The Business Revolution Episode 6

In this sixth episode of The Business Revolution, we explore the practicalities and benefits of switching from gas to electric appliances for heating and cooking in homes and businesses.

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Trent Jones is founder of All Electric Homes, a company specialising in electrification.

Key takeaways:

How government rebates, like the Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) Program, can significantly offset the cost of switching to electric appliances.
Eliminating gas appliances can improve indoor air quality and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The transition requires education and collaboration between tradespeople to ensure a smooth and holistic approach.
Customers who switch to electric appliances often experience a sense of pride and well-being from their reduced environmental impact and lower energy bills.

. . .

Trent Jones’ bio:

Trent Jones is an entrepreneurial force in the electrical industry, with over 18 years of hands-on experience. His journey began in 2013 with a humble start-up, Want A Sparky, operating from his Mornington home, with his wife doing the books.

Fuelled by ambition and a passion for supporting his customers and his employees, Trent has since founded multiple successful ventures, culminating in All Electric Homes. This thriving company now employs a 35-strong team of electricians, refrigeration mechanics, and plumbers, dedicated to providing comprehensive electrification solutions for both residential and commercial properties.

Trent’s vision is to revolutionise the energy landscape, one home and business at a time.

Relevant links and recourses

→ All Electric Homes: www.allelectrichomes.com.au

→ Want a Sparky: www.wantasparky.com.au

→ Inspiring YouTube video about Trent’s background and passion

Transcript – episode 6

Alan Taylor (00:00)
Welcome revolutionaries, my name is Alan.

Cherry Ward (00:02)
And I’m Cherry.

Mik Aidt (00:04)
And I’m Mik, and together we are the three Business Musketeers who will guide you through the evolving landscape of business and sustainability.

Alan Taylor (00:15)
This podcast is made on the lands of the Boon Wurrung, Yuggera and Turrabal, and Wadawurrung people to whom we pay our respects and acknowledgement. In today’s episode, we’re diving into something personally relevant to a very large percentage of Australians, particularly Victorians and people in ACT and WA, which is alternatives to gas for heating and cooking in their homes.

Cherry Ward (00:39)
As the cost of living increases and we’re seeing power prices, they’re getting higher, it’s important to know that we can change our habits for a sustainable future while getting unbelievably quick financial wins at the same time.

Mik Aidt (00:54)
It’s not just the financial side of it. Of course, you know, if you get off gas, it’s also significantly better for the climate. We all know that it’s a fossil fuel, gas. At the same time, we’re also removing health risks, you know, like people are getting asthma and other things from inhaling this gas.

Cherry Ward (01:12)
So whether you’re a business owner, a climate advocate or simply curious about the future of our planet, you won’t want to miss this episode of The Business Revolution.

Mik Aidt (01:22)
And that’s why we’re thrilled to have with us today Trent Jones. Trent has been in this electrical field for over 18 years. He started an electrical company called Wanta Sparky 11 years ago in 2013. That was from the back room of his house in Mornington here in Victoria with just himself on the tools and his wife doing the books.
But since then he’s been starting multiple companies in this energy upgrade industry and today he has 35 employees with him on his team.
That’s electricians, refrigeration mechanics and plumbers and so on. Under the company name All Electric Homes. They specialise in completely electrifying any dwelling, both residential dwellings but also in the commercial sector.

Alan Taylor (02:12)
So welcome Trent to the business revolution.

Trent Jones (02:16)
Thanks guys.

Alan Taylor (02:18)
Yeah, thanks very much mate. Would you mind starting by telling us a little bit about what you actually do?

Trent Jones (02:16)
Our customers come to us when they want to try and reduce the cost of either living or cost of running their businesses. The first thing we do is establish their existing energy consumption. That’s both in gas and electricity. Once we establish the baseline energy profile, we can then obviously recommend upgrades that are available.
Now we’re lucky enough here in Victoria to have a whole bunch of rebates in the both residential and commercial sectors. So the VEU, which is the Victorian Energy Upgrades Program, are very supportive to help companies and homeowners transition off gas to electric. So this is where we step in and look at the whole picture and give them that advice of the upgrades, what rebates are available, and give them basically an electrification plan to transition.

Cherry Ward (03:14)
Trent, I’m interested in, you know, in terms of how you shifted into that side of your business, you know, which can be seen as a bit of a risk, but you, you know, you took it anyway. So what did you see, which made you confident that potential clients will be interested in switching to electric?

