The State and Federal Governments are offering financial rebates for replacing your existing electric hot water system with a more efficient and environmentally friendly system.
This is made up of separate rebates from the State and Federal Governments and the amount of Renewable Energy Certificates awarded to the particular water heater.
For example, replacing an old electric hot water heater with a gas-boosted solar system would attract the highest rebate. The more panels, the higher the rebate.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT REBATE
The Australian Government is providing a rebate of $800 to help eligible home-owners, landlords or tenants replace their electric hot water systems with solar or heat pump hot water systems. This offer is part of the Government's $3.9 billion Energy Efficient Homes Package which came into effect on 3 February 2009 and is scheduled to run until March 2012.
The $800 Solar Hot Water Rebate is only available to people who have not already accessed support to install ceiling insulation through the Homeowner Insulation Program.
Full details of eligibility are provided in the Solar Hot Water Rebate guidelines. Key criteria are listed below.
Eligible systems
To be eligible for the rebate, a hot water system must:
- replace an electric storage hot water system
- be purchased and installed on, or after 3 February 2009
- be a solar or heat pump hot water system that is eligible for at least 20 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) at the time and place of installation
- be installed by a suitably qualified person (for example an electrician or plumber).
Eligible households
An owner-occupier, landlord or tenant can apply for the rebate as long as the dwelling where the hot water system is installed is a principal place of residence.
Government organisations are not eligible for the rebate.
This measure will mean households can save money and help fight global warming. Water heating is the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions from the average Australian home, accounting for around 28 per cent of home energy use (excluding the family car).
Installing a climate friendly hot water system can save a family $300 to $700 off electricity bills each year.
STATE GOVERNMENT REBATE
The NSW State Government offers rebates of $300 to replace an electric hot water heater with a 5-star efficient gas hot water heater.
RECS (Renewable Energy Certificates)
RECS values are dependant on the zone in which the system is installed. The following diagram displays the RECS zones in Australia.
Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs):
- are an electronic form of currency initiated by the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000;
- may be created, on the internet based registry system (known as the REC Registry), by eligible parties for each megawatt-hour of eligible renewable electricity generated or deemed to have generated;
- are created by registered persons;
- are validated by the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator;
- are registered;
- are traded between registered persons;
- are eventually surrendered to demonstrate liability compliance against the requirements of the Australian Government's mandatory renewable energy target or voluntary surrender.
- may be traded separately from the physical electricity in a REC market.
Each REC:
- must have its own unique code;
- must be registered by the Renewable Energy Regulator before they are considered valid; and
- remains valid until surrendered against a liability or until voluntary surrendered..
Each unique REC code is to contain, in order:
- the registration number of the person who created the REC;
- the accreditation code of the:
- power station that generated the electricity; or
- solar water heater installation; or
- small generation unit installation;
- the year in which the electricity generation or installation took place; and
- a number, in an unbroken annual sequence starting at one, which represents the eligible megawatt hour of electricity generated or displaced.
