LIKE if you like the idea of heating & powering your house without burning anything and SHARE if you think all new houses should be built with renewable technologies. Robert visits the inspiring, and award-winning, Moonstone House, to find out how this massive property uses zero burnt energy and in fact is actually generating power. It is bursting with new technology, is being constantly updated and is a true insight into a future where all new and normal houses are free from fossil fuels. For easy reference through each section of this episode, see *timestamps* below. *AND* If you like this episode, you might enjoy the previous episode on Tesla's Powerwall and how quickly it can respond in a powercut: ua-cam.com/video/9xuleBA4Zcg/v-deo.html
He may have missed a trick, he could run the ground source heat pump in reverse during summer when he has too much heat to heat up the ground slightly and make it even more efficient at pulling out heat during winter. Depending on local conditions and how fast the heat dissipates away in the ground.
Having grown up in housing estate with communal heating system (Roehampton in SW London) I remember the delight we all felt when the boiler broke down in the winter. Oh how we laughed as we danced to keep warm! Good video nonetheless ;-)
Robert, you are an great advocate of not burning oil and gas, but I would love to see some future videos on the most efficient wood stoves, wood pellet boilers etc. Keep up the great work.
This should be enforced viewing for every planning authority in the country. There is a housing estate currently being built near us with over 300 houses and not a single solar panel, heat pump or EV charge point in sight. When will these idiots wake up?
Profit (short term) is the key, sadly. If planning made them compulsory and if estates were made to plan the layout with all homes south facing, it would be a winner.
Why do you feel you know more than them? A super energy efficient home is like an EV Nice but twice the price It might be nice to imagine a world in which everyone drives a Tesla but it's also nice to imagine a world where everyone buys from Waitrose or FarmFoods and Tesco doesn't exist. Would screw the poor having to pay 3x for their food
Imagine, for a moment, the idea that instead of investing in huge power stations and gas fields and coal mines, power companies instead combined with estate companies to build affordable housing across the country with green energy generation on a similar scale to this house... Having renters that can reduce their carbon footprint simply by living there, and also generating massive amounts of electricity for the grid in a decentralized fashion, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I know that I would invest in a power company like that.
When I decided to build a new house some eight years ago major consideration in the design stage was Insulation. Living in a semi-urban area I was unable to have a 'modern' design but had to conform to being in keeping with my neighbours. I went for a fairly conventional build. The ground floor is suspended concrete beam with Polystyrene block fill, and flowscreed layer, with underfloor heating pipes. The first floor is standard block and beam with u/floor heating. The exterior walls are Thermalite block inside, with Brick exterior.A 200 mm cavity is insulated with pumped Expanded foam . The roof is of SIPs construction . All windows were to the highest spec available at the time. Ventilation is whole house via a heat recovery unit, Air supply comes via 40 mtrs of Earth pipe , exhausted air goes via the ASHP . On hot summer days we bring air from under the floor at 15-16 degrees for very cheap aircon. The roof has of course solar PV and Solar Thermal. The house has three bathrooms and six bedrooms, plus two large living rooms Although not free to run, the house costs last year were £2600.. For this we got heating and lighting for six people in two family groups with two dishwashers, two washing machines and two cookers. Plus TVs , computers, etc. Plus a heated Garage (30x20 ft with workshop in the roof) plus 15000 miles of EV motoring. The most important part of the design of course was Insulation , the House is a Tea cosy. During its first winter we had a failure of the heating system which was not noticed for five days, even with a heavy frost each night. You do not need a 'grand design' to make real energy savings, just some thought.
@@emilybarrance6460 I am not answering for Barry. His house was _some years ago._ As the vid shows, there has been amazing insulation advances. Matters have to be better today.
@@emilybarrance6460 The house is 11 x 10 two storied with gallery loft area, the garage 9.1 x 6 with a 9 x 3 room in the roof. The cost of the insulation has changed so much recently as has its material that a price from eight years ago has little relevance. My point is that insulation is probably the most important feature at the build stage as it is almost impossible to retrofit, and its benefits stay for the life of the building.
