Can Electrifying Your Home Be as Easy as Ordering Uber Eats?

Switching to solar and electrifying your home can deliver big savings on energy bills, but getting it all done is not always that easy, particularly when you’re busy. ZapCat, a new social enterprise, helps households make the transition.

The renewable energy transition in Australia is in full swing. Households are expected to make a major contribution by switching to solar and electrifying everything, including replacing petrol cars with EVs and getting off gas.

In this once-in-a-generation effort, $2 trillion could be spent electrifying residential houses between now and 2050, with major banks getting in on the action offering loans to people switching.

Households that make the switch are set to save almost $4,500 per year in energy bills, so it’s no wonder that the pace of electrification is increasing.

But as the co-founders of ZapCat discovered, actually making the transition isn’t as easy as it seems.

“I was feeling guilty about my environmental impact,” said Piroska. “I was increasingly worried about the health impact of having gas appliances at home on my daughter, and I’d spent 5 years trying to research things like solar and hot water heat pumps. But every time I opened Google, I got overwhelmed and had to close my laptop. When you have a busy job and kids, you don’t have
time to become an expert.”

Jimmy had a similar experience. “Online articles were filled with technical jargon. Forums and Facebook groups were filled with electrical engineers and specialists. One solar company I got a quote from called me 22 times to follow up,” said Jimmy.

“We thought it was ridiculous how hard and intimidating the whole process was, and we knew Australia could electrify faster if only it was easier,” said Piroska.

Coming from a tech background, the founders wanted to make an easier experience.

“We knew there was a better way – we wanted something really simple, something as easy as ordering Uber Eats” said Piroska.

Drawing from their experience launching and scaling some of Australia and New Zealand’s fastest growing technology companies, ZapCat was born.

Within 2 minutes, you can get instant cost, savings and rebates estimates on everything you need to electrify your home, including solar, hot water heat pumps, EV chargers, induction and electric cooking, and (coming soon) reverse cycle air conditioning.

Kayleigh Rumbelow, an IT professional and mum of two in the Northern Beaches, Sydney used the platform to get estimates for home solar and a hot water heat pump. “When I think about trying to electrify my house, between kids and work, it’s just been in the too hard basket. I was excited to find a service where I could go online and find out how much it would cost, and how much we could save, without having to speak to anyone or schedule an inspection” said Kayleigh.

Once a household is ready to go ahead, ZapCat works with rigorously vetted installers to deliver a seamless experience from end to end.

Fighting energy poverty

Being social entrepreneurs, it was important for Piroska and Jimmy that ZapCat was a certified social enterprise. The company uses 50% of its profits to support households who face additional barriers to transitioning, and who are at risk of energy poverty.

“We could see from our research that many of the households making the switch were people who owned free standing homes in wealthy suburbs. We wanted to do something to address this gap by using our profits to make the energy transition more equitable” said Piroska.

As the energy transition and cost of living dominate the news, this new approach is generating interest among politicians. ZapCat has been mentioned in Federal Parliament by both Jerome Laxale MP and Sally Sitou MP after helping households in their electorates.

More information about ZapCat: zapcat.com.au