A volunteer electrification group has set up a free noodle bar in Fremantle, cooking boxes of vegetarian noodles on induction wok burners to show Western Australians that cutting a gas connection doesn’t cost them their stir fry. The Electric Noodle Bar is running as part of Fremantle Design Week, with chef Amanda Auwdina on the wok and Electrify Fremantle, a volunteer group that helps households convert every appliance to electricity, doing the talking.
The event was reported by ABC Perth, which spoke to organisers and watched the crowd roll through on a shopping day.
Smelling it beats reading about it
Electrify Fremantle’s Wilf Johnston said the group chose a food stall over a pamphlet because people trust what’s in front of them.
“I think sometimes people need to tangibly see something, not just read about it on social media or online or a brochure,” he said.
“Actually seeing something happening, and in this case smelling and tasting, really brings it home that it’s possible to do this stuff.”
“Actually seeing something happening, and in this case smelling and tasting, really brings it home that it’s possible to do this stuff.”
The pitch isn’t aimed at the converted. Johnston said the usual audience for home electrification talk is people who’ve already done the reading.
“Normally when you talk about home electrification, you tend to get the people that are already on the journey and have already thought about it a lot, and that’s great,” he said.
“But for everyone else who might not be thinking about this, that’s been our real target.”
The wok was always the sticking point
Johnston said cooking is where a lot of households stall when they’re weighing up dropping the gas. Losing a visible flame under a round-bottomed wok feels like losing the heat, so the stall runs two different setups side by side to argue otherwise.
“We’ve got a flat-bottomed wok on a normal induction hot plate, which is great for everyday use,” he said.
“We also have a curved induction wok burner, which is fantastic, which you use with a round wok, and the temperatures there you can get up to are easily adequate to get that nice wok flavour.”
He said his own research showed 40 per cent of households in Hong Kong now cook with induction, and that commercial kitchens were picking it up too.
What a cooktop swap actually looks like on the tools
The efficiency argument is the one that gets quoted. Consumer group Choice found induction cooktops transfer energy into cookware at about 85 per cent efficiency, against 32 per cent for gas cooking elements, the ABC reported, and that induction was cheaper to run.
What that doesn’t tell a homeowner is the job sheet. An induction cooktop is a fixed appliance, and fixed electrical wiring is licensed-electrician work in every state and territory, WA included. There’s no DIY version of this, no matter how handy the owner is with a drill.
In a kitchen that’s run on gas cooking for thirty years, the circuit the cooktop needs may simply not exist. That turns a one-appliance swap into a trip to the switchboard, and whether that board has the room and the condition to take another dedicated circuit is a call the sparkie makes on site, not something a leaflet can promise.
The other half of the job belongs to a different licence. Pulling the old gas cooktop out and capping the point is gasfitting, and gasfitting of any kind requires a licensed gasfitter everywhere in Australia. What happens to the meter and the service after that is a question for the network, not the householder.
For WA contractors, the useful part isn’t the single cooktop. It’s that the board is open and the customer is already in a conversation about the rest of the house, which is where hot water, heating and the solar conversation tend to follow.
”The viability of the gas network will be called into question”
Organisers told the ABC the environmental case and the easier cleaning are nice, but the simpler argument is money, starting with the hundreds of dollars a year it costs just to have a gas connection in Perth before anyone turns a burner on.
Johnston reckons full electrification across Perth is a matter of time, and he pointed at who owns the pipes.
“I think it’s interesting because the [Perth] gas network is not owned by the government, it’s owned by a private company,” he said.
He sees the regional wind-down as the template. Gas is being phased out in Albany over the next three years, the ABC reported.
“What we saw in Albany is that it just wasn’t viable anymore, and I think over time, logically, you have to think that that is likely to be the case across the board,” Johnston said.
“But I think the viability of the gas network will be called into question in the coming years for sure.”
He added that bottled gas remains an option for anyone who wants to keep cooking that way.
Albany is the one to watch. A three-year network wind-down in a regional WA city means a known volume of cap-offs, appliance changeovers and switchboard work landing on a local pool of licensed electricians and gasfitters, with a deadline attached. If the same logic ever reaches metropolitan Perth, the trades who’ve already done a few of these conversions will be the ones quoting the work with confidence.
Frequently asked questions
Can I install an induction cooktop myself?
No. Fixed electrical wiring is licensed-electrician work in every state and territory, including WA, so fitting an induction cooktop needs a licensed sparkie.
Who disconnects the old gas cooktop?
Pulling out a gas cooktop and capping the gas point is gasfitting, which requires a licensed gasfitter anywhere in Australia.
Is gas being phased out across WA?
Not officially state-wide. Gas is being wound down in Albany over the next three years, and Electrify Fremantle’s Wilf Johnston believes the same logic will eventually hit the wider network, though that’s his view, not confirmed policy.
Are induction cooktops more efficient than gas?
Consumer group Choice found induction cooktops transfer energy into cookware at about 85 per cent efficiency, against 32 per cent for gas cooking elements, according to ABC’s reporting.
Sourced from ABC News, Choice. Original article.