IAM. A BRICKLAYER OF 45 YEA,RS, JUST. FINISHED BUILDING OUR FAMILY HOUSE. IN LONDON , ( conservation area , Pain in the. Arss.). HAS A B EPC. , UP GRADE THE THERMO BLOCKS. to 125 mm . 80mm pir, AND LOT,S OF. GLASS AT THE-BACK . “” IT NOW NEED. AIR CONDITIONING .
I watch every vid you put out, but occasionally there's one that's a total and delightful surprise. This is one of those. Thank you (& thanks to the contributors too).
My wife and I are about 8 years out on building our (dream) green home, so I always appreciate seeing stuff like this. Would love to see more houses like this and see the details of how they're getting all these systems working together. He touched on that, but more detail would be great.
Fascinating. Perhaps the most important point was the heavy use of insulation. Depending upon where you are solar and/or batteries and/or heat pumps may or may not make sense, but insulation *always* makes sense.
As an OG follower of this channel, I remember when Robert use to do so many videos about innovation for homes and building, energy efficiency and costs. It's been 10 years and it's great to see another video like this, that is a leap forward. I think it is sad and highly misinformed when I see estate houses and developments around me in Atlanta, being called luxury based on the price and location when they still require you to pay rising heating and cooling bills and water without any systems in place to either eliminate them from the cost of ownership or to save money or to generate energy for those around them. The necessary shift is what is "affordable" and "lux" needs to change. I would much rather have an off grid capable home that produces on site all that I need and feeds it back to grid when I produce more than I can use than the mac mansions that will only be more expensive to run from day one. Just because you can afford something doesn't mean you should spend it.
I am a solid fuel heating engineer and I welcome this technology with open arms! We need more courses on how to design,install and maintain these systems! Come on! Let’s get the ball rolling and make it snowball!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Architecurally speaking I'm not a fan at all, but the drive and determination of the owner is thrilling! He should start a UA-cam channel of his own and go into greater detail about every aspect - maybe open source the blueprints and designs!
Our Passive House is stock neo Georgian ... dunno what the attraction is of Modern, I can't think of anything "groundbreaking" built 10, 20, 30 ... years ago that still looks good. But walk down a street in e.g. Bath and it is remains impressive year after year. ...
Gagh! Just to be clear I'm not a luddite, I like a lot of modern architecture (and also Georgian stuff in Bath!). I'm a huge fan of brutalism but this building just doesn't have any style IMHO - again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it just reminds me of a newer motorway service station, or a retail park or the roof of a petrol station forecourt or... bleugh! So long as the person who lives there is happy, that's all that matters and they're sharing the technology with us, not the design so that's all we should be judging! More power to him for creating the house he loves :)
Thanks to you Robert. Not only I learn a lot about electric cars and modern houses with renewable technologies, but my English is improving as well. Teaching English to French people through your videos was probably not expected by you and your team. Go on this way. It's incredibly profitable for us. Thanks again.
I have done this with my average size 100 year old house - 2 solar thermal panels in Garden, 3kwh PV on the roof, Air source heat pump, triple glazing, tons of insulation. My energy suite (Zappi, Eddi, Harvi, Hub) Have been 'filling up' my E-Niro and heating all my hot water without any input from the grid since March. Just waiting till I can afford a few more PV panels and battery storage.
@@antwnpowell Excellent. I'm looking to do the same when we move to a doer-upper. Did you do a blog, or have online resources you could share. I'm researching this stuff now. I'm especially interested in the costs/budget.
mugger858 the most cost effective in terms of quick payback was the solar thermal (compulsory on new builds in Spain) which is about 90% efficient compared to PV. Nick raimo has a good video on building an eco efficient house. I installed most of the stuff myself apart from the PVs, and I only have basic DIY skills .
Really great video - it should be broadcast on mainstream TV! I found it compelling viewing. John's passion is clearly evident and he's put his money where his mouth is to prove his beliefs. It demonstrates beyond any doubt that we can and must change the way we build in the UK. Adoption of the technologies available now should be made mandatory on all new building development schemes in the UK, whether they be residential housing, public buildings, commercial or industrial developments. The next stage that John is embarking upon is also critically important to the UK's future. Local power generation and storage across the UK is likely to be the most cost-effective way of stabilising the National Grid and help reduce the UK's dependence on imported energy. Looking forward to seeing more about this in future videos! 👍
@@ChocolateFrog Agreed. We need a system where eco-house-building is subsidised, and the subsidy is paid back over many years by a small surcharge on the energy bill. Thus the house costs the buyer the same as now and some, but not all, the energy cost savings are taken to pay for the insulation, PV, and heat pumps.
