Eb says he's gone electric for a range of reasons: he cooks with induction because he's conscious about the health of his daughter and wants to limit the toxins in the air; the gas hot water was swapped out for a hot water heat pump because he's keen on saving money; and an EV has recently been added to the mix for more price stability.

He enjoys heating the water or charging the car at times when power is cheapest. As he says, it's almost like your get to curate your energy and find ways to gamify the system.

When the fuel crisis hit, they moved fast and got one of the last remaining second-hand Nissan Leafs as a second car and he says it's a lot of fun to drive.

He's already taken a few friends for test drives so he's embracing the neighbourhood effect and trying to inspire them to upgrade, too. As he says, pretty much no-one ever goes back once they've gone electric.

Generation and storage is the next step so he's looking at adding solar and batteries. He says he likes consistency and they've had to deal with a few power cuts recently.

Opportunity has an Abundant Energy Policy that fully embraces electrification. And he says the party believes in the 'invest now, save later' principle.

"Everyone approaches it from a different lens," he says. Some will look at the economics. Some will look at the environment. And he looks at it from the perspective of "security, sovereignty, stability and resilience".  

"The world is a pretty unstable place and it's probably going to get a little bit worse before it gets better ... but through that transition I want Kiwis to be secure, I want my family to be secure, so that's the big thing that drives our push for renewable generation, and onshoring our energy generation."

Eb says he'll continue to beat the drum about the energy choices he's making at home because "we like to share the good news and we're excited about it".

Watch the full interview and all the Political Power interviews here⚡

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