What does the energy efficient house of the future look like?

The key thing is removing your reliance on fossil fuels, such as gas and oil, in the home. That means using electricity to power your heating system as well as your cooking appliances. 

Once your home’s heating has been ‘electrified’, you can take advantage of renewable energy sources to power your home and your heating. These could come from the sun, ground, wind or sea, but for now we’re just looking at solar power. 

You’ll be able to do this by generating electricity yourself or by choosing clean electricity from the grid. 

All these features will work together with smart energy tariffs to make sure your home is using energy as efficiently as possible. 

So, what does the ‘gold standard’ future home look like? 

Our experts have taken a typical, three-bedroom semi-detached home and looked at a whole-house upgrade. We’ve based our calculations on standards set by the Assocication for Environment Conscious Buildings (AECB). 

One of the benefits of using these standards is that they use a step-by-step approach to making homes more energy efficient. This means you don’t have to make every single upgrade we talk about in this article to have a certified ‘energy efficient home’. 

Installing any one of these upgrades on their own would help your lower energy bills. But the secret of success is that they all work with each other to keep your energy bills as low as possible. 

Here’s how it works. We’ve grouped them into two areas: 

• The ‘power zone’ 
• The ‘heating zone’ 

First, your solar panels generate free, clean electricity from sunlight. The electricity from the solar panels goes to: 

• Charging your solar battery storage to use later. 
• Powering your appliances and lighting. 
• Charging your EV (if you have one). 
• Powering your heat pump. 
• Heating your water. 

If your solar panels don’t generate enough electricity, your heating system and appliances will use: 

• Any energy stored in the battery storage. 
• Any leftover charge in your EV (which acts like a battery). 

If your home still needs more power, you’ll be able to import electricity from the grid.

Ideally this will be at an off-peak time, which would be at a cheaper rate with a time-of-use tariff. You can also import electricity at cheaper times to store for later by charging your battery storage and your EV. 

You’ll be able to export any excess electricity from the solar panels. Smart electricity controls and smart heating controls will predict if your home needs power for heating and can export what it doesn’t need. 

Your heat pump, powered by a combination of your solar panels, stored electricity and imported energy, sends heat through your underfloor heating or radiators. 

Also, your home’s insulation and draught-proofing make sure that there’s much less wasted heat, using less energy to keep the home warm. And smart heating controls give you complete control over how your home is heated. 

There’s also a ventilation system to ensure good air quality without sacrificing warmth. This helps to avoid damp and condensation or risks from any other pollutants. 

We estimate the total energy bills for this kind of home would be just £430 a year, or £36 a month.

There’d be no costs for gas or other fuels, and no standing charge for a gas connection. 

We estimate you’d save around £1,378 a year (£114.83 a month) compared to a typical gas-fuelled home with none of these upgrades. This includes money you’d get from selling extra electricity to the grid with an export tariff. 

And, with your solar panels providing clean electricity for most of your energy needs, your carbon footprint would be considerably less. 

We estimate that this kind of house could save 3,766 kg of CO₂ a year based on how Great Britain’s electricity is currently generated. That’s the same amount of CO₂ as flying from the UK to Australia seven times.

As the nation moves to more renewable energy sources, this saving will get bigger over time. 

To calculate this CO₂ saving, we’ve assumed that: 

• The home uses battery storage and an EV battery to store electricity. 
• The solar panels generate 3,600kWh of electricity per year.

Yes, there are currently several schemes offering financial support to help fund some of these upgrades.

The cost of upgrading a typical home with energy efficiency measures varies depending on what upgrades you need. There are also a range of factors relating to the cost of materials and labour as well as the building’s: 

• size 
• type 
• construction 

Adding all these upgrades is a big investment, there’s no doubt. And which upgrades are best for you depends on: 

• your available budget 
• what your priorities are 
• the building itself 

So, it’s important to get professional advice from a qualified retrofit assessor (a specialist who looks at energy efficient home improvements) or an architect. It’s also important to plan for what you can install now as well as what you can prepare for later. 

Check out our energy tools and calculators, which can help you work out what energy efficient home improvements might be suitable for your home.

To find a retrofit assessor near you, use a service like TrustMark. If you want to improve your carbon footprint, focus on these improvements, if they’re suitable for your property: 

• A heat pump or, if you can’t install a heat pump, another low carbon heating system such as electric heating. 
• Solar panels. 
• Battery storage. Plus using the battery of an electric vehicle, if you have one. 
• Insulation that’s relatively low cost or easy to install. These are generally cavity wall insulation, top-up loft insulation and draught-proofing. 

You should also think about bigger upgrades, but these could be installed later. These include: 

• New insulation to walls, floors and any sloping ceilings.
• Advanced draught-proofing to increase the air tightness of the building, combined with a ventilation system.

If you want to prioritise saving energy and maintaining a comfortable temperature, prioritise the insulation improvements first.

This is why getting professional advice is so important to help you decide. 

These homes of the future will be warm, comfortable and have a fraction of the carbon footprint of current houses. 

Powered by free, infinite, clean energy from the sun, these homes will also be much cheaper to power and heat.

The more we upgrade our homes like this, the closer we get to making the UK a greener, healthier and more affordable place to live. 

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