@@ChocolateFrog At least the insulation isn't that expensive as long is planned from beginning, high energy costs will be much higher over the years than an proper insulation from the start on. You can retrofit PV and other stuff later, but insulate a existing house is more expensive than doing it during construction.
I have been off the grid for 25 tears. I would really enjoy giving you a tour. If you search the web under "mad scientist lab in Montana" or "pyramid house in Montana". you will find me. It would be right up your street. I challenge and welcome you. No, I do not sell tin hats. I adore your show !
Brilliant video. Reminds me of a couple of decades ago when I visited the Alternative Energy Centre in North Wales. This further proves what can be done. What should be done, and eventually, what has to be done. And I'm so glad you didn't cut out the radical chat. 👍
Watching the first series of Grand Designs it is amazing to see how modern (by today’s standards) Kevin’s take on some of the builds we’re back then in early 2000s
As an HVAC engineer I am extremely interested in that vacuum core insulation... I just found a manufacturer who claims an R60 in just 50mm (~2 in)! That's unbelievable! With modern codes, the biggest challenge has become ventilation. Assemblies need to be so tight to prevent unwanted drafts that you need dedicated machines to provide breathable air. I'd have been interested to learn more about the ventilation system (it would almost have to be some form of energy recovery, right?)
I'm going to take a guess at it being actually unbelievable, and suggest that R60 applies to the center of a piece of product, and the installed overall insulation value of the wall, floor or roof, etc. being not as good. still, worth keeping an eye on. good for retrofit work, tight spaces.
@@Mike-Minion Yeah I've been specifying them for over a decade. You pretty much have to these days to meet both energy code and ventilation rate requirements.
@@DanielBates2 Insulation is always rated for the product, not the whole assembly; How could a manufacturer rate an assembly their product will be part of before it's even designed? With respect to the overall assembly, though, depending on how the insulation is used (e.g. between studs/furring strips vs. full cladding) the entire thing will still perform so much better than the equivalent construction using more traditional materials.
An inspiring view of how close we are to being able to make significant changes to our lives. The intelligent optimism that this episode, and this channel brings really helps me continue to believe in a better future. Thank you guys for keeping on keeping on. 👍🙏♥️🖖
Great episode Robert…Passive House standard mentioned for design/building results in 90% less energy used and now with the Plus and Premium versions - it's very straight forward to build every house like the the Moonstone House in the UK…Exeter City Council are building a sports centre to Passive House and there's a hospital in Frankfurt that is also built to PH (uses 50% less energy than a normal hospital). Social housing and private homes are being built to Passive House standard across the UK at similar costs as a normal house with massive ongoing savings and comfort/health benefits. Simple principles - insulation, high performance windows, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, eliminated thermal bridging and airtight (draft free) structure. We've just finished a Passive House Premium home in New Zealand which exports to the grid, runs our EV, etc.
Incredible. I absolutely love watching stuff like this. I dream of being able to do something like this. You share you dream with other and they think your mad! This is epic. Well done all involved
Thank you for this extremely inspiring episode! Please, please, please, do a special that delves deep into these types of systems and what it takes (technically) to get our homes completely off the grid like this (or indeed supply the grid as well). The selection, design and integration of so many systems is overwhelming for most of us however someone like Kaine from Virtus could do an in-depth look at what it takes I'm sure... If all 665,000 of your subscribers soaked up the info and acted on it and took 10 of their buddies along for the ride, the world would be a large step closer to a better place. Again, well done and our hats are off to all the Moonstone Legends!!
My favourite show yet, confirms everything I dare to imagine. Even the use of carbon negative materilas could be introduced to future housing builds that could support farming. We should knock down large estates starting with the most deprived areas first. Make life secure and comfortable for those trying to exist on the fringes of society benefits the whole of society.
