Apartments are finally starting to attract their share of attention in the move to electrify buildings but it’s not straightforward.
One expert in the field, Brent Clark, who is chief executive and founder of Wattblock, recently outlined some of the challenges faced by strata communities to electrify along with a few solutions that he says has helped his clients.
The interview with The Fifth Estate came as Solar Victoria’s new Solar for Apartments program announced $16 million of state and federal government funds invested in up to 5000 apartments.
But according to Clark solar isn’t the only thing strata managers are installing to “greenify” their buildings.
His organisation’s “Electrify Strata” advises strata committees, managers, and local councils on accelerating the transition to sustainable energy and degasification. The project also “maps” strata buildings across Sydney’s suburbs on each strata’s potential to electrify. The project has now mapped around 40,000 strata buildings.
1. Introducing EV charging
With the lowering cost and rising sales of electric vehicles, Clark says many people have been excited to jump on board and purchase an EV, but the journey has been rife with challenges.
While tenants may want a cheap charging source, installing and retrofitting electric vehicle charging stations into existing buildings, especially those without an outdoor car parking spot, has been especially challenging. There’s also a growing awareness of fire risk which is rare with cars but more common with electric bikes especially those with low quality batteries.
According to Clark, the silver lining is that as technology advances, batteries in vehicles are becoming less flammable and battery management systems are improving. He says that demand for EVs in Australia is now on par with that of the US.
Strategies
Apartment owners and strata managers have a few key principles to guide them these days:
“If they are installing EV charging underground, they need to take extra precautions, such as installing attack hydrants and investing in a car fire blanket, but they would only be on hand for a first responder who comes to the building,” Clark says.
“People are investigating what they can do, and a couple of buildings in Sydney have connected their EV controls to the building, where a fire control panel can instantly stop all EV charging in a building.”
2. Social transportation is changing
According to Clark, some apartments have opted for other social transportation options, such as installing a fleet of ebikes, which has also slowed the installation of EV charging.
“We are still at the early stage of social transport, but there’s already a handful of buildings by reputable brands, such as the Channel 9 building, that have installed an e-mobility station, which will become more common.”
We soon start to see high-rise apartments in particular and developments with many studio apartments, naturally leaning towards EVs when it comes to carshares.
“While it hasn’t taken off yet, a few developers have included plans for [EV car shares] in new developments.”
With cheaper EV coming into a market, managers can now justify the cost of EV carshare spaces. It’s more economical than providing car spaces for private vehicles when there’s… say, more than 100 apartments, he says.
3. The government is increasing funding
Governments are jumping on board as the strata electrification trend continues to grow. Clark’s own program project focuses on mapping out the potential of electrification and solar uptake in specific suburbs.
The NSW government has announced multiple funding programs to stimulate transition in the strata community, including allocating $10 million in subsidies to help strata install digital monitoring infrastructure in the state, he says.
Local government is also jumping on board with five local councils offering sustainability-related rebates on top of other rebates: Ku Ring Gai, North Sydney Council, Lane Cove, Waverly, and Randwick councils.
Amongst other rebates, Clark says that strata communities can “triple dip” into all three government rebates to maximise the transition to electrification.
4. It’s no longer about ESG “for the big end of town”
Clark says the move to electrification in apartments might have started with the need to go green, but it’s now morphed to a wider – and possibly more important – influencer.
“The focus used to be on sustainability, now it’s based on demand,” he says.
While the environmentally conscious big developers have embraced solar and electrification for ESG (environment, social and governance) drivers, demand from tenants and investors is now leading developer to implement solar to drive property valuation.
“For example, for developments in Meadowbank and Ryde, developers think that solar panels look good in drone photos; they are now doing it for aesthetic reasons.”
5. Myth busting the pros and cons of electrification
According to Clark, the biggest arguments against electrification includes:
- Fear of power outage
- Noise generated by heat pumps
- Lack of space or balconies to install hot water pumps
- Lack of well-ventilated areas for heat pumps
- RBOB/Jemena gas network makes it as hard as possible to disconnect from a gas meter; you could be charged up to $200,000
However, not all arguments hold true, says Clark. In talking about the benefits of electrification, he also debunks some myths.
- an average power outage lasts around 1 to 1.5 hours, and heat pump systems generally store more hot water on hand than gas systems, meaning you should have enough hot water to last the outage’s duration
- gas heat pumps are usually replaced every seven years due to a lack of maintenance. Upgrading to a high quality heat pump and water tank can create a system that lasts 15 years
- more than 25 per cent of the overall cost of hot water gets paid to gas distribution networks – the cost still applies even if you haven’t used the gas at all
- there are no negative effects of electrification for strata managers, in fact, they just have one less (gas) bill to reconcile
- strata managers can also save on the billing administration of hot water metering after the switch
But the limits are still there. Clark explains that while building green from day 1 may have helped big companies with their ESG agendas, small developments built in the past 20-30 years may have “cheaped out” by installing instantaneous gas rather than centralised gas, an installation that would be extremely difficult to replace.