Our house in Torquay
Julian, owner of Bright HelpLast checked 17 October 2026
We moved here in July 2022, with solar already on the roof. Since then we’ve added split systems, an EV, a battery and a spa, and we now use three times the electricity. Our gas and power usage has gone from about $1,800 a year to about $300.
Same house, same family, and we save $1,500 every year. I can help you do the same at yours.
How much we pay for gas and power, per year.
- Electricity
- Gas
We still pay for gas to run the hot water system, and that’s most of what’s left: the cooktop is induction.
Daily supply charges on top, same as every house.
What we changed, and when
- July 2022. We moved in, with solar on the roof, paying about 24c a kWh for the electricity we bought.
- August 2022. We put in a smart charger for the EV, which charges it only from solar we’d otherwise send to the grid. We reckon we paid the equivalent of about $100 of fuel for 12,000 km of driving, for the odd boost at home and public chargers on long trips.
- June 2025. We switched to a plan with free power from 11am to 2pm, so whatever we could shift into those hours cost nothing.
- August 2025. The ducted gas heating came out and split systems went in: a 13 kW multi-head system for our four bedrooms, $5,400 after rebates. They cool the house in summer too, and before that all we had was a few ceiling fans.
- 7 July 2026. A battery went in, about $13,000 after rebates.
- 23 August 2026. The battery’s set-up was fixed: the meter had been counting some of its power as power bought from the grid. Electricity went from costing us $1 to $3 a day to between 2c and $1.
- Along the way, we added a spa. It uses about 10 kWh a day, most of it at midday, when the power is free: that’s when we heat it, and the insulation we added keeps it warm well into the evening.
What it cost, and what it pays back
About $20,000 to take the heating off gas and add a battery, after every rebate: $13,000 for the battery, $5,400 for the split systems, and the rest for the extras that make them work together. The solar was on the roof when we moved in, so it isn’t in that figure.
The split systems should pay back in about five years, and the battery in about nine. Those are my estimates, and we haven’t had the battery for a full year yet.
What’s left
What we still pay for is mostly gas, and the gas is our hot water. The supply charges are now the bigger part of the bill, about $820 a year for the electricity and gas meters together, and the gas one went up 20% in a year. As long as the hot water is on gas, so is the gas supply charge.
Living with it
The house is warmer and drier in winter now, and cooler in summer. We rely a lot less on fossil fuels, which we’re pretty stoked about.