John is a hero in my estimation for demonstrating what is possible. The comparison of the insulation thickness required in 2002 v 2020 was absolutely mind blowing. When I studied environmental science in 1993 I came across articles on houses built in Norway with zero heat loss and have wondered ever since why this is not made more of building standards because efficiency has always been the most effective means of reducing environmental impact and cost to the consumer. As long as the DoE is staffed with supporters of the corporate housing lobby noting can be expected to change, but why not have community led projects that embrace these types of technology? This man is shining a light for all to follow.
This is such a good prediction of the future of housing, we have been incredibly slow in adopting this technology , which allows us to reduce dependency on fossil fuels . Well done F/C lets see more examples . We are building an off grid house in Greece and will be using some of the ideas in Johns house , thank you .
We're literally one of the world leaders in renewable energy. Largest wind farm in the world in Yorkshire, 100% of energy from renewable sources on some days now.
You can go the beat them with a Stick rout via legislation or you can go the Carrot rout and have low cost to do and install with high returns for doing the improvements. Special interests usually end up wielding the Stick by the way.
They’ve just approved Cleve Hill solar park, the largest in the country and subsidy free. It comes with battery storage five times that of the Tesla built park in Australia! That and removing restrictions on further onshore wind makes the UK a leader in renewable energy.
Fully Charged goes Grand Designs and it is a great success! The most interesting FC episode in a very long time. Thanks to everyone for inviting you in and making the programme.
This is one of the most inspiring episodes yet. All three of the chaps on the film clearly present their inspiring (what's a synonym for 'inspiring'?) passion for what this house represents. Thank you FC!
Another great video, we're doing the exact same thing here at Helios Eco Lab with a 12.5 kWp solar PV system (54 panels) powering / heating the house with heat pumps and charging our fleet of electric cars which via our own simple V2H technology charges the house batteries when its cloudy. We are off grid in Greece which helps with a decent amount of sun. Haven't spent a cent on energy bills or petrol in many years. As you say house is a power station, car is an integral part of the house, a new paradigm. Also we grow a proportion of our own food, no sewage waste, all used for the veg gardens, rainwater harvesting, recycled materials, wind turbine, workshop making electric bikes, solar thermal heating for hot water and storage in internal pool. Loads more new innovations in the pipe line.
Great content. Just an interesting point I considered while watching this: That house is perfectly suited to its environment. If you were to build it in somewhere like the south of France you'd sizzle like a sausage with the sun coming through the windows. Would be fascinating to see how to build something like this in hotter regions.
The thing people often forget is that insulation works both ways. It can also stop heat getting in, as well as heat getting out. So vacuum insulation can serve much the same purpose in a hot climate - the problem is that human beings themselves generate heat - as we're warm-blooded animals - so you would need some way to get rid of that heat to keep it cool. But, of course, heat is energy, so it could be converted into power for running the air conditioning, perhaps. Though, I do like the sound of the implicit engineering challenge you've thrown down there. It would require different solutions to lose heat than to try to keep it in. And, I agree, it'd be fascinating to see how to build something like this - in reverse - for hotter climates. (In ancient times, they actually used to make "ice pits" to keep food cold for preservation. Basically, when it's Winter and there's ice around, dig a hole and fill it with straw to insulate it, then pop the ice into the hole. Put some more straw on top and then cover it over. As I say, insulation works both ways and it's surprising how long they could keep a big lump of ice from melting - so it could keep food and drink literally "on ice" - purely with good insulation. Alexander the Great reportedly used "ice pits" on his world-conquering adventures.)
Look again. Those glazed walls have pretty big overhangs. In summer when the sun is high this reduces solar gain, and in winter when it is low, the solar gain is maximised. Basic passive house design principle.
The big windows are facing SW and have massive overhangs - keeping high Summer Sun out but letting low Winter Sun in. Our Passive House takes at least a week long Summer Heatwave for the internal temperature to get to the point where we consider opening windows in the evening to cool it down. (Plus the mechanical ventilation bypasses the heat exchanger at night in summer when house is warm and outside is cool)
Robert, what a beautiful piece of film-making and what a stunning property. If every home were self sufficient in this manner, what a difference it would make to our planet. Life in tranquility. Thanks for all the work you put into this.
Fascinating video. I really admire people who are trying to push matters forward at their cost to show the way to the rest of us. The key as I see it is to make the key parts of this scaleable and affordable for the masses.
