As communities Australia-wide grapple with rising energy and living costs, a new study from New Energy Thinking demonstrates the enormous cumulative savings of living in an efficient all-electric “Cape home” compared to an average “dual fuel” new home built in conventional estates around Australia.
The results? Households are saving $115 per week, or $293,600 over 25 years, on running costs by living in highly energy-efficient homes that are beautiful and comfortable in the cold of winter and heat of summer and switching from an internal combustion engine vehicle to an electric vehicle.
Conventional homes saddle homeowners with gas, electricity and petrol bills totalling more than $7,400 per annum, while Cape homes at the 230-lot Cape solar-powered community, coupled with long-range electric vehicles, cost only $1,417 per year to run; nearly $6,000 in savings per year per household. The whole estate is on track to be saving $1 million per annum in energy and petrol bills compared to a conventional estate of the same size.
How is this being achieved?
Passive solar design
Homes at The Cape are averaging 8-star energy efficiency, which is a national first. This means the homes have all the elements of good passive solar design, including excellent insulation, shading, double glazing, thermal mass, orientation and cross flow ventilation. Homes are designed to be “sun catchers” in winter, inviting the winter sun into living areas where it warms up polished concrete floors.
In summertime the reverse occurs, with shading protecting the home from the hot summer sun. The results? Homes stay naturally cool in winter and warm in summer, rarely deviating from a comfortable 18-25 degree range.
Cape resident, John Godfrey says, “You don’t understand how comfortable a sustainable home is until you actually live in one.” The Cape also requires that all homes are blower door pressure tested to ensure that they are well sealed and insulated and that residents get what they pay for.
Efficient all electric homes powered by solar
The Cape is Australia’s most advanced efficient all electric community. All homes have solar power, with new systems averaging solar systems above 6kW, and homes have state of the art efficient all-electric fit out. This includes high performance induction cooktops for cooking, as well as reverse cycle split systems for heating and cooling, and heat pump hot water.
Heat pump heating, cooling and hot water is highly efficient, using a fraction of the energy of gas heating and cooling, and the combination of a passive solar home, gas free fit out and efficient all electric heating, cooling and hot water and induction cooking has the effect of eliminating gas bills altogether for a conventional gas electric home. Some of the residents at The Cape have close to zero energy bills.
The Electric Vehicle revolution has arrived at the Cape
While the number of households in Australia with electric vehicles sits at under 1%, more than 30% of homes at The Cape community are paired with electric vehicles, a national first. All homes are wired to allow for ease of electric vehicle charging at home, and many residents charge their cars on surplus solar energy being generated on their own rooftops. Household charging is complemented by a community-owned EV fast charger in the visitor’s carpark.
This combination creates a very large saving for Cape households. Residences with the four pillars of solar power, efficient all-electric fit-out, passive solar design, and an electric car are saving over $5000 per annum. Residents are also finding that EVs have very low servicing costs as well, as electric motors are a simpler design than internal combustion engines with far fewer moving parts and maintenance requirements, further reducing costs. The report assumes similar total annual servicing costs for a Toyota Rav4 (ICE) and Tesla Model Y (EV) due to more expensive tyres according to the RACV.
Cape resident John Godfrey has adopted the winning formula of an energy-efficient solar-powered home with a home battery, efficient all-electric fit-out and electric vehicle, and is enjoying the “crazily high” savings. John has seen his energy bills plummet from his previous home paired with an internal combustion engine car in Melbourne, where the combined bills were more than $6,700 per annum, to less than $500 per annum at The Cape for the combination of house and car.
“I love the convenience of plugging in at home, as well as the effortless comfort of the house and the higher performance of the electric vehicle. Our annual energy bills are paltry, and this results in significant money saved in our household budget each year.”
John’s experience with their electric vehicle further underscores the financial benefits. Traveling approximately 25,000 km in his EV over the past year has cost approximately $300. This assumes that all of his household’s annual electricity bill of $150 reflects EV use, with the other $150 coming from EV charger costs during trips to Tasmania and Canberra. In contrast, driving the same distance in a petrol-fuelled car would have cost around $3,700, saving him around $3,400 a year.
During the winter months, John was paying more than $9 per day at his residence in south-east Melbourne for gas for heating, hot water, and a gas cooktop combined with electricity. Now at The Cape, John’s household enjoys seeing tiny electricity bills, with credits every month apart from the depths of winter, despite having an EV.
The super bill busting homes at the Cape are providing good real-life examples for expert groups such as Rewiring Australia, led by scientist Saul Griffith. In their report “Savings in the Suburbs”, Rewire Australia estimate that the implementation of these initiatives in all 8 million Australian homes would result in savings to Australian households of $40 billion per annum by 2030, which is a very positive initiative to tackle the Australia wide cost of living crunch happening right now for Australian communities, while slashing Australia’s carbon emissions.
Saul Griffith says, “Electrification is the technology available now that will reduce your emissions and energy bills at the same time. “Households will be the heroes of this energy transition and have the most to benefit from an electrified future – healthier homes, better appliances and lower energy bills.”
A call to action
Brendan Condon, Director, The Cape said, “The Cape community has achieved very high standards in energy efficiency, solar power, clean transport, water efficiency and serious local food production. The community generates far more clean energy than it produces on an annual basis and has eliminated most energy bills. This Report backs up what residents have been telling us for quite a while now that the savings are enormous! Given we have so many electric vehicles, we are excited by vehicle to grid charging from electric vehicles allowing residents to access stored energy within EV batteries in future, for energy security during power outages. The numbers speak for themselves, Cape homes make sense and save more than just cents.”
Key take-aways from study
- 81% reduction in running costs for the hypothetical reference Cape Home, compared to a typical new-build home.
- The savings equates to $115/week in year 1, growing to about $388/week in year 25;
- 25-year running-cost savings of $293,600;
- Assumed extra up-front costs of only $25,000.
- Annual running cost (energy and vehicle costs) of only $1,417;
- Significantly improved passive thermal comfort.
These and other scenarios evaluated indicate that:
- Zero annual electricity cost is feasible with reasonable combinations of solar and battery;
- Car charging is the biggest single consumer of electricity (~49%);
- Active heating and cooling energy needs fall to only about 9% of overall home energy consumption;
- Homes at the Cape can easily be net-energy positive and operationally carbon-negative;
About The Cape
The Cape is Australia’s first net-zero carbon housing estate, located in Victoria’s Bass Coast. Committed to climate resilience and environmental stewardship, The Cape serves as a demonstration project for sustainable living and community resilience in the face of our cost of living crisis and climate change.
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