Articles on energy efficiency, solar panels, heat pumps, and reducing your electricity bills.
2 October 2026 · 9 min read
Since 1 July, homes in NSW, SE QLD and SA can get three free hours of midday power. We priced the real plans against the cheapest flat offer. The free hours pay once you can shift about 1.5 kWh a day of evening use, and a grid-charged battery is the strongest case.
14 September 2026 · 7 min read
The fuel excise was fully restored on 3 August and petrol is back above $2 a litre. We re-ran the EV numbers for a typical home in every capital. At $1.80 the standalone EV beat the 8% benchmark in one capital; at $2.05 it beats it in six.
20 July 2026 · 8 min read
The best first home energy upgrade is different in every Australian state. We ran the numbers for a typical 3-bedroom home in all seven to show what wins where, and why solar isn't always the answer.
30 June 2026 · 8 min read
Headlines treat FY27 as one big closing rebate window, but only the federal home-battery rebate is a true dated cliff. We ran two households through act-now versus wait-a-year in VIC and NSW to show what the calendar actually costs.
19 June 2026 · 7 min read
The standard advice for someone considering a home battery in 2026 is "wait for prices to fall." That advice ignores the federal Cheaper Home Batteries rebate schedule, which steps down every six months from January 2027. The rebate falls faster than battery hardware prices realistically can, and waiting means giving up months of avoided bills.
29 May 2026 · 7 min read
Most coverage of Victorian Energy Upgrades walks through one rebate at a time. The actual decision is about the stack. We worked two owner-occupier profiles to show where the eligibility cliffs sit and what changes on 1 October 2026 when VEU ceiling insulation opens to general residential.
19 May 2026 · 7 min read
The May 2026 budget introduced a 30% minimum tax on capital gains from 1 July 2027. The PPOR exemption is untouched, so home energy upgrades stay tax-free while every other investment outside super gets taxed more. We walk through what this does to the implicit comparison the calculator runs every time you decide between a heat pump and an ETF.
18 May 2026 · 7 min read
In cool-climate Australia, heating runs 60 to 80 percent of the winter quarter bill. Most advice spreads the fix across the whole house when most of the cost comes from one or two rooms. We ran the numbers for Melbourne, Hobart, and Canberra to show what to fix in the six weeks before the June bill lands.
11 May 2026 · 7 min read
The headlines say solar is dead because feed-in tariffs collapsed to 3 to 6 cents. They are measuring the wrong thing. The payback in 2026 comes from not buying electricity at 27 to 43 cents, not from selling it back for 5. We ran every state to show how to size a system around the spread.
28 April 2026 · 8 min read
Heading into winter, gas central heating is the biggest line on a cool-climate winter bill. We ran the numbers for every state. Reverse cycle wins fast in Victoria, slowly in Tasmania and the ACT, and the real kicker is killing the gas connection.
17 April 2026 · 8 min read
Every year you delay solar, batteries, and electrification, you pay full grid price for energy you could be generating. We ran the numbers for Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane to show exactly what waiting costs.
7 April 2026 · 10 min read
The optimal upgrade sequence is different in every Australian city. We ran the numbers for all seven capitals to show why order matters and how much it costs you to get it wrong.
30 March 2026 · 8 min read
At $2.50 a litre, petrol is costing Australian drivers up to $5,600 a year. We ran the numbers on three vehicles to find out when an EV actually pays for itself.
21 March 2026 · 7 min read
We ran the numbers for every Australian state. A heat pump hot water system pays for itself in under 2 years in most cases, and saves $4,000 to $11,000 over 15 years compared to gas.
18 March 2026 · 8 min read
Most Australian homes on gas are paying $250 to $300 a year just for the connection, before they use a single megajoule. The maths on switching to electric is stronger than most people realise, and in the ACT they literally pay you to do it.
12 March 2026 · 8 min read
Batteries are not the no-brainer that solar panels are. But the economics have shifted a lot in the last 12 months, and for some households, a battery now genuinely stacks up. Here's the state-by-state breakdown.
9 March 2026 · 5 min read
Since the US-Israel strikes on Iran, Brent crude has jumped 49% in nine days. I went through every major analyst forecast I could find to figure out where petrol prices are headed over the next six months.
10 March 2026 · 7 min read
If you own a home in Australia and you don't have solar panels yet, you're basically paying a voluntary tax on your electricity bill. That's not hyperbole: it's just what the maths says in 2026.
8 March 2026 · 5 min read
Solar was the easy decision. Figuring out what to do next (battery, heat pump, insulation) was a different story. No tool could model them all together, so I built one.