Page 2666 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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… legislation for new and replacement water heaters in class 1 buildings by 1 May 2010 …
It is now 2012. We still do not have legislation from the government addressing water heaters in existing buildings. This is incredibly disappointing, and this is why I am effectively reintroducing the legislation I had in 2009. The government said it would do the job; the government unfortunately did not do the job.
This is particularly unfortunate because energy efficient hot-water services are one of the things that have been identified time and time again as being cost effective. Yes, there is a higher up-front cost, but over the lifetime of a hot-water service, the person who has the energy efficient hot-water service is well ahead financially. This is one of the reasons I am particularly passionate about it. It is something which is good for the environment, but it is also something that is really good for the people of the ACT, particularly the low income people of the ACT, who should not have to waste their money heating water with very inefficient hot-water services.
I quoted a comment in the previous debate from Dr Hugh Saddler, who most of us in the ACT who are interested in energy matters would be well aware of. He said:
The changes proposed by this Bill could make significant energy savings for Canberra houses. Canberra has a large proportion of houses with gas which still use electric hot water heaters. Converting these houses to efficient hot water systems when the existing system has to be replaced is the low hanging fruit, in terms of lowest cost and highest energy savings. This is particularly prevalent in rental homes and houses, and passing this Bill could significantly reduce energy bills for low income renters.
That is still the case. Low income renters who have the misfortune to have electric storage heaters as their only hot-water service will be advantaged if my bill is passed. For those of us in the Assembly who are concerned about equity and cost of living for low income people in the ACT, I very much urge them to pass this bill. This is a practical thing we can do which will actually reduce costs for low income renters in the ACT.
Moving on to more things about hot water, I note that in the ACT, as I am sure we are all aware, under 70 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from the stationary energy system, including hot-water services. According to pitt&sherry, the residential sector in the ACT was responsible for 31 per cent of emissions in 2008, with hot water contributing 18 per cent of that amount. Hot water is particularly high in the ACT compared to some other jurisdictions because of our cold climate and because, unfortunately, we have not had a good penetration of solar hot-water systems.
In 2010, as we are all aware, the ACT Legislative Assembly passed legislation committing the ACT to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 per cent less than 1990 levels by 2020. In order to meet those targets, we need to take more steps than we have at present. That includes how we use our energy more efficiently, which includes venturing into hot water.
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