However, Dr Saul Griffith also believes federal incentives and progressive policies are needed to ease consumers "over the fence" and through the current transition period before market momentum will take over, costs will plummet and the electrification of the market will be complete.

Born and raised in Sydney's western suburbs and with a deep love of the Australian bush, Dr Griffith said Australia had applied "fear to the climate change possibilities, instead of optimism".

He said if the best policies driving climate change across the states and territories, including the ACT's $15,000 household sustainability scheme which offers zero-interest loans to decarbonise household appliances, were combined, it would provide Australia with incredible momentum.

"If you took a 'best of' policy from every state, as a collection, all those policies add up," he said.

"The question now is whether can we put them all together as a national policy and go fast enough to hit the climate targets we care about.

"And absolutely: low interest financing [such as the ACT scheme provides] is hugely important; if people have to buy this stuff on their credit card then we're going to be in trouble.

"But we're going to have to go even further. The 30 per cent of households at the lowest end of the pyramid are going to struggle to even qualify for those loans.

"And so I think we're going to need even more proactive national programs if we're truly going to bring all those household along. It needs to be a national priority."

A visionary with an engineer's can-do, hands-on capability and the ear of US energy policymakers, Dr Griffith worked with the Australia Institute on a new discussion paper Castles and Cars, that outlines how much Australian households can save if they electrified everything, including their cars, their household heating, their water heating and their cooking.

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The "average" Australian household currently uses around 102kWh of energy per day and spends $5248 per year on energy-related costs.

Dr Griffith said Australia's huge advantage was already being a leader in rooftop solar and that it had pushed the cost of that technology way down in global terms by streamlining the installation, certification and inspection process.

"Household batteries are where solar was 10 years ago. We have to create that same streamlined regulatory process and apply it to household batteries so it means the lowest cost is passed on to the consumer," he said.

He said that with the right policies in place, the "break even point" in electrifying Australian households and returning thousands of dollars in savings to the customers, coupled with the resulting economic stimulus which falls out of that, could occur as early as within the next five years.

"We're now down to brass tacks on climate change," he said.

"It's not about commitment; it's about how you actually get there. It's a problem that's solved by engineers.

"I've got kids now so I've got skin in the game and I want to fix this thing."

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