The couple bought their 1970s brick veneer home, built by architect Graeme Gunn, in 2000.
“They were built in the ’60s and ’70s where insulation was not a thing and there’s glass everywhere,” Mulhauser said.
Julie Mulhauser in her energy-efficient kitchen in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.Credit: Justin McManus
“It was all single [glazed] glass, and the glass didn’t quite fit the frames. My husband used to joke that the cockroaches didn’t even have to duck their heads to come in.”
Mulhauser said the principles of improving a home’s thermal performance with insulation in the ceilings and walls, upgrading windows and fixing gaps applied to every home: “It just can be more or less difficult.”
Having driven their annual energy bills down to $300 a year, Mulhauser said she couldn’t put a price on the improvements to comfort and warmth within their home.
“We simply could not heat our home to a point that we were comfortable … The major benefit is the comfort and health benefits. And then if you do it in a particular way, so you get it all working together, you make really significant cost savings.”
On a more modest level, Electrify Boroondara committee member Philippa Sholl has added insulation, draught-proofing, solar panels and secondary glazing to her Kew home.
While she waits to replace her gas cooktop with induction, she has placed wooden covers over the cooktop and uses portable induction units to cook from daily. “There are all kinds of workarounds,” she said.
The main benefit had been switching to reverse-cycle air-conditioners, running off solar during the day, and bolstered by better insulation, Sholl said.
“Heating our house used to be roughly $30 a day [during winter] in gas in the current prices ... probably in winter now we’re spending about a couple of dollars on the cold days when we run it longer.”
Report author senior climate and energy adviser Kat Lucas-Healey said 27 per cent of Victorian homes already had reverse-cycle split systems that weren’t being used to heat the home.
If households stopped relying on gas to heat these homes and used the split system instead, they could cut their annual energy bills by between half and two-thirds with no upfront investment, Lucas-Healey said.
“Efficient electric homes are cheaper to run, healthier and more comfortable.
“Gas space heating is an old technology that accounts for a massive 71 per cent of residential gas use in Victoria. It’s an incredible waste, wildly expensive and a disaster for the climate.”
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