Knowledge/Systems/Does a Victorian gas heater have to be replaced with electric?
Does a Victorian gas heater have to be replaced with electric?
In an owner-occupied home, no. A proposal to force electric replacement of gas space heating was put up in December 2024 and formally dropped in June 2025. Gas hot water is caught from 1 March 2027, owner-occupiers included. Rentals are different. From that same date, a failed heater in a rental has to be replaced with electric.
- Owner-occupier heating
- Not requiredproposal dropped Jun 2025
- Owner-occupier hot water
- From 1 Mar 2027replacements must be electric
- Rentals, heating
- Electric onlyon failure, from 1 Mar 2027
- New buildings
- 1 Jan 2027a separate date
Widely believed and wrong
"Your gas heater has to go when it dies"
For an owner-occupied home that's not correct. It was proposed in December 2024 and formally removed in June 2025, in the department's own words. The regulation that's left only covers mains gas (reticulated gas) water heaters. There's nothing in it about space heating.
Getting this wrong can cost you, not just make you look wrong. Tell a customer their heater has to go electric when it doesn't, and they may act on it. And they can check.
Rentals really are different
From 1 March 2027, rentals need an energy efficient fixed heater, and the rules define that in electric terms. That's a reverse cycle unit meeting a heating star rating, or a ducted system meeting a heating performance figure.
A gas system put in before that date can stay, but only while it's in good working order. So in a rental the trigger is failure. Once it fails, the replacement has to be electric.
Two dates people keep mixing up
1 January 2027 is new buildings. 1 March 2027 is everything existing. Different rules, different scopes, and they get run together all the time, including on official pages.
If you're quoting work that straddles either date, say which one you're relying on.
What this means for your business
The Victorian Energy Upgrades (VEU) program has been paying to get gas ducted heating out. 66 per cent of all heaters replaced through the VEU to April 2025 were gas ducted. If gas ducted changeovers are the core of your work, the rules and the rebates are both pushing the same way.
Gas work isn't disappearing next year. But the way we see it, gas-to-electric changeovers are the biggest single opportunity in front of most Victorian contractors right now. The ones who can explain the rules properly will win more of that work than the ones repeating what they heard.
Is gas ducted the core of your work?
If it is, these rule changes are the biggest thing on your horizon. Don't panic, and don't ignore them.
Kevin will talk through what he'd be doing about it now.
Who this is for: small and medium HVAC contractors in Victoria. If you're a homeowner after a rebate or a repair, you need a licensed contractor, not us, and yours can point you the right way.
Related
- How evaporative cooling actually worksThe gap between dry bulb and wet bulb sets how cold it can get. Efficiency decides how much of that you get. Humidity limits every brand the same way.
- Sizing an evaporative cooler on air changes per hour20 to 40 air changes an hour is the engineering range and 30 is the trade shortcut. Both are sourced. Then the 80 Pa check that decides your outlet count.
- How an indirect gas ducted heater worksIndirect means the flue gases never mix with the air you breathe. How it holds outlet temperature, what shuts it down, and the gas pressures it needs.
- Can you reuse the ducts on a gas to reverse cycle swap?The honest version. No engineering document covers reusing the ducts, so here's what's checked, what's our best judgement, and the seven things that go wrong.
Review date: 1 December 2026. Figures in this area change without much notice and this page carries some that will go stale. Every number above is dated and sourced so you can check it yourself. If you find something out of date here, tell us and we will fix it.