Should I disconnect gas and go all-electric? Yes, it can pay — but sequence it, don't rush.
The "gas is banned, act now" panic is overblown. In an existing home your working cooktop and heater are not banned, and the real money isn't in ripping everything out at once — it's in killing the daily gas supply charge you pay no matter how little gas you burn. The honest call is amber: swap appliances as they die, drop the connection with the last one, and remember electrifying pays back far better with solar and efficient appliances than with cheap ones.
Reviewed by the Mission Green Energy Team · Updated July 2026
Is disconnecting gas
actually worth it?
For a lot of homes, yes — but only if you do it in the right order. The mistake is treating it as one big rip-out; the win is a patient sequence that ends with the connection gone.
Here’s the honest frame. Going all-electric can genuinely save a Victorian household somewhere between roughly $375 and $1,790 a year (Victorian Government estimate) or $1,033 to $1,845 a year (Climateworks Centre) — with rooftop-solar homes saving the most. But those are ranges, not promises: the savings vary widely, and a household that buys cheap, inefficient electric appliances can end up with higher running costs than it started with.
The single biggest, most reliable saving isn’t glamorous. Every gas bill carries a fixed daily supply charge — very roughly 60 to 90 cents a day, or about $220 to $330 a year — that you pay regardless of how little gas you actually use. Keep the connection alive for a single appliance and you keep paying the full charge. That’s why the real money comes from removing the last gas appliance and abolishing the connection together, not from switching one thing and leaving the meter running.
So the answer is amber: worth doing for most, worth doing slowly. Don’t scrap working appliances mid-life to chase it — sequence the switch around genuine end-of-life, and drop the connection last.
What Victoria’s 2027 rules
actually require.
The seller web and the headlines blur “new rules” into “your gas is banned.” It isn’t. Here’s what the rules genuinely say — and confirm the detail for your situation at the source, because dates and scope can shift.
From 1 January 2027
All new Victorian homes that need a building permit must be all-electric — no gas connection. Homes whose permit is approved before 31 December 2026 can still connect gas. This is a new-home / new-permit rule; it does not force any existing home to disconnect.
From 1 March 2027
In an existing home, a gas hot-water system that reaches genuine end of life and can’t be repaired or safely maintained must be replaced with an electric one. If it breaks down and can be fixed, you can still repair it — the rule only bites at true end-of-life replacement.
Cooktops & heaters stay
Your existing gas cooktop and space heater are not banned. You can keep using and repairing them, and can even replace a cooktop or heater with another gas model. The rules cover reticulated natural gas only — not LPG/bottled gas for barbeques or regional homes.
The daily supply charge
is the whole argument.
Most people think the saving is in the gas they burn. For a low-use household it’s mostly in the charge they pay whether they burn any or not.
Look at a gas bill and you’ll find two parts: the gas you actually used, and a fixed daily supply charge just for being connected — very roughly 60 to 90 cents a day, or about $220 to $330 a year. That charge doesn’t move whether you run three gas appliances or one.
This is the trap most people miss. If you electrify your heating and hot water but keep a gas cooktop, you’ve cut your usage but you’re still paying the full supply charge every day for that one burner. The last appliance is quietly the most expensive thing on the connection, because it’s holding the whole standing charge in place.
So the honest sequence has a clear finish line: the big, certain saving lands when you remove the last gas appliance and abolish the connection at the same time. Until then you’re only partway to the prize. Confirm your own supply charge on a recent bill — tariffs vary by distributor and retailer.
Sequence it around
appliance end-of-life.
Ripping out a perfectly good gas system to go all-electric today rarely pays. Replacing each appliance when it dies almost always does. Here’s the order that works.
Hot water
Usually the biggest gas load and the first to swap — a heat-pump hot water system is far more efficient than a cheap electric-element tank. In Victoria this is also the one appliance the 2027 end-of-life rule targets, so plan for an electric replacement when the tank finally goes.
Heating
When a gas heater reaches end of life, reverse-cycle (heat-pump) air conditioning is typically cheaper to run and does cooling too. Don’t scrap a working gas heater purely to switch — wait for it to need replacing, then go electric.
Cooking, then the meter
Cooking is the smallest load and the easiest to leave for last. Swap the cooktop to induction when it suits, then — with no gas appliances left — abolish the connection to finally kill the supply charge. That last step is where the standing saving is unlocked.
Abolishment vs capping
and the reconnection trap.
“Disconnecting” isn’t one thing, and the cheaper-sounding option can lock you in. Know the difference before you book anyone.
Capping (or plugging) is a temporary, cheaper measure — the supply is stopped at the meter but the connection to your property stays. Abolishment is permanent: the connection is fully removed. The two are not the same, and only permanent abolishment reliably ends the daily supply charge for good, so don’t assume a cheap cap-off gives you the standing saving.
The good news for Victorians: the Australian Energy Regulator has capped the upfront permanent abolishment charge at $220 across the three Victorian distribution networks — AusNet, Australian Gas Networks and Multinet — down from roughly $1,000-plus previously, with the rest of the cost socialised across all gas customers. That $220 cap is specific to those Victorian networks; other states, other distributors and LPG can differ, so don’t treat it as a national figure.
The real catch is on the way back. Once a connection is abolished, changing your mind later doesn’t mean a quick reconnection — it means a brand-new gas connection, which can cost thousands and varies a lot by site. That’s the whole reason to sequence around end-of-life: by the time you remove the connection, you should be genuinely done with gas.
Electrifying without solar
just shifts the bill.
Going all-electric moves your energy demand onto the grid. Whether that’s a saving or a swap depends heavily on how you power it.
