Eltham Town Treehouse 2025

Eltham Town Treehouse

We bought this architecturally-designed 2 BR townhouse when relocating to Melbourne in late 2022. Constructed in 2009, it is the second on the block, thoughtfully designed, with a north-facing lounge and verandah, well-insulated and sealed. But the house was still using gas for heating, cooking and in the gas-boosted solar hot water system. I wanted to get off the gas, and utilise the large east-west roof space for solar. All the appliances were replaced with energy-efficient electric appliances – 3 split systems for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water system and an induction cooktop & electric oven – and finally the solar was installed. The ducted gas heating was removed, ducts plastered up, and the property disconnected from the gas network. We now charge our small EV from the solar during the day, we are cool in summer and cosy in winter.

There were a few lessons learnt along the way. Firstly, don’t transition off gas in the middle of winter if you can help it, otherwise you might need to find a new heating source for a week or two, depending on the sequence of the changes! Secondly, consider replacing just the cooktop and getting it set into the top of your existing electric free-standing oven – there are some downsides to the all-in-one induction/oven units. And thirdly, sometimes the cost of removing things can be significant, which is why we still have a slow combustion wood heater in our living room – which makes the house insanely hot, except in the depths of winter….