Why the Victorian government has little common sense when it comes to hot water systems

Of prime importance to most Australians are sensible policy outcomes that evolve from the strengths and weaknesses of various arguments.

One of the most important policy issues confronting Australia, and one which has highlighted the failure of Australian governments to deliver, concerns Australia's energy needs.

While energy solutions are complex, certainly far more so than the simplistic narrative that dominates Australia between those aligned with coal or renewable sources, my own area of Albury Wodonga (perhaps typical of inland rural areas) demonstrates just how silly recent government strategies have been with regard to the energy needs of consumers.

Just recently, after my gas solar hot water system broke down for the third time (purchased as part of a new home in 2012), I learned from local plumbers that these systems were very problematic in areas with regular minimum temperatures below zero.

But the Victorian government remains determined to promote solar energy water heaters as a tool to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without regard to the consumer's purse, especially those more vulnerable in colder inland areas.

As of 2014, while plumbing regulations in Victoria make it mandatory for new homes to come with either a rainwater tank (minimum capacity of 2000 litres connected to toilets) or a solar water heater system (which may include a heat pump water heater system), most Victorian builders chose the solar hot water option as the standard with only a "handful" of builders choosing rainwater tanks.

According to a cost-benefit analysis performed by ACIL Tasman, builders preferred solar hot water on the basis of it having a benefit-cost ratio of 1.2-1.8 over 10 years compared to only 0.8-1.2 for water tanks.

And, as of 2017, the Victorian state government continued to offer rebates of up to $1600 to households converting to solar hot water systems under its Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (VEET) scheme.

As one solar energy site indicates, such a scheme had the benefit of saving the consumer money on the basis that heating water is the second largest energy guzzler in a typical Australian home. Under the VEET scheme, Victorian energy efficiency certificates were created with each certificate representing one tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) that was avoided with an attached financial value.

In reality, many consumers in areas with regular freezing overnight temperatures are forced to purchase expensive gas solar heater systems as part of new house package.

In early July 2017, around the time our own gar solar heater in Albury Wodonga exploded and leaked considerable water from the solar panel, a Fairfax newspaper reported that many Melbourne homes experienced damaged solar hot water panels and/or broken frost valves after they snapped and/or split in response to sub-zero temperatures.

While one Melbourne plumber noted that cheaper models without a glycol antifreeze system were generally more durable than cheaper models favoured by builders, Simon Marchione (All Sorted Plumbing) downplayed the quality issue on the basis that even solar panels with frost valves were still being damaged despite allowing a bit of expansion in the panel to allow water to drip out. On that weekend, Marchione alone addressed eight solar panel jobs with a potential cost of up to $2500 to replace.

But these problems have been around for a long time, thus raising the issue to why Victorian consumers were/are not given greater choice with their heating systems. With regard to Dux Sunpro solar hot water systems, the system attached to our new house in 2012, a Canberra installer notes that between 2009 and 2012 a large number of such products were installed in the Canberra Queanbeyan region with frost protection measures which did not prevent many from splitting.

While the panels were meant to be protected by an electronic frost protection system, including a pump station to circulate water and an anti-frost valve opening at 2°C to allow water to escape from the panels to prevent freezing, such a design left an unprotected zone where most of the freezing and damage occurs in the panels.

So why does the Victorian government alone continue to persist with a flawed policy that is likely to cost many consumers much money in the future?

With our own adverse experience with a gas solar hot water system, we refused to spend one more dollar repairing the most recent breakdown after spending $515 earlier this year to replace a diverter valve.

While gas solar hot water systems already get much criticism, plumbers who attended my house in 2017 all agreed that they would not purchase such a product if they had the choice.

In fact, we would have saved over $4000 from product costs if we were given our new choice for the much cheaper and reliable instantaneous gas hot water system given that our gas solar system cost around $6000 when including GST and the 20% builder margin, a cost that easily surpasses any potential cost savings from solar energy heating.

It is high time that Albury Wodonga politicians (and others) representing the many regional Victorians living inland in colder areas are given greater product choice to reduce costs rather than the Victorian government merely supporting a vision to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the expense of the consumer's purse.