everything Electric Show (Everything Electric) in Sydney. A few weeks earlier, we took a G6 for a test drive at the XPENG Port Melbourne showroom (also pictured). The Xpeng G6 and Tesla Model Y both have great tech, great efficiency, ventilated and heated front seats. The G6 doesn’t have frunk storage, has small subtrunk storage, smaller boot, no glovebox, but has a bit more rear passenger room and probably more comfy seats. It has Apple Maps and Vehicle to Load (V2L). It is $10k cheaper, but requires paid regular servicing and and has longer warranty. It includes auto lane change (extra purchase on the Tesla). The Tesla has faster acceleration, sportier handling, one pedal driving comes to a full stop without the brake, and has more fast charging options. It has a screen for rear passengers and powered rear seat folding. It has much more storage overall, including huge sub trunk, boot and frunk. It…
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Hyundai Ioniq 5 test drive
Ioniq 5 test drive. Sporty handling and acceleration. Nice interior. More physical buttons than Tesla (which may be good or bad). Felt smaller on the inside. At slightly higher cost than a Tesla Model Y, it seemed to be less value.
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Hyundai Kona: a quick look
Continuing our look at EV options. The Hyundai Kona. Good price. Small. But they somehow manage to fit it a spare wheel. We didn’t test drive it.
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EVs and conversions at the Off-Grid Festival
Many electric vehicles at the Off-Grid Living Festival this weekend, in the Border Regional Electrification Events area. New cars from Tesla, MG, Hyundai and others. Test drives on site. We spotted a few converted cars including a VW Beatle and a Mini. A Zero motorcycle. Dozens of electric mowers from small to huge. The place of huge!
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First delivery to the new home
Our first delivery to our new house – a congrats savoury box from The Hamper Emporium from Mortgage Choice in Tumbi Umbi. Thank you John and Amanda. What a nice surprise 😋 . John sorted out the loan for our previous house in Saratoga NSW, and now this one in Emerald Victoria. It’s been a long road, figuratively and literally. We packed up and left our old home on December 1 last year. We’ve been road tripping most of the time since then, and hope to finally move into our new home in a couple of weeks. We didn’t intend to take that long to find a new house. Our “pre approved” home loan with ING turned out to require additional financial info, which was difficult to do while we were on the road. I recall voicing our frustrations over the phone while driving through some country road out the back of nowhere. In any case, that pre approval expired after six months and banks started limiting new pre approvals to just three months. I’m not sure how they expected buyers to find a home in…
Formerly: Tesla Tripping
Come along on our EV road trips around Australia and Europe, and follow as we progressively electrify our home in Emerald, Victoria.
Join us on the road. We set off in late 2022 and drove eastern Australia in our Tesla Model 3 — Sydney, Dubbo, Armidale, Brisbane, Cape Tribulation, then down through Queensland and back. We've since upgraded to a Model Y.
We've kept exploring — Uluru, the Snowy Mountains and Gippsland, and a longer run through Europe in 2024. There's plenty more on the map, so come along for the next leg.
At home in Emerald, in Victoria's Dandenong Ranges, we're progressively electrifying everything: rooftop solar, a home battery, a hot water heat pump, air conditioned heating and cooling, and EV charging straight from the sun. We're going fully electric, off the gas.
Got questions, or insights of your own? We'd love to hear them — please drop a comment on any post.