Trent Jones (03:31)
Yeah, good question. So we predominantly were just general electricians for many years. For the first six years, we just said yes to any electrical work. It didn’t really matter what it was. We just serviced our clients’ needs.
What we found probably in 2019 or sort of just on the other side of COVID hit, so 2020, 2021, we had a lot of clients really focused on health and trying to, you know, how we can reduce or increase the health benefits in the home.
And we had heaps of people asking us questions about, you know, what options do I have? You know, we want to try and get off gas. So the VAU was sort of a little bit green back then.
There wasn’t much information out there. So we did a lot of research into what we could offer. And yeah, so after doing a lot of research, talking to different clients, different people, we sort of pieced it all together and started realising that the Victorian Energy Upgrades program had a lot to offer.
And we found a massive gap in knowledge between what government are offering, what the client needs and the actual trades people who need to do the work. And to this day, the trades people still don’t know what to do. I would say 90 % of all trades people out there in this space have no idea.

Cherry Ward (04:50)
Is it a gap in the, I guess, you know, the education system that they come through? Is it not keeping up with it?

Trent Jones (04:57)
They don’t teach you this in the education system. In all schools, in the trades industries, they’re not teaching you about the rebates available. They’re not really teaching you about the climate. They’re really focused on the task at hand. So, you know, all of this for me was self-learning, self-exploration, and not one person ever had the solution or the answers for me. I had to speak to multiple industries.
My biggest issue was when I had to convince the plumbers and the refrigeration mechanics that this is the future. It’s attitude to me, to me it’s attitude. And they have got to move on and learn new things, which a lot of people are closed off to do. And this is where I think the biggest issue lies. And then when you have the consumer ask the trades person, you know, I’m going to use the plumber as example, because when I first started to offer plumbing services under the VEU upgrades, I had the hardest time trying to convince other plumbing companies to jump on board and help, doing what we’re doing.
We first started doing hot water heat pumps as a first energy efficient upgrade. It was so difficult to convince these plumbers that this is the future. They saw it as this is taking work away from us or gas is the best. It was a massive hurdle that had to be overcome.
So I first started subcontracting the plumbers to us to help and it became that difficult, I can’t continue doing this. So I managed to, I put an ad out for a head plumber to operate in this space. Someone who had a vision, who wanted to make change and really just, you know, change the way we do things going forward. So he joined our team 14 months ago. And within 10 months, sorry, within 12 months, he grew. He grew our team to 10 plumbers that he now manages and we’ve converted those plumbers into energy experts. So we can then apply those, not just general plumbing, we can do all sorts of plumbing upgrades in that space as well.

Mik Aidt (07:05)
What’s the atmosphere like among these 10, you know, re -skilled tradies, you could say? What’s the feeling like being in this, you know, new trade then?

Trent Jones (07:19)
Absolutely love it. So every day they’re working alongside refrigeration. So refrigeration mechanics also, similar issue, but not as hard to transfer you know, get across. They love it.
The dynamics of the team now they’re, they’re three trades, people working as a team, working together. There are a plumber and a sparky, we have in a van each day, helping each other, working towards the same goal. So when the customer speaks to our guys, they’re all talking the same language.
Our plumbers have a very keen interest in electrification. They’re learning new things. I’m even putting some of the plumbers and some of the electricians through dual courses. So they’re becoming dual trades people. So they’re up-skilling in their fields. So, they love it because they’re learning new things.
Our clientele has changed a lot now. So when we were just dealing with putting out spot fires for people, sometimes you’d be dealing with people who were reluctant to spend money. So the attitude or the dealings that our team out in the field would have with the clients is completely different to now.
Now we’re dealing with clients who are in touch with themselves, with the environment, the things that they’re doing, they actually want to spend the money because it’s making them feel good. So when our guys do these upgrades for them, it’s a very happy environment for everyone involved. So the client’s happy, they’re getting reduced energy costs, healthier living, they’re doing good for the environment.
And then our trades people feel that and transfers to them. So, and it makes what they’re doing in their jobs really impactful. So it’s a win-win I see for everyone involved.

Alan Taylor (08:55)
Well, what a wonderful cycle. You know, as you said, big clients are coming in with one issue, whether it be health or obviously finance. And yet they turn that around to demonstrate all the potential wins. It’s a massive learning journey along the way for everybody from the customers, from the sound of it, you know, the customers aren’t expecting that the tradies and it’s a, it sounds like a wonderful cycle that you, the way you wrap that up at the end, it’s like, yeah, now the people are getting excited that filters back to the happy employees, which of course means they’re going to give better service, I’m guessing, to their next customers and so on.
It’s an approach which certain sectors like the IT sector have been trying to do for over 10 years, is think of what does the customer need and how do we adapt for that? And it seems like that’s what you’ve been doing very much.
I wonder, what do you think people could take away from that, to help them, help more people take advantage of this way of shifting and seeing the opportunities and moving forward? What do you think is needed to help them get it?

