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Greg Wallace: Master Plumbers CEO reveals whether it's worth ditching gas for electricity · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from NEWSTALKZB follow this and
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  Speaker 2: Now, if you are a regular listener to the show
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  Speaker 2: and your house users gas, you'll have heard me telling
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  Speaker 2: you you might want to think about switching to electricity
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  Speaker 2: or maybe switching your gas provider or whatever. And that's
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  Speaker 2: because we're running out of gas right And two days
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  Speaker 2: ago we got the news that Contact is putting up
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  Speaker 2: prices by about seventeen percent for thousands of people who
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  Speaker 2: use gas. Master Plumber CEO Greg Wallace thinks though, that
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  Speaker 2: switching to electricity might not be the right decision for everyone,
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  Speaker 2: and he's with us now, Hi Greg.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, good afternoon, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: Why not.
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  Speaker 3: Look, it's the capital cost so we're getting I mean,
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  Speaker 3: let me be clear though, we're not against heap hop
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  Speaker 3: hot water technology. We're not against solar, and there's electro.
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  Speaker 3: It's horses for courses and people have to make decisions.
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  Speaker 3: Two tear market though, you just need to remember O
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  Speaker 3: remind listeners that LPG in the South Island no shortage
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  Speaker 3: of LPG at all. Yes, there's some price pressure for that,
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  Speaker 3: but nootage of ALPAG and we do have alpag reticulated
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  Speaker 3: in some places in the South Island. What we're getting
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  Speaker 3: is inundated with consumers investigating, particularly about heat pump hot water.
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  Speaker 3: But the costs are anything between five and a half
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  Speaker 3: to ten thousand dollars to change over. So that capital
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  Speaker 3: investment is a considerable investment and that payback takes some time.
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  Speaker 3: How long so well, we estimate that would be about
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  Speaker 3: five years for most people to get that payback on
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  Speaker 3: that capital investment of heat pump hot water. Now, heat
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  Speaker 3: pump's great, it's a big tank. It has to go somewhere. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 3: most of our cylinders are in the seventies, eighties, and
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  Speaker 3: nineties were all installed in the middle of the house
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  Speaker 3: with a linen cupboard, and to retro fit that is
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  Speaker 3: pretty expensive. You've got to have space for it, and
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  Speaker 3: you've got to have that the usage because we're actually
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  Speaker 3: heating a lot of water. You're heating up to three
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  Speaker 3: hundred and twenty liters of water, and if you're a couple,
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  Speaker 3: that may not be your best choice. If you're a
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  Speaker 3: low use of uses of hot water.
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  Speaker 2: Trouble is right, So you can you can, you can
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  Speaker 2: do it now and then you can get your you'll
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  Speaker 2: you'll be breaking even in five years, or you can
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  Speaker 2: wait for five years and then do it, and then
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  Speaker 2: you've wasted all your money on gas for the last
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  Speaker 2: five years. Look again, gas is not going to get
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  Speaker 2: cheaper at any point ever in the future, is it.
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  Speaker 3: No? And but my point is also is electricity going
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  Speaker 3: to remain the same or we're going to have the
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  Speaker 3: same without a gas and a competitive energy sector, whereas
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  Speaker 3: the electricity price is going to go hither. There are
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  Speaker 3: other point is biogas is real, and so in Denmark
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  Speaker 3: this year they will produce it close to forty five
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  Speaker 3: percent of biogas, and that is taking the food scraps.
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  Speaker 3: And we've got one plant in Central North Island and
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  Speaker 3: we've got another plant opening in christ Church that's taking
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  Speaker 3: foods that don't go to landfall and turning that into
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  Speaker 3: biogas and that can go straight into the natural gas pipeline.
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  Speaker 3: Now Denmark by twenty thirty, one hundred percent of their
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  Speaker 3: gas will come from biogas. We should be investing in
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  Speaker 3: that technology.
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  Speaker 2: But that's also sort of unicorn stuff at the moment,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it Like that's not real? If you're sitting there
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  Speaker 2: and I appreciate your enthusiasm about it, But at the moment,
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  Speaker 2: if you're thinking about switching saving money electricity, is this
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  Speaker 2: is a different thing altogether? Can I ask you? So,
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  Speaker 2: I've got in my house in the lounge, I've got
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  Speaker 2: one of those those heat is a gas heater that's
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  Speaker 2: supposed to look like a real fireplace, you know, the
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  Speaker 2: one that's got the little like loggy things and looks
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  Speaker 2: this is sort of a cozy and stuff. Should I
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  Speaker 2: be thinking about ripping that out and putting something electric
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  Speaker 2: in there?
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  Speaker 3: If you've got gas connector now that actually that device
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  Speaker 3: is actually very energy efficiency? Is it to hit your home? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: And the more energy efficient than some electric system would
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  Speaker 2: have been.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you can put a white box on the on
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  Speaker 3: the wall and that the ambience, yes, okay, and that
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  Speaker 3: will be more energy efficient. But the gas flame effect
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  Speaker 3: fire that you've got a very energy efficient Okay.
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  Speaker 2: As you say, you get the sort of the sexy
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  Speaker 2: romance with the.
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  Speaker 3: Flaw that's important in your house.
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  Speaker 2: You can't quantify that, like you can't say how much
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  Speaker 2: that's worth. Okay, what about what about if you want
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  Speaker 2: to disconnect gas? That in and of itself, Greg is
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  Speaker 2: hugely expensive, isn't it just turning it off?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Again, and so misinformation South Island LPG and so no
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  Speaker 3: disconnection fees because they use bottles North Island US, there's
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  Speaker 3: some disconnection fees there. I mean, I just also want
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  Speaker 3: to point out that going to the holiday period, there's
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people that have cribs, batchers and holiday homes,
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  Speaker 3: and we've got a big Airbnb rental in the market now.
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  Speaker 3: For those homes that are used for one hundred percent
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  Speaker 3: of the time, storing hot water is again not a
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  Speaker 3: sensible option. In so having GUESS or an infinity or
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  Speaker 3: integrity system is actually a good choice for those people.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Actually that's a fair point that you make, Although Greg,
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  Speaker 2: don't forget in a natural disaster, I'm going to be
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  Speaker 2: drinking water out of my hot water cylinder and what
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  Speaker 2: are you going to be drinking.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to have my stormwater that I've stored on
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  Speaker 3: the side of my house and I can just open
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  Speaker 3: the tech.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're already prepared for it. I like that, Greg,
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  Speaker 2: Thanks very much, mate, look after yourself. Greg Wallace, Master
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  Speaker 2: Plumber's CEO.
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