A group of residents from Wollongong's northern suburbs are pushing for the 2515 postcode - Thirroul to Clifton - to volunteer for a pilot scheme where entire households are turned electric in a bid to solve climate change.

More than 400 registrations of interest were received from households within days.

From solar panels to electric vehicles and heat pumps for hot water, the hope is that with funding from state and federal government agencies, an entire suburb - or postcode - could go electric.

The push from inventor and entrepreneur Saul Griffith, now of Austinmer and previously making his name in the US, is for entirely electric households saving thousands of dollars a year while slashing carbon emissions and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Read more: Northern suburbs of Wollongong get behind electrification push

Dr Griffith, a former steelworker, said he was confident streams of funding would become available, and talks with car and appliance manufacturers, as well as governments, were well advanced in the US, where he started his "rewire" push, becoming an energy adviser to the Biden White House.

"Rewiring Australia is working with a number of power companies, a number of project partners, and national agencies," he said.

Prominent funding sources federally would likely be the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation but Dr Griffith said interest was also being sought from philanthropists.

"We are optimistic there will be some funding federally, and some funding at state level, to get this ball rolling and run pilots to prove this is the future for Australian homes," he said.

"We also have some optimism about some philanthropic funding that's anxious to move the needle on climate."

Dr Griffith, who lives in the 2515 postcode, said he was hoping three towns could be found across a range of jurisdictions, geography and socioeconomic advantage, to test how the electricity grid can handle the scale of household solar power involved.

Going electric would not come for free - $5000 per household is an early estimate - but projected savings from generating electricity on-site, and using an electric vehicle which is estimated to cost less than a quarter of a petrol car, would cover much of the expense.

"We're not giving people free equipment but we anticipate substantially lower energy costs, and they won't have to front all of the up-front cost of some of the equipment," Dr Griffith said.

"We're talking to appliance manufacturers, we're talking to vehicle manufacturers.

"We're doing similar work in the US, with Rewiring America, and [that's] a bit ahead - we're convening a group of CEOs including those auto makers and appliance makers who are committing their companies to electrifying people's lives - bringing this future forward, faster."