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’.