It would be very interesting for this home owner to create a set of design guidelines based upon his experience to convert existing homes into power generators (producing more energy than is used) I think most people wouldn't know step 1 about how to go about it and of course typical homes are much much smaller
I think the snag would be that most houses don't have a massive former pig shed alongside on which to mount huge numbers of solar panels! Electric Export pays peanuts, currently, I reckon the limit for Average Person would be achieved if they had an Electric Car at Home during the day, as many PV panels as they can fit on the roof, and a car charger that would divert any excess PV into the car. Beyond that currently spending more would be because you can, not for good economics.
Thank you for this. We have just purchased land in country Victoria, Australia and are now designing. Passive heating, insulation (earth shield), hydronic climate control, double glazed windows, solar, earth loop, recycled water, water catchment and maybe wind are all part of the mix. Where we are building is an average 5 degrees C colder than Melbourne, nowhere near as cold as the UK but cold enough. But, being Australia we will still have the hot weather, so we are looking at cooling solutions as well. Cross ventilation, orientation, the use of shading and eaves are also in the mix. Our intention is a high capital expense upfront (at the time of building) and low operating expenses for years to come - especially in retirement. One of the main issues we have the area we are building is the possibility of bushfires and the loss of electricity when needed most. To protect the house using a pumped sprinkler system connected to rainwater tanks using renewable stored electricity. So, having battery backup not only will be used to store excess electricity but to ensure continuous power when most needed. To date, I had not seen all of the concepts, I have been researching, working together until this show. Appreciated.
Excellent content, this message needs to be pushed to the National house builders who are only focused on bottom line profit. We build our current housing stock in such an old fashioned way and use outdated methods to heat them, it’s crazy. I would have loved to have done the air test on that house! Great work 👍
This week we got 5.4 Kw of solar and 7.5 kWh of batteries and Eddie device for hot water, zappie 2 charger for car. Drive electric car, all about trying to lower carbon, footprint and in long run cheaper. This show give direction what you can do, batteries are still not cheap but more achievable. Only way to go with solar. But these things should be done from days 1 in houses. Less expensive to do when new house being constructed.
A vet turned his 3-bed semi into a passivehouse (with an extension too) for 60K last year. Retrofit is always going to be quite expensive, which is why it's _so_ important to build the damn things right in the first place. I've spent ~5K on this house so far, and it's going to be about 28K by the time I'm done (to turn a 1960s detached house into an enerphit passivehouse). But spread over 12 years that's a very manageable £2,200/year. Getting hordes of unemployed people retrofitting all the houses in the UK with grants is a good way to deal with the depression that is coming. But I'm not sure our govt has the vision for it...
Thank you! You’re content is always great but something about this video really struck me. Seriously, amazing work! I’ll be doing a reno soon and will be using this video for inspiration. Thanks again!
Moved to France in 2013 where we bought a 200 yr old stone house which needed completely renovating. Ripped everything back to the stone and started again. We put double the insulation required by French building standards and have put 3 wood burning stoves in. That is all the heating we need as once warmed up in the winter the massive walls retain the heat. The house is 200 square metres floor area. In March last year bought the first and only new car I will ever buy in my life (I am retired now), the Kia e-Niro. We have 2 acres here plus an acre of woodland 5 mins walk from the house. Last year replaced the petrol lawnmower and strimmer with Li-On powered machines and this year the chainsaw went electric too..In May last year added 8 x solar panels on the barn and produced 2,150 kWh in the first year with them, enough to power the e-Niro for 14,000 km. It isn’t perfect but we burn no gas or oil in heating the house, half of which comes from compressed oak sawdust logs recycled from the French forestry industry which is huge (France has the same area of forest cover as the entire UK land area)..the rest comes from coppicing and maintaining our own woodland and from local farmers. The common firewood here is coppiced sweet chestnut and hazel which they run on a 20 year cycle, clearcutting an acre or so at a time...it is amazing to see how fast it regenerates. Financial constraints mean it will be a few years before the next steps which will be an air source heat pump and 4 more solar panels. Some friends here have air source heat pumps and these things are getting more and more popular now which government subsidies to install them. Our experiences with the car, solar and garden equipment recorded on my UA-cam channel ‘Kia e-Niro Diaries'
With that amount of solar, it probably is providing enough even on the most cloudy, dark, winter days to keep the house & batteries up. That's the key point with overcapacity. It helps you compensate for those periods. Also, cooling the house in the summer is as much of a topic as heating is. With global warming, well insulated houses and systems that can keep the temperature at whatever desired level is going to be more important. Of course, with that amount of solar energy they can probably turn the swimming pool into an ice skating rig in the middle of the summer :-).
