He’s basically shown that an ordinary old house can be pushed to the point where it needs almost no external energy at all. Feels like a glimpse of what housing could look like if we actually committed to it. And honestly… it’s 2026. With the tech we’ve got now, is this not the direction human innovation should be heading anyway?


29 comments

  2. I know Octopus Energy were (are?) involved in building such properties. I hope it does become the norm.

  3. I haven’t seen the program, but I have seen plenty of people do this sort of thing fairly cheaply. There’s a lot of ways to do batteries/solar DIY relatively cheaply now.

  4. Can’t see why it wouldn’t become standard as technology becomes more reliable and widespread they should be the norm for new builds.

    Retrofits are always a pain though. He’s shown it’s possible but is it cost effective and practical for the majority?

    That will be what stops everyone from getting it but it shouldnt stop it from being the standard. Just like how water, gas. Electric and building regulations are standard but there are still properties with lead pipes and vulcanized indian rubber cables.

  6. Did he fit a cat flap? It’s 2026 and an air lock cat flap still doesn’t exist and I’m pretty sure our cat would refuse to use it if it did exist.

  10. It should be. But the grants/loans the government who have to give out to help many people actually do it are not going to be coming anytime soon.

    And that’s when you’re just thinking about a ‘normal’ house. (And it’s questionable if we should be building the majority of new properties like that, and taking up green land.)

    For instance, I live in a building that is three flats (it’s not a conversion, it was built this way.) How would/should the upfront costs be split between us? Based on income? Based on who is home the most, so presumably will be using more power? It could get so complicated.

  11. > Do you think this could ever become standard in the UK?

    No. Too many chancers in the building trade who even to this day can’t / don’t get the basics of insulation right. I honestly feel it’s impossible to find someone who is capable and competent, and if you do find them they (unsurprisingly) cost an arm and a leg.

  12. What I mean is is everything is possible if you have the money to do it, people like guy Martin make it look achievable to the average person. How many average people, the kind of people who would buy a £220k house in Manchester could actually pay a further 150k to get it up to that standard? The kind of age band who would be buying that kind of house would just buy a 400k house instead. Drive size and kerb appeal impresses, not how thick your insulation is.

  13. Getting solar panels and a battery and setting up the correct tarrifs has made my house electricity neutral, so we basically only pay for gas and standing charge over a year

  16. We got our 1950s terrace to an EPC A rating but it cost about 20k. 15k on solar and battery, 3.5k on a heat pump (after the grant) and 1.5k on loft boarding and insulation. We now have a negative carbon output on the house and spend about £40 a month on heating and hot water averaged out across the year. At least £15 of that is standing charge too.

    We are mid terrace though which probably helps and we had already replaced the doors and windows 5 years ago, didn’t do triple glazed, just normal upvc double.

  18. It’ll come, Centre for Alternative Technology in Wales was doing this in the 80’s. The thing is, home energy is not *THAT* expensive compared to building a super duper insulated home. Only when energy becomes mortgage levels of expensive will it get more common and even then people are more likely to just get solar

  20. He spent into 6 figures to get that house into that position. Thats way out of 95% of property owners means.

  21. Said this before. Stamp duty rebate.

    Give upto a £20k stamp duty rebate thst can be spent on solar, battery, heat pump and traditional heat saving technologies.

    Every time a house it sold there will be the chance to increase the solar capacity f the UK and grow a decentralised network of battery storage throughout the UK.

  23. In the 80s the government spent a lot on updating homes to internal bathrooms and central heating. It’s doable if there is enough push

    When people ripped out boilers and airing cupboards and tanks in the loft to fit combis – that must have cost thousands at the time too

  24. Ive just done calculations on battery storage using gpt. Gpt reckons id save about £100 per year at a cost of £3-£5k. At that rate it would take me 30 years to get my money back, but the batteries would be worn out after 10.
    Not worth it

  25. When Russia invaded Ukraine we were using Russian gas in Britain so I turned my Central heating thermostat down. It was surprisingly easy to get used to living with the house at 17.5°C. We wear woolly jumpers and warm socks in winter, are completely comfortable.

    I live in a 30-year-old house. I installed cavity wall insulation and doubled most of my loft insulation.

    My gas bill for heating and hot water is only £700 per year for a detached house with 4 double bedrooms!!!

    I would like to go green and install a heat pump but it would take 17 years for the energy savings to pay back the cost.

    Other passive house stuff like triple glazing or sealed house with heat exchanger are even less cost effective.

    YMMV. If you like wearing a T-shirt inside your house in winter then a heat pump will pay back a lot quicker for you.

  26. I know we’ve all mentioned and discussed the costs of the project but does the show mention the value of the property pre and post renovation? Did the cost of the works at least return in house value?

  27. The energy industry in the UK is predatory and worse than counterparts in the rest of Europe. It will ultimately require them to be completely on board and proponents of a green makeover which will cost them a lot of their profit margin.

    That with a growing disdain for green policy (pretty much abandoning our net zero aspirations) because of some right wing populist voices deriding it as expensive nonsense, will mean this likely never gets off the ground on a wide or affordable scale.

  28. It was fake TV.

    The zero bills are based on selling solar at rates 4x the wholesale cost that is funded through levvies on everybody else’s bills.

    As solar increases, that 15p a unit drops to 2-3p. In the Netherlands (and California etc) there’s also negative export rates where you have to pay to send your excess solar to the grid.

  29. No because it cost over £100k to convert it. There would be no ROI even with zero bills over the normal lifetime ownership of the house.

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