Hot water rebates and running costs in Queensland
No state scheme, but the cheapest off-peak hot water tariff in Australia.
What a hot water system costs to run in Queensland, what you can claim towards replacing it, and the local facts that change the answer here — the tariff structure, the climate and the grid.
What you can claim in Queensland
Federal Small-scale Technology Certificates
$800–$1,200 off an eligible heat pump or solar thermal system
Available in every state. The installer claims the certificates and discounts your quote, so there is nothing for you to lodge. Queensland sits in STC Zone 3. Gas and electric resistance systems create no certificates.
Administered by the Clean Energy Regulator. Official scheme page. Last verified 5 September 2026.
Federal certificates only — there is no Queensland top-up
Queensland runs no state rebate for replacing a hot water system, so what you can claim is the federal Small-scale Technology Certificate discount and nothing else: roughly $800 to $1,200 off an eligible heat pump or solar thermal system, taken off the installer's quote rather than claimed back.
Queensland loses less by that than the southern states would. A heat pump works on the temperature of the air it draws from, and Brisbane's air is warm — the effective annual coefficient of performance here is among the best in the country, so the running cost saving does more of the work and the missing state discount matters less.
Why Queensland is different
Queensland has no state hot water rebate. The federal certificates are the whole story here, worth roughly $800 to $1,200 off a heat pump, and saying that plainly is more use than a page of hedging.
What Queensland does have is the cheapest controlled load tariff in the country at 16.4c per kilowatt hour — a third less than the standard rate and cheaper than any other state's off-peak. If you already have an electric storage tank on a controlled load circuit, the case for replacing it is weaker in Queensland than almost anywhere else, because the tariff is already doing much of the work a heat pump would do.
The climate helps too. Brisbane's mild winters mean a heat pump manages an effective coefficient of performance of about 2.39 here, better than every state except the Northern Territory, and the cold water coming into the house is already at about 20.8 °C against Hobart's 13.1 — so there is simply less work to do. A Queensland household heats its water with roughly 30% less energy than a Tasmanian one of the same size.
Two Queensland-specific notes on price. The figures here use Energex, covering the south-east. Regional Queensland is served by Ergon under a Queensland Competition Authority determination at 28.9c/kWh with a lower daily supply charge. And reticulated natural gas reaches a minority of Queensland homes — outside the south-east, "gas" usually means bottled LPG, which is roughly three times the price per megajoule.
Every system at Queensland prices
A three-person household using 120 litres of hot water a day, at Queensland's reference rates and the Brisbane climate. On these assumptions the cheapest system to run in Queensland is solar thermal with gas boost at about $273 a year.
| System | Cost per year | Rebates | 10-year total | CO₂e a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solar thermal with gas boost | $273 | −$800 | $8,434 | 147 kg |
| Heat pump | $336 | −$800 | $7,205 | 683 kg |
| Gas instantaneous | $365 | — | $6,004 | 466 kg |
| Solar thermal with electric boost | $391 | −$800 | $9,612 | 793 kg |
| Gas storage | $453 | — | $6,925 | 645 kg |
| LPG instantaneous | $653 | — | $8,876 | 541 kg |
| Electric storage | $742 | — | $9,323 | 1776 kg |
| LPG storage | $962 | — | $12,020 | 758 kg |
A three-person household in Queensland using 120 litres of hot water a day, at 28.0c/kWh and 2.45c/MJ for gas, with the Brisbane climate and the Queensland grid's emissions factor of 0.67 kg CO₂e per kWh. Change any of it in the calculator.
Your own household will differ. Put your bill figures into the calculator and every number above recalculates.
The certificate value is falling every January
The federal scheme is winding down on a fixed schedule. Certificates are deemed over a period that shortens by one year every 1 January, and the scheme ends in 2030 — so the same system installed in Queensland in December earns about a fifth more than it would a few weeks later.
| Install year | Deeming period | Indicative value |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 6 years | — |
| 2026 (now) | 5 years | $800–$1,200 |
| 2027 | 4 years | $640–$960 |
| 2028 | 3 years | $480–$720 |
| 2029 | 2 years | $320–$480 |
| 2030 | 1 years | $160–$240 |
The certificates a heat pump creates are deemed over a period that shortens by one year every 1 January until the scheme ends in 2030. Waiting from December to January costs about a fifth of the discount, for exactly the same system. It is the one piece of timing advice on this site that is worth acting on.
How Queensland compares
Victoria runs the richest stack of rebates in the country, three programs deep, against Queensland's federal-only $800 to $1,200. Western Australia is in the same no-state-scheme position as Queensland, though its gas is priced very differently.
Frequently asked questions
What's the cheapest way to heat water in Brisbane?
Solar thermal with a gas boost, at about $273 a year for a three-person household on 120 litres a day — the lowest running cost on this page, though also the most expensive to install, so it is worth checking the ten-year total first.
How much is the Queensland heat pump rebate worth?
$800 to $1,200, and that is the federal certificates in full — Queensland runs no state top-up. The exact amount depends on system capacity and the certificate price on the day of your quote.
What does Queensland electricity cost for hot water?
28.0c per kilowatt hour with a $1.92 daily supply charge, from the AER's 2026–27 Default Market Offer (DMO 8) effective 1 July 2026 — and a controlled-load circuit at 16.4c, the cheapest off-peak rate in the country. Your own bill will usually beat this reference figure, since retailer offers commonly undercut it.
Does a heat pump suit Brisbane's climate?
Comfortably — an effective coefficient of performance around 2.39 against a 3.2 nameplate, close to the national middle, helped by Brisbane's mild winters. It still runs at under half the electricity cost of a resistance tank.