Free noodles lure Fremantle locals into a chat about ditching gas

An advocacy group for electric home conversion has set up a free noodle bar in Fremantle, WA to prove that giving up gas does not mean giving up your wok.

Electrify Fremantle's Wilf Johnston is one of the organisers of the Electric Noodle Bar and said the event, which is running as part of Fremantle Design Week, was about showing, rather than telling, people how living without gas could work.

"I think sometimes people need to tangibly see something, not just read about it on social media or online or a brochure," he said.

"Actually seeing something happening, and in this case smelling and tasting, really brings it home that it's possible to do this stuff."

Feeling the heat of induction

Electrify Fremantle is a volunteer group that encourages and supports households to convert all their appliances to run on electricity so they can be powered by renewable energy.

Mr Johnston said for many people weighing up getting rid of their gas connection, cooking seemed to represent a particular quandary.

The electric noodle bar, where chef Amanda Auwdina whips up boxes of vegetarian noodles, aims to demonstrate that switching to an induction cooktop does not mean losing access to fast, intense heat.

"We've got a flat-bottomed wok on a normal induction hot plate, which is great for everyday use," Mr Johnston said.

"We also have a curved induction wok burner, which is fantastic, which you use with a round wok, and the temperatures there you can get up to are easily adequate to get that nice wok flavour."

He said his research showed 40 per cent of households in Hong Kong now cooked with induction stoves, and they were becoming increasingly popular with businesses as well.

Plugging into curious shoppers

Having lured the electric-curious in with food, the group is also hoping to spark broader conversations about giving up gas.

"Normally when you talk about home electrification, you tend to get the people that are already on the journey and have already thought about it a lot, and that's great," Mr Johnston said.

"But for everyone else who might not be thinking about this, that's been our real target.

"People who are just walking through Fremantle on their way to do their shopping and have a coffee and whatever and had never really thought about this stuff are wandering in and having a chat, which is great."

While the organisers said there were range of arguments in favour of giving up gas stoves, from environmental benefits to easier cleaning, there was also a simpler rationale — it saves money, starting with the hundred of dollars a year it costs just to have a gas connection in Perth.

Research by consumer organisation Choice also found that induction cooktops transferred energy into cookware with about 85 per cent efficiency, compared to gas-powered cooking elements which operated at 32 per cent efficiency.

The Choice research found that induction cooktops were cheaper to run.

Mr Johnston believed full electrification of homes across Perth was inevitable, and that gas would one day be phased out, which will happen in Albany over the next three years.

"I think it's interesting because the [Perth] gas network is not owned by the government, it's owned by a private company," he said.

"What we saw in Albany is that it just wasn't viable anymore, and I think over time, logically, you have to think that that is likely to be the case across the board.

"Nothing stops people using bottled gas, if that's really something that people want to keep doing.

"But I think the viability of the gas network will be called into question in the coming years for sure."