The design has significant roof overhangs of the main SW facing windows, thus keeping high Summer sun off the glass, but allowing low Winter sun in. IME that amount of insulation, sufficient to avoid heating in Winter, should mean that no cooling is needed in Summer, but reversible heat pump putting some cooled water though under floor heating would do the trick - only a tiny amount of energy would be needed, given how little external heat will get through the insulation
One disadvantage of this PV installation is the inclination of the panels, they are relatively flat. If it's snowing, the snow covers them until it melts away. With modules inclined 45 ° the snow is sliding off in a couple of hours, and the panels start to work again. But overall the house is really impressive, good work.
Thank you for this glorious dose of hope in this trying time. Hopefully we here in the U.S. can get back into the business of hope in January. Please wish us luck.
Thanks to Robert and the FC team for another eye-opener and positive report on people getting on with doing the right thing and thinking past the ends of their noses. Thanks also to Mr Croft for his own perspective and self belief that doing this was the right thing, and doing it properly right from the get go.
Thank you to John for sharing this. Of course for most of us it’s a house from our dreams, but the message is that this is reality. This sort of technology should be compulsory for all new builds and subsidised for existing homes.
I was interested in that product too. Living in a tiny 1900s end terrace with no cavity walls the heating bills are huge for the property size. Standard insulation is too bulky, we'd end up with rabbit hutch rooms!! Will defo look into vacupor
Vacupor might have a good R value, but it is a pain in the A**e to fit...you cannot cut it plus any slight penetration damage to the panels during fitting renders them useless...so careful where you put screws and nails!
@@davewilliams6172 The other thing that concerns me is the longevity. It seems like that is not entirely certain. One reference I found was talking 30-50 years. Now granted, I'll statistically likely be dead by then, but we really should be looking to reduce the cycle of demolition and recreation if sustainability is the focus. My house is originally around 150 years old. It's a hog for the gas. Should I look to add this as internal insulation? Would it even be effective? Would it last? Do mice like chewing on it? (Rural location)
Now that's what building smart and responsible looks like. Why don't others take this into consideration? Especially in the context of very large or unlimited budgets. Why not building smart from the beginning and have very little maintenance costs later? Why do they go head on and then start looking for solutions that may or may not apply at later stages? I really can't imagine the joy and satisfaction this guy must feel, every day, just knowing he's built and lives in such an amazing home, yet have virtually no running costs. Transportation included. Great, inspiring video, Robert, as always. Cheers!
This looks to me to be a new way to building and selling houses. The builder /developer builds a 100 house estate with ground source built in for all the douses and all the other systems described in this video. Then he sells houses that do not have heating or hot water, these are provided on a leasehold system but the rest of the house is on an owner/occupier sale. This way the developer /builder then sells the excess electricity to the grid making a profit some of which goes towards maintaining the condition of the estate i.e. keeping the grounds and open spaces spruce.
Nice seeing you use the new time stamp chapters feature on UA-cam, I really like this functionality, even if this video was so beautifully shot that I wouldn't jump ahead to any chapter but still it's really useful for coming back to a video later and watching only a certain part.
Graham Brown if you understand how much electricity would be required to go through the grid to power every car (as they would all be electric), you would also understand that the grid would not cope with it.
@@Martian74 BS! 1. It is going to take 10-15 years to replace every car on the road. 2. Wind and Solar will be providing much more energy by then. 3. Bi directional V2G charging will actually assist the grid at peak demand as opposed to putting pressure on. 4. Domestic Solar and Battery storage is dropping in price, and will be a no brainer within 5 years. 5. EV's are currently only on about 3% of total car sales, it is hardly a surge in energy demand from EV's, so even for UK government, we will have plenty of time to PLAN! 5. You consume far too much mainstream media if you say that.
