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Electric Saul is Rewiring Australia’s free, practical guide to going electric. It helps you work out the smartest next step for your home, with personalised advice, real numbers and a practical plan you can act on.
Electric Saul is a free community service for Australian households. It’s designed for people who are curious about going electric and want to know how to go about it and for people who are ready for an electric upgrade and want advice and a plan of action.
Electric Saul was created by independent non-profit Rewiring Australia, with funding and support from Google’s Digital Future Initiative. It combines Rewiring Australia’s research and Dr Saul Griffith’s electrification expertise with Google AI technology to make practical guidance available to more households.
Dr Saul Griffith is an Australian engineer, inventor, author and co-founder of Rewiring Australia. He has founded a dozen technology companies and has spent years researching how electrifying our homes, cars and communities can reduce bills and carbon pollution.
Electric Saul draws on Saul’s research and plain-speaking approach, but Saul does not personally write or review Electric Saul responses.
Enter your postcode and choose whether you are an owner-occupier, landlord or renter. Electric Saul then builds a visual profile of your home using eight areas: home type, number of occupants, heating, hot water, cooktop, solar, battery and vehicles. You can add more than one vehicle and enter the size of your solar system, or leave it blank if you are unsure.
The first selections are based on an average household, so review all eight and edit anything that does not match your home. The savings estimates update as you do.
You can continue without an account, but signing up to Electric Saul with an email address lets you save plans across devices and return to your chats later.
Electric Saul can help you explore rooftop solar, home batteries, electric hot water, heating and cooling, induction cooking, electric vehicles and other household electrification questions. Before you begin a chat, it shows what your current setup may already be saving and what further savings are possible, including an estimate for each upgrade area.
It can then help you:
No. Electric Saul ranks possible next steps and lets you explore one upgrade at a time. You might start with a hot water plan, for example, then return later to look at heating, a vehicle or another part of your home. It is designed to help you decide what to do first, what can wait and how upgrades could fit together over time.
However, if you want a whole home upgrade plan, Electric Saul can definitely help with that.
Yes. Select renter or landlord when you get started so Electric Saul can take your situation into account. Renters can use it to understand practical options and prepare for conversations with a landlord or property manager, while landlords can explore upgrades for a rental property.
A family member, friend, volunteer or community worker can also help someone use Electric Saul, provided they have that person’s permission before entering information about them or their home.
For super users who help others electrify (installers, non-profit volunteers, Council workers, etc), we are working on features that will allow you to set up and share multiple households in Electric Saul. So stay tuned for their release.
Electric Saul can help you understand technology types, sizing, features and trade-offs. It can turn your household details and priorities into a practical installer briefing, including questions to ask and information to request in a quote. You can also upload quotes, documents or photos (such as a switchboard or existing appliance) and ask for help understanding or comparing them.
It does not guarantee or endorse a particular product, installer, supplier or quote unless Rewiring Australia clearly states otherwise. Before making any commitment or spending money, check licences, qualifications, warranties, compatibility, prices and contract terms for yourself.
Electric Saul begins with your postcode and home profile, then refines its guidance through your questions, follow-up answers and any documents or photos you choose to share. Many responses include source links so you can see where key information came from.
It also uses artificial intelligence, which can make mistakes or provide information that is incomplete or out of date. Check important figures and recommendations before acting, and speak to an appropriately qualified professional about site-specific, safety, financial, legal or regulated work.
Electric Saul shows estimated annual savings for your current setup and the additional amount you could save by going further, with figures for individual upgrade areas. These estimates change as you edit your home profile, but they are a guide rather than a guarantee.
Actual results can vary with your home, climate, energy use, tariffs, product choice, installation quality and changes to prices or government programs. Always check current costs, eligibility and conditions with the relevant provider before making a decision.
Electric Saul uses AI for a practical community purpose: helping more households cut bills, improve their homes and go electric. So we consider the amount of energy Electric Saul uses relative to the amount it saves.
An Electric Saul advice session lasting around 2.5 minutes uses around 0.08 kWh of electricity which is about the same as a 2,000-watt electric kettle boiling water for two and a half minutes.
For context, a single household electrification upgrade can have a much bigger energy impact over a year:
So the energy used by the advice is tiny compared with the energy savings and clean energy generation it can help households achieve.
Even a very substantial Electric Saul planning journey with lots of questions and detailed advice is estimated to use only around 0.5 kWh of electricity.
That is roughly equivalent to 15 minutes of boiling a kettle or running a 100-watt light bulb for five hours.
AI also uses water. A long conversation with Electric Saul - using 0.5kWh - would require 0.09L or 90ml - for comparison that’s just three percent of the water used to flush a toilet.
And lastly, regarding carbon emissions, this same long conversation would result in 0.293 kg CO₂e - that’s equal to driving a petrol car for 1km.
AI’s growth of course raises legitimate questions about transparency, work and accountability. Rewiring Australia supports strong standards for digital infrastructure, including responsible water use and required investment in the clean energy and storage needed to power data centres.
Depending on how you use Electric Saul, you may provide contact details and information about your home, appliances, energy use, bills, quotes, photos, goals and conversations with the tool. The website may also collect information such as cookies, device identifiers, IP addresses and browsing activity.
This information may be used to provide and support Electric Saul, personalise your experience, improve Rewiring Australia’s programs, conduct research and analysis, communicate with you where appropriate and meet legal obligations. Rewiring Australia takes reasonable steps to protect personal information from misuse, loss and unauthorised access or disclosure.
For full information, consult Electric Saul’s Terms of Use and Rewiring Australia’s Privacy Policy.
Rewiring Australia does not sell personal information. Information may be processed by service and technology providers that help operate Electric Saul and Rewiring Australia’s wider services. Some providers may be based overseas, including in the United States.
Rewiring Australia’s Privacy Policy explains our use of analytics and advertising providers in more detail. You can ask to access or correct personal information held about you by contacting Rewiring Australia’s Privacy Officer.
Rewiring Australia is a non-profit organisation dedicated to representing the people, households and communities in the energy system. We empirically demonstrate and communicate the cost savings, emissions reductions, and energy system benefits of electrification.
Rewiring Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the lands on which we live, meet and work and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.
Rewiring Australia is a member of Climate Action Network Australia.
Rewiring Australia is an Australian charity registered with the ACNC with Deductible Gift Recipient status (ABN 18 664 239 196). All donations over $2 are tax deductible.
Contact us: electrify@rewiringaustralia.org