Trent Jones (10:09)
First thing we need is to have less confusion out there. So more education amongst the people who are giving the advice. What I found in the last two years, a lot of consultants have come into this space advising people what to do. Now these consultants are usually academics who aren’t in the trades industry that need to do this work, actually who know how to do this works, but they’re people who are educated that they know what needs to happen.
So we’ve got these bunch of consultancy, which are really great. We like to work with lots of these consultants and they’re very important to this transition. From the consultants, they have obviously a referral based installers who need to do these works. Now they need to, the people who they’re referring the works to, or to make these things happen, that’s where the issue lies. Because we, as I mentioned earlier, the trades people who actually need to do these works, they’re the problem because we’ve got conflicting ideas, we’ve got conflicting information coming from them.
So if you ask a plumber in isolation about upgrading stuff, they will only know the plumbing aspect. They don’t know by removing a gas cooker and putting an induction hob in puts a huge increased load on the property. So therefore, we might need to do a supply upgrade to the board or something. So when you’re looking at it from an isolated point, their information that they might be providing might be right in that particular activity. It’s not doing any favours to the rest of it.
And then you might have an electrician come along and go “hey, you can’t do that because it’s going to do this”. And then the consumer goes, well, hang on. They didn’t tell me that that was going to impact that. And the consumer gets confused. And then they go, you know what? I don’t trust what’s going on here. I’m just going to shut the door on this and sit back to where, what I was doing.
So getting that holistic or one one look on the whole thing and all the information laid out from the start is key to actually making this happen faster and quicker. It’s gonna put more trust in the consumer. They’ll know, you know, they understand what’s going on.
So, you know, to summarise it, the tradespeople lend a lot more education. They need to work together and they need to band together and make sure we’re communicating the same language to the clients.

Mik Aidt (12:33)
What language and what message do you think that your clients are sharing next time they meet others at a barbecue or the next Chamber of Commerce gathering and so on?

Trent Jones (12:45)
Any client that has gone through our upgrades, I would hope, actually we do have a few good case studies actually. They’re complete, so we make it really simple for them. Part of our electrification journey is establishing that energy profile. So understanding what they’re consuming, gas and electricity for the total year of their property.
From there, we lay it out saying, well, based on what you’ve shared with us, you’re producing 15 tonnes of CO2, it’s costing you five grand a year to operate. After we do the upgrades, we make it very clear to them what sort of impact that’s going to have based on industry standards and the technology that we’re doing.
So for them, it’s when we address all that in one picture and we can do all the upgrades in one hit, one disruption to the property done, it’s actually really simple. It’s not difficult, which can generally totally electrify a small commercial premises or a three bedroom home generally in two days. And that’s doing rooftop solar all the way through to everything inside from gas hot water service to heat pump upgrade, heating, cooling, gas cooking, you name it. It is actually quite simple when we isolate each thing at once, but then we look at it together.

Alan Taylor (14:06)
Wow, it sounds like having that cohesive view that you can present in a way that makes sense, with the knowledge that goes behind it and how to implement it. It’s a painless action. Two days to do all of that is a remarkably quick time. As somebody who’s had home renovations done before. So you’re giving that extra value to make it more palatable to people as well. That’s fantastic.

Cherry Ward (14:30)
Trent, we have a segment called Rapid Fire Tip for Action, which is an opportunity for our guests to provide actionable insights for our listeners, to inspire them, and to take action. What do you think underpins the success of your approach?

