It’s taken 20 years, but we’ve passed peak gas in homes

GREEN BUILDING RETROSPECTIVE: Today, there are fewer eastern Australian homes burning fossil gas than there were yesterday. Congratulations to many of you. We’ve passed “peak gas home”!

For a nation that once depended on gas, what has brought about this remarkable change? Did it happen on its own, or was it perhaps steered by the famous invisible hand of market forces?

Not quite.

This remarkable point was only reached after twenty years of dedicated effort by Australians advocating for gas-free homes.

In this article, I highlight the hard, exhausting, often thankless work done by individuals, community groups and other organisations over the past twenty years that have taken us beyond gas.

Gas is an expensive, dangerous, unhealthy, and Earth-wrecking energy choice. It’s great news for all of us when we hear about a household switching to the more economical, healthier, and safer electric options.

Somewhere in Australia, some new homes are still being connected to gas. But the worm has turned, the peak has passed, we’ve reached a new era. For every mis- or uninformed household still being connected to the gas grid, a greater number are now saying bye bye to fossil gas.

The data to prove we passed the peak gas home

How do we know we’ve passed peak gas home? Rewiring Australia recently dug out the data. (See image below)

On a net basis, when we compare government regulatory data for the three months ending 30 September 2025 versus the three months ending 30 June 2025, there were 4989 fewer homes (net) connected to gas in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, and Victoria.

In addition to gas grid connections, what about gas sales volumes? The amount of gas actually being burned in Australian homes, as well as in the other sectors of the Australian economy, is also falling.

Interestingly, South Australia is a bit behind the eastern states in the race to de-gasify homes, with an unfortunate net increase of 134 gas homes connected to the gas grid quarter to quarter.

Come on, you South Australians! If Queenslanders can lead the way, you can turn the corner soon. Then again, it wasn’t that long ago that the South Australian government was requiring new housing developments in Mount Barker be supplied with a scarily expensive form of fossil gas: reticulated LPG (liquefied petroleum gas).

Passing the point of peak gas home is actually big news of global significance. How many other G20 or OECD countries have accomplished what we have now done in Australia?

To use an analogy, when will we see the day when there are more electric vehicles on Australian roads than those burning petrol or diesel in internal combustion engines (ICEs)? The day of peak ICE vehicles still lies in our future.

So for now, we should recognise and celebrate the work that has led to passing the point of peak gas home.  

An origin story

It should be downhill skiing from here on in. In other words, in the future, every time someone looks at how many Australian homes remain connected to a gas grid, the numbers will continue to fall. Recent and ongoing government regulations will assist, but the health, safety, cost saving, climate and societal advantages of electrifying homes are undeniable. They become better known and supported every day.

We’re here because of the hard work done by well over one hundred community groups and not-for-profit organisations, made up of thousands of Australian volunteers and advocates. Who were they? How did we get here? What is the origin story of peak gas home?

A Facebook group is only part of the story

In 2015, in order to spread the word about the large amount of money Australians could save by heating their homes – not by burning gas – but rather by turning on a reverse-cycle air conditioner – I started the Facebook group My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH).

I chose a tongue-twister of a name that no one ever gets right. But now we have over 168,000 members at MEEH (increasing by about 100 new members every day). This has led commentators to point to MEEH and say the information being discussed there is a big reason we see gas falling out of favour in Australian homes. But here’s the truth. MEEH is just one part of a story that goes back even further.

Beyond zero emissions and energy freedom

I’ll start in 2007. That’s when I met Matthew Wright, founder of Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE). He had a vision of how all of Australia could be powered by renewable energy, and how our buildings and industries would become vastly more energy efficient. He named it Zero Carbon Australia (ZCA). Matthew would go on to become 2010’s Young Australian Environmentalist of the Year. 

Matthew’s vision was researched and fleshed out by BZE staff and volunteers. In 2010, we published the ZCA Stationary Energy Plan. This showed how our Australian electricity supplies could become 100 per cent renewable, 100 per cent free of fossil fuels.

And more specifically related to the home de-gasification story, in 2012, the ZCA Buildings Plan showed how our homes and commercial buildings would become more efficient, fossil fuel free, and far cheaper to run.

In 2014, Beyond Zero Emissions commissioned Richard Keech to adapt aspects of their buildings plan into the more accessible book Energy Freedom Home.

Still to this day, I use a graphic from that book with my clients, illustrating the checklist of topics related to improving home comfort and energy performance: from draught-proofing to window coverings, to solar and home batteries.    

Aussies can save billions – by heating with air cons they already own

Energy Freedom Home described how a suite of home retrofits could wipe out your household’s energy bills.

However, something that the book didn’t emphasise was how homes could do something far simpler than an entire retrofit. Households can save money – and not burn fossil fuels – simply by heating with the reverse-cycle air conditioners (for example, heat pumps) they already have in their homes.

So in August 2015, when I was a researcher with the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne Energy Institute, we published a landmark report (with support from Victorian farmers concerned about the threat of fracking, and The Australia Institute), titled “Switching off gas – An examination of declining gas demand in Eastern Australia”.

Amongst other findings, we stressed that in the millions of existing Australian homes, reducing gas burning and saving money could be as easy as pressing a button on their air conditioner. Here’s the sound bite: “You can heat your home with an air conditioner for around one-third the cost of burning gas.” One-third!

I remember the media coverage of our report highlighted how an average Melbourne home could save $658 each year on home heating. These big savings, which we identified years before the current cost-of-living crisis, total billions of dollars saved each year if all Australian home heating came from air conditioners rather than from gas heaters.

But wait! There are even more savings to be had when a household totally disconnects from the gas grid. Switching cooking and hot water supplies away from gas also leads to more savings: the opportunity to avoid fixed gas grid connection fees, and to never ever see another gas bill.  

