00:00Robyn O'Reilly is like many Australian pensioners.
00:05She's long lived in her own home.
00:07In her case, in the portside Adelaide suburb of Ethelton.
00:10She's a creature of habits and she adores her pet dog.
00:14In other key ways, Robyn is not like your typical retiree.
00:18Thanks to a trial being run by Poles and Wires firm, South Australia Power Networks,
00:22her house is fully electrified.
00:24A heat pump provides her hot water,
00:26while reverse cycle air conditioning keeps the house warm or cool as needed.
00:31And she uses an app to monitor these systems in real time.
00:35I really like the heat pump.
00:36I run it between 10 and 3 every day.
00:39Always got hot water.
00:42I think it's quite economical at the moment anyhow.
00:46Yeah, I recommend it.
00:48Coordinating it all is a system that can harmonise various household appliances to keep bills low.
00:54Experts say such systems are going to be vital to Australia's efforts to reduce emissions by up to 70% by 2035.
01:02But they warn the market for these systems lacks standards,
01:05with too many devices that cannot be operated by other firm's systems or software.
01:10We're also seeing a lot of barriers when it comes to something called interoperability,
01:14or how different appliances talk to other appliances.
01:17They're calling for simplified and universal standards to make it easier for households to swap and change when needed.
01:23So really simply it's sort of like how Samsung had one type of charger and Apple had another,
01:30and now they have the same.
01:31But South Australia as the site of this trial is no coincidence.
01:35The state is a world leader in its adoption of rooftop solar and other clean tech.
01:40It means South Australia is having to solve some thorny problems before anywhere else,
01:45and the lessons being learned here are likely to be applied elsewhere.
01:50We've got a problem here, a management issue.
01:53Whether it's kettles, dishwashers, whatever it might be, the entire system needs planning reform.
02:00We need standard reform.
02:02Retiree Robin O'Reilly is happy to leave the decisions to the technology, so long as it benefits her.
02:08I didn't want to be one of these people too, that doesn't put heating, can't afford to put heating on,
02:14or, you know, I want to be able to enjoy life too.
02:20Hoping that in technology we can trust.
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