Trent Jones (14:46)
Yeah, great question, Cherry. I think the main success is bringing people together, bringing each trades person in as a whole and talking to them all with the same language. So what we do now, now that I’ve got the team, we have weekly meetings where we pull up what we’ve done in the past week and we talk about everything.
So our guys who are plumbers learn about electrical, our guys who are electricians learn about plumbing and vice versa. And we share the stories and we share the problems and we share sort of the industry. That’s the only way that we’re going to be able to electrify forward because it can’t be done by one. It’s a team. It’s a team of, I’ll call it The League of Extraordinary People. We’ve got the experts in each of their field. And how I run the company now, I’ve got a solar PV specialist who minimum 15 years in the industry. He looks after all of our guys who do solar. I’ve got a plumbing specialist who looks after the plumbers, got an electrical specialist who looks and so on.
So and inside edge company, you’ve got different divisions of specialists, you know, specialists. So like in the plumbing, we’ve got heat, well, we’ve got heating and cooling, we’ve got hydronics systems because hydronics are a big thing. They’re one of the hardest things to electrify right now, because of the expense and the tech and how technical it is. So, I think it’s bringing everyone together is the key.
And that’s what sort of is pulling us aside from the rest because there’s not a lot of people doing it right now. I think I was listening to another podcast the other day and it was here in Australia. We’ve got, I think, five million homes across all of Australia we need to electrify by 2035. So they’re saying that, that’s 500 ,000 homes a year in Australia.
Now, if we were to refer back to the solar industry, right, the solar has been around for a long time. We’ve been putting solar in people’s homes for a long time. Now at the heart of it, at it is absolute peak. That would getting up to 400 ,000 homes a year. So the expectation is for us to meet these targets by 2035 is to trump that with total electrification where we, solar was easy. We need, you need just an electrician with an endorsement, right? Now we need to do all these other stuff. So, you know, that’s sort of, yeah, that’s sort of what we’re up against. And this is why we’re trying to solve these problems that we’re dealing with.

Cherry Ward (17:21)
Fantastic. I love the legal extraordinary… I can’t remember exactly what you said, but that’s something that I think every business should have that mindset and approach to how they work.

Alan Taylor (17:32)
Yeah, the cross -skilling, the collaboration, understanding each other’s worlds is where you can, from my own experience, it’s what makes the difference. So well done. This is fantastic.
So thank you, Trent, for taking the time to share your insights and that they are very inspiring. Just have one last question for you.
Where can the listeners go to, and learn more about what you do, and how you’re working, what’s the best way people can find out more?

Trent Jones (18:05)
We’ve got a website, allelectrichomes.com.au. Everything we do is on there. We have a pretty unique landing page where you can simply upload your latest electricity and gas bills. And what will happen is the tech that we’ve got right in the background will data scrape those bills, grab them, punch back an energy profile annually.
So it will tell you what your consumption is from gas and electricity. It’ll also ask you a few questions about what gas appliances you have in your home. You simply just need to go, I’ve got a gas hotty, a gas heating cooling system or business, you know, it works for both. And it will spit you back some pretty real information quite quickly.
So you can have a play, you can sort of see it’s tailored to suit your specific property. And that way it just gives you, it’s our way of giving you guys a little bit of content so you can research, look at the products that are available, look at the rebates that are available, all this stuff’s being calculated in the backend.
Then if you’re really interested, all you need to do is get on the phone. We’ve got all your information straight away. We can give you advice straight away and then organise a home visit.

Alan Taylor (19:16)
That’s fantastic, thank you. I think there’s something that I recommend our listeners have a play with, nothing to lose. So it sounds great.

Cherry Ward (19:24)
Okay, and that’s a wrap for today’s episode of The Business Revolution.

Mik Aidt (19:29)
We hope you’ve enjoyed once again, diving deep into this world, the new world of business and sustainability together with us.

Alan Taylor (19:37)
And remember the revolution doesn’t end here. It’s up to each and every one of us to take the knowledge and inspiration from today’s episode and turn it into action.

Cherry Ward (19:46)
Whether it’s implementing sustainable practices in your own business or advocating for change in your community, every single step counts towards building a better future.

Mik Aidt (19:58)
And we will also connect you on our website businessrevolution.earth where we’ll put out links that are relevant from this episode and also the past episodes, of course. That’s the place where you can get more involved with The Business Revolution.

Alan Taylor (20:13)
And likewise, if you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe on the website that makes just mention businessrevolution.earth and review it and share your feedback, because we want to hear what you’re thinking, but obviously that will be inspiring for others too.

Cherry Ward (20:30)
And thank you for joining us on this journey of transformation. Together we can revolutionise the way we do business and create a world that’s sustainable for generations to come.

Alan Taylor (20:41)
Stay tuned for insights, inspiration, and actionable steps to help reshape the way we do business, for a better tomorrow.

Mik Aidt (20:48)
Until next time, keep innovating, keep inspiring, and keep pushing for positive change in your business, wherever you work for a brighter tomorrow. I’m Mik.

Alan Taylor (20:58)
I’m Alan.

Cherry Ward (20:59)
And I’m Cherry, signing off. The business revolution starts with you.