Little did I know how much this one piece of research would change my life for the next decade.

Air conditioners aren’t the devil

We presented our results to anyone who would listen. This included the Victorian government. I could see some lightbulbs going off in their minds with respect to public housing. They began to realise that reverse-cycle air conditioners might be a good thing to provide in Victorian homes after all. In addition to possibly saving lives in summer as our Earth overheats, the government representatives came to realise that air cons (heat pumps) are by far the cheapest way to heat, far cheaper (and safer) than burning gas or using an electric-resistive heater.

Air conditioners would no longer be thought of as some demon. Rather, they can be a saviour.

The gas industry’s own goal

 In 2015, two things made it easier to sell the idea of heating with reverse-cycle air conditioners rather than by burning gas:

1. the fact that air conditioners become more efficient with each passing year, and therefore cost less and less to run (for example, the advancement to R32 refrigerant) and also,
2. the price of gas in eastern Australia had gone through the roof

Addressing the second point, 2015 marked the first time that gas was taken from eastern Australia, put in a ship and exported to buyers overseas. For the first time, gas exporters could enjoy sales prices far greater than what had historically prevailed here at home. With a new connection to overseas markets, our captive domestic gas buyers’ market – nearly overnight – became a sellers’ market. Gas sellers gained the leverage over buyers they had always sought. Wholesale domestic gas prices doubled, doubled again, and then went up some more. The wholesale price of gas has stayed high ever since.

Looking back, from the 1970’s up until 2015 when gas exports began, eastern Australia “enjoyed” gas that was about the cheapest in the developed world. Gas was a byproduct of the more profitable oil production (for example, from Bass Strait or Moomba) – a byproduct to be (nearly) given away.  (I was employed in the Australian gas industry for nearly twenty years, over that time, working with BHP, Jemena, and finally the Australian Energy Market Operator.)

Thus, we saw industries and buildings in Victoria and South Australia designed to use gas in nearly the most inefficient ways possible, to get rid of the stuff. I continue to see that legacy today in homes where old gas heating equipment is still being used, even though it is tragically leaky, inefficient, and sometimes downright unsafe.

Never mind – now we can shut that off. Instead, heat with your air conditioner if you have one. If you don’t have one, try to get one.

At long last — governments engage

Australian governments at all levels have gradually heard about the wide-ranging benefits that come with getting homes off gas. They have started to support the switch. Here is a very short list of examples.

New homes

In 2018, the ACT government, a leader in supporting renewable energy, declared that a new suburb, Ginninderry, would not be connected to gas.

For December 2023, the ACT government declared that no new homes would be connected to the gas grid.

For 1 January 2024, likewise, the Victorian government required that no new homes requiring a planning permit would be connected to gas, after having published a Gas Substitution Roadmap in 2022.

For January 2026, the City of Sydney has banned new gas connections.

Existing homes

For existing homes, the purchase and installation of a new renewable heat harvesting hot water heat pump has long attracted renewable energy credits (“STCs”) under a federal government program.

The Victorian government’s energy upgrade program likewise has offered financial support for the purchase of a hot water heat pump. In recent years, support has been extended to the installation of reverse-cycle air conditioning in cases where an existing gas space heating system or another inefficient heater is decommissioned.

For March 2027, the Victorian government requires that unrepairable gas hot water services must be replaced with an efficient electric hot water service (for example, replaced with a heat pump).

Many Australian local councils now assist residents with home electrification advice and/or vetted suppliers.

The 20 year old campaign to get your home off gas continues

Our campaign continues to assist Australian households as they move beyond gas.

Because getting a home off gas meshes so well with home solar panels and batteries, as well as with thermal envelope improvements (as described way back in Energy Freedom Home or in my more recent book My Efficient Electric Home Handbook), the home comfort and energy improvement space continues to draw in many businesses and interested individuals. The list of contributing advocacy and community groups is massive.

Below I list some of the organisations with which I am most familiar. Apologies to all the others, who are nearly too numerous to show here.

I wish to also especially acknowledge and thank “my guru”, Alan Pears, for assisting me along my personal journey in helping people to get their homes off gas. 

To all, keep up your good work turning off all those gas taps, even as we move on from the date of peak gas home use.

• The Australia Institute
• All Electric Homes
• Ausgrid
• Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions (BREAZE)
• Bayside Climate Crisis Action Group (BCCAG)
• Better Renting
• Beyond Gas Network
• Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE)
• The Cape
• Climate Council
• Conservation Council – ACT Region
• Darebin Climate Action Network (DCAN)
• Doctors for the Environment
• ecoMaster
• Electrify 2515
• Electrify Adelaide
• Electrify Boroondara
• Electrify Canberra
• Electrify Southside
• Electrify This
• Environment Victoria ((EV)
• Everything Electric
• The Fifth Estate
• The Fixit Chicks
• Friends of the Earth (FOE)
• Geelong Sustainability
• Geni.Energy
• Get Off Gas
• Goodbye Gas
• Healesville CORE
• Inner West Community Energy
• Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)
• Lighter Footprints
• Light House ArchiScience
• Lock the Gate
• Momentum Energy
• My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH)
• Narara Ecovillage
• Northern Beaches Clean Energy for Eternity
• Parents for Climate Action
• Pure Electric
• Renew (Renew and Sanctuary Magazines, Sustainable House Day)
• Renew Economy / Switched On podcast
• Rewiring Australia
• Solar Quotes
• SpendWatt
• Victorian Energy Future Network (focusing on the shutdown of the gas network)
• Winzero
• Yarra Energy Foundation (YEF)

… and more!

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