Here’s the part the “electrify everything” enthusiasm can gloss over: if you replace gas heating and hot water with grid electricity and nothing else changes, you haven’t abolished the cost — you’ve moved it from the gas bill to the electricity bill. The efficient appliances (heat pump, reverse-cycle) usually still come out ahead on running cost, plus you drop the gas supply charge — but the size of the win depends on what you buy and how you power it.
This is why the estimates note that rooftop-solar homes save the most. Solar-generated power is far cheaper than grid power, and an efficient electric hot-water or heating system running partly on your own solar is where the big all-electric savings actually come from. Run the same appliances entirely on peak-rate grid power with a cheap, inefficient unit, and the maths gets thin — occasionally negative.
None of this is a reason to keep gas. It’s a reason to electrify deliberately: efficient appliances first, solar where it stacks up, and honest expectations about the payback. Start with our electrification overview if you’re mapping the whole-home switch.
So — disconnect gas,
or not yet?
Here’s the call we’d give a friend, ordered by situation. Most people should go all-electric eventually — but almost nobody should do it all in one weekend.
If your gas appliances still work, don’t rip them out to chase a saving — you’ll usually lose money scrapping serviceable gear. Instead, plan the switch now and execute it as each appliance dies: hot water first (a heat pump beats a cheap element tank), then heating (reverse-cycle), then cooking. If an appliance is already on its last legs — especially gas hot water in a Victorian home — replace it with an efficient electric unit rather than another gas one. Once you’re down to your final gas appliance, that’s when disconnecting earns its keep: abolish the connection (capped at $220 on Victoria’s networks) and kill the daily supply charge for good — but only if you’re sure, because coming back means a costly new connection. And if you can add solar, do the sums with it in the picture — that’s where the biggest all-electric savings actually live. What we’d urge against is letting a “gas is banned, act now” pitch rush you into a five-figure rip-out. In an existing home, it isn’t banned — and patience is the cheaper path.
Disconnecting gas
— your questions, answered.
It can be genuinely worth it, but the honest verdict is amber: sequence it, don't rush. The biggest reliable saving is removing the last gas appliance and abolishing the connection together, which kills the fixed daily supply charge of roughly $220 to $330 a year that you pay no matter how little gas you use. Going all-electric is estimated to save a Victorian household around $375 to $1,790 a year, with solar homes saving the most. But savings vary widely, and cheap, inefficient electric appliances can raise your running costs. Swap appliances as they reach end of life, choose efficient models like heat pumps, and drop the gas connection last.
No, not for existing homes. From 1 January 2027, new Victorian homes that need a building permit must be all-electric with no gas connection, but this applies only to new homes and new permits, not existing ones. Separately, from 1 March 2027, a gas hot-water system in an existing home that reaches genuine end of life and can't be repaired must be replaced with an electric system. Your existing gas cooktop and space heater are not banned. You can keep using and repairing them, and can even replace a cooktop or heater with another gas model. The rules cover reticulated natural gas only, not LPG or bottled gas.
The Australian Energy Regulator has capped the upfront permanent gas disconnection, or abolishment, charge at $220 across the three Victorian distribution networks: AusNet, Australian Gas Networks and Multinet. That is down from roughly $1,000 or more previously, with the remaining cost socialised across all gas customers. This $220 cap is specific to those Victorian networks; other states, other distributors and LPG can differ, so confirm the fee for your address with your distributor. Note that abolishment is permanent removal of the connection, which is different from temporary capping, and only permanent abolishment reliably ends the daily supply charge.
Capping, sometimes called plugging, is a temporary and cheaper measure. The gas supply is stopped at the meter but the connection to your property remains. Abolishment is permanent removal of the connection entirely. The difference matters because only permanent abolishment reliably ends the fixed daily supply charge for good, so a cheap cap-off may not give you the standing saving you are after. Abolishment is also effectively one-way: if you later want gas again, it usually means paying for a brand-new connection, which can cost thousands and varies by site, rather than a quick reconnection. That's why it pays to be certain before abolishing.
Not automatically. Estimates put the typical Victorian saving at around $375 to $1,790 a year, or $1,033 to $1,845 by another estimate, with rooftop-solar homes saving the most. But the savings vary widely and are not guaranteed. A household that buys cheap, inefficient electric appliances can end up with higher running costs than it had on gas. Electrifying without solar mainly shifts demand from your gas bill to your electricity bill, so the real savings come from efficient appliances such as heat pumps and reverse-cycle heating, dropping the gas supply charge, and ideally powering it all partly from your own solar. Choose appliances carefully and run your own numbers.
Usually no. Scrapping appliances that still work rarely pays, because you lose the value of serviceable equipment. The cheaper, honest path is to plan the switch now and execute it as each appliance reaches end of life. A common order is hot water first, since it is often the biggest gas load, then heating, then cooking. Choose efficient electric replacements like a heat-pump hot water system and reverse-cycle heating rather than cheap element units. Once you are down to your final gas appliance, that is when disconnecting the connection earns its keep by ending the daily supply charge. Be wary of any pitch that uses a supposed gas ban to rush a five-figure rip-out.
Where these figures come from.
Figures on this page are drawn from official and reputable sources and were current as at 2026. Rules, dates, tariffs and fees change — confirm at the source before relying on a figure.
- Energy Victoria — electrification and efficiency standards for buildings (the 2027 dates and scope)
- AusNet Services — plain-English summary of Victoria's new gas and electric home rules
- RenewEconomy — the AER's $220 gas abolishment fee cap for Victorian networks
- Energy Consumers Australia — how much households actually save going all-electric (with solar and appliance caveats)
- Finder — Victorian gas costs and the daily supply charge