Getting Off Gas in 2026: What It Costs to Go Electric

If your gas bill has a daily supply charge that stings even in the months you barely use it, you’ve probably wondered what it’d take to ditch gas entirely. Here’s the honest version. Going all-electric means swapping two things — your hot water and your heating — for a heat pump and reverse-cycle aircon, plus disconnecting the gas line. The upfront cost lands in the low-to-mid thousands per appliance after rebates, and the annual saving comes from killing the gas supply charge and running efficient electric gear, ideally on your own solar.

The single biggest win is usually hot water, so that’s the appliance we’d swap first. Below is what each step costs, what it saves, and the gas-disconnection bit people forget to factor in. We confirm your exact figures at the quote — they shift with your home, your postcode and what you’re replacing.

Why bother getting off gas at all?

Two reasons, and the first is the one people overlook. Gas carries a daily supply charge whether you use a megajoule or not — so the moment your usage drops, you’re paying for a connection that’s barely working. Once you’ve electrified your hot water and heating, that fixed charge is dead weight. Cut the line and it’s gone.

The second reason is running cost. Modern electric gear is far more efficient than the gas it replaces — the Clean Energy Council has solid consumer guidance on the switch — and if you’ve got solar, you can run a lot of it on your own power in the middle of the day. We see this on a good half of the Adelaide and Melbourne homes we quote: solar already on the roof, exporting at a thin 5–8c per kWh, while a gas hot water system quietly runs on full-price gas. Redirecting that midday solar into a heat pump is close to free hot water.

Which appliance should I swap off gas first?

Hot water. Every time. It’s the cheapest electric appliance to install, it earns its own federal rebate, and it pays back the fastest — so it’s the lowest-risk first move. A heat pump hot water unit replaces your gas (or old electric) system and uses about a quarter of the energy of a resistive electric tank.

Heating is the second swap. Reverse-cycle air conditioning both heats and cools, and on a cold Adelaide or Melbourne morning it delivers several units of heat per unit of electricity — far ahead of a gas heater. Cooking is usually last: an induction cooktop is a nice upgrade, but it’s the smallest slice of your gas bill, so there’s no rush. Do it when the old cooktop dies.

Knock over hot water and heating and your gas usage is basically nil, which is the point where disconnecting the supply makes sense.

What does it cost to go electric — and what does it save?

Let’s deal with the two main swaps. Both attract rebates, both run cheaper, and both run cheapest of all on solar.

Hot water: a heat pump earns the federal STC rebate, roughly $600–$1,000 off depending on postcode and size. The Emerald unit we fit has a COP up to around 3.5 — about 3.5 units of heat per unit of electricity. An old tank uses roughly 3,000–4,000 kWh a year ($750–$1,000); the heat pump does it on around 800–1,000 kWh ($200–$300). That’s about a 75% cut, with payback of 3–5 years, or under 18 months if you’re replacing a dying system anyway.

Heating: reverse-cycle aircon is the efficient replacement for a gas heater. Run on solar through the day, the heating cost in the shoulder seasons is minimal. The exact figure depends on your home’s size and insulation, so we size it when we scope your system rather than guess here.

We confirm your exact figures at the quote. The numbers above are typical ranges, not a fixed price — your home decides the detail.

What’s involved in disconnecting the gas?

This is the step people forget, so factor it in. Once your gas appliances are gone, you arrange to disconnect (abolish) the gas supply through your distributor. There’s usually a one-off fee for that, and it’s worth doing properly rather than just leaving a capped, charged connection sitting there.

• Time your disconnection for after the last gas appliance is removed — no point cutting it while the cooktop’s still running.
• Expect a one-off abolishment fee from your gas distributor; it varies by network and state.
• Keep the daily supply charge in your sums — losing it is often a bigger annual saving than people expect.

We’ll sequence the electric installs so you’re never left without hot water or heating mid-switch, and point you to the right disconnection process for your network.

Does this stack with solar and a battery?

It’s the whole idea. Electric appliances running on your own solar is what makes going off gas genuinely cheap rather than just shifting the bill from one utility to another. Run the heat pump and aircon in the 10am–3pm solar window and you’re heating water and warming the house on power that would otherwise export for 5–8c.

Add a battery and you carry that solar into the evening peak, when grid power runs 30–50c per kWh. A typical Adelaide home on 6.6 kW solar plus a 21 kWh battery drops from around $720 a quarter to roughly $90 — and that’s before you’ve removed the gas bill entirely. The full vision is in our all-electric home guide. If you’re weighing the hot water options specifically, our heat pump vs gas vs electric comparison lays them side by side.

Thinking about cutting the gas line?

Tell us what gas appliances you’ve got and your postcode, and we’ll map the cheapest order to electrify, the rebates you’ll capture and what your running costs land at. Grab a free quote, or start with the appliance that pays back fastest on our heat pump hot water page.