FrankstonThe suburb we drive through every day
Frankston is the closest big suburb to our Somerville depot, and a lot of Powerband's 30,000 jobs have been done between Frankston Station and the Peninsula Link. It is a suburb of two halves for our work: the flat streets between the Nepean Highway and Cranbourne Road are mostly 1960s to 1980s brick veneer on decent blocks, nearly all of it built with ducted gas heating and a gas storage hot water unit, while Frankston South and the Olivers Hill end run to bigger homes on sloping blocks with more roof and more solar potential.
That first half is where the savings are. A ducted gas heater that has done 25 winters is expensive to run and close to the end of its life, and Frankston sits in the Victorian Energy Upgrades area, so swapping it for a ducted reverse cycle system using the existing ducts attracts the VEU discount and gives the house cooling for the first time. Heat pump hot water is the same story. Most of those homes have roof space for 6.6kW or more of solar facing somewhere useful, and with a battery the evening peak is covered.
Frankston City Council has no heritage overlays that affect panel placement on the vast majority of homes, and mains gas runs through the whole suburb, which means the gas disconnection at the end of a full home electrification is straightforward. Because we are 15 minutes away, a Frankston site inspection is usually within a few days of the call, and a heat pump changeover or split system install is normally a single visit.
