Choosing a hot water system

A hot water system usually only gets chosen once every ten to fifteen years, which is long enough that most people are relearning the options from scratch each time. Three real choices exist for a typical Gold Coast household: gas continuous flow, electric storage, and heat pump. Each suits a different household, and the right answer depends more on how you actually use hot water than on which is objectively "best".

No tank, no standby heat loss, and genuinely endless hot water as long as the gas keeps flowing, which matters for a household that runs back-to-back showers in the morning. It needs gas already on site or a bottled supply, and it is the fastest of the three to install where that is already the case. Running cost sits in the middle of the three, and it is the system we would generally recommend for a busy household with more than two regular bathroom users.

The lowest upfront cost of the three, and the most familiar: a tank that heats and holds a set volume of water. The trade-off is a finite supply between fills and, over the long run, the highest running cost of the three options, since standard electric tariffs are not cheap per kilowatt hour. Most "no hot water" calls on an electric system come down to the element or the thermostat rather than the tank itself, which is a cheap fix rather than a replacement, and it is worth testing before assuming the whole unit is dead.

The highest upfront cost, and by a clear margin the cheapest to run, because it moves heat from the surrounding air rather than generating it directly. The Gold Coast's climate genuinely suits them better than a cooler climate further south, which is part of why they perform well here specifically. Government rebates commonly apply and change the practical cost comparison, so it is worth asking what currently applies to your household rather than assuming the sticker price is the real price.

Relative only, household to household. We price your actual options side by side on the day, and tell you which rebates apply.

Household size and hot water habits matter more than any spec sheet. A single person or a couple with modest hot water use rarely recovers a heat pump's higher upfront cost quickly enough for it to be the obvious choice, whereas a household of four or five with long morning showers usually does, sometimes inside a few years once running costs are counted. Whether gas is already connected to the property is often the deciding factor on its own, since running a new gas line specifically for hot water changes the maths considerably.

We test the existing unit before ever quoting a replacement, lay out real running costs for your household side by side, and tell you plainly which rebates currently apply, because the three options genuinely do suit different homes rather than one being correct for everyone.