@Martian74, BS^2, Graham is perfectly right. Just go google 'National Grid Future Energy Scenarios' for their pdf. The grid at large is entirely happy about any EV scenario between now and 2030, any issues are more likely in the local infrastructure.
I don’t just like it, I LOVE IT!!! I wish that a lot of this technology could be retrofitted into modern day houses for reasonable prices. Robert has hit the nail on the head about the underground heating makes so much sense, even if it brought the incoming water a few degrees hotter, a typical gas bill would be greatly reduced. The insulation aspect looked brilliant and sensible to do, I was amazed by the thinnest eco board equals the meter of polystyrene!!! Take my money!!! Thanks for the wonderful show guys and gals. It’s brilliant brilliant and brilliant!...Phil 🇬🇧. 👍👍👍
Because nuclear gives high quality and reliable baseload power. Solar doesn't, especially in countries like England. You also don't need a complicated and extremely expensive smart grid that may not actually work well. A combination of nuclear and whatever grid scale storage technology is being developed for renewables (for peak power requirements) would do a much better job with far less land use.
I really enjoy your videos and what I learn from them. I really like the idea of developing a new neighborhood and the idea of setting aside space within the neighborhood to create a virtual power plant to run the homes on. Super-insulate each home and setup solar, wind, ground source heat and battery storage to power the homes and provide comfortable living spaces. Here in the U.S. I've seen some neighborhoods put together a co-op and bring in solar power to homes in their area at reduced installation and material costs due to the number of homes adding solar power.
I watch all your programmes and find them very informative. I have a suggestion. I completely understand that there is a degree of reforming zeal still required around renewable energy (we are all creatures of habit after all and changing habits requires overcoming quite a lot of inertia). For those of us who aren't in a position to build in state of the art renewable-friendly technology from scratch, we are faced with having to adapt what we have. From a very selfish point of view I wondered if there was some mileage in looking at, for instance, converting your average domestic property from gas to totally electric. I took the plunge last year and installed 5.5KWh of solar panels on my roof and am trying to get my head round what to replace my current gas combi boiler with when it's useful life ends in a couple of year's time. I think I'm going to need some sort of boiler + storage tank combo. For me, and I'm sure a lot of people, tanks for hot water were something that you got rid off with the advent of the gas combi boiler, so it feels like a retro-step even if the actuality is quite different. Just a thought.
This is good stuff and a bit of a return to the Fully Charged of a few years ago... you guys got just a bit too car-centric for a while there. Anyway, would be great to get a video on smaller scale home energy solutions more in reach for the average person to complement this one. Cheers!
16:45 Robert touches on the concept of negative externalities. A Fully Charged video on negative externalities and pigouvian taxation would be great. A carbon tax in the UK is long overdue in my opinion but its more likely we will see wider implementation of the EU's cap and trade system in the years to come.
Love this sort of content - A deviation every now and again from cars - I know that is what it all starts in the conversation but I love the home focus too.. Can we have an update video on the Mixergy tank you had installed in your own home a year or two ago... good/bad/mixed?? Thumbs up!
I love that Fully Charged is covering heating and buildings in more detail. Emissions from the buildings we work, live and play in, dwarf those from transport.
What an inspiring house and mindset. It would be amazing if planning authorities became braver, and enforced this kind of thing with every single property that is built going forward. Imagine buying a house and being told, by the way you won't have any energy bills and the communal heating/solar will generally pay you £X every year.... oh and except for wear and tear going anywhere in your car is also free! ... oh to dream!
Ask your MP for it. They don't get enough letters asking them to fix this stuff. Building regs are being reviewed right now, (they tried to make them worse! but there was a huge hoo-ha). But we need MPs to understand that this is good for everyone, because house-builders keep telling them it'll cost money and make houses expensive, which is just a lie. And of course they don't care how much they cost to _run_. The system optimises for the cheapest and nastiest possible _to build_ (that looks pretty) at the moment.
My brother lives in a new house with a communal heating system. I think it's a CHP setup that's supposedly biomass fired, but in fact I think it ends up gas fired most of the time. It still works out far cheaper, and makes much more sense than the individual boilers in most houses. Such a shame they didn't add some bore holes and heat pumps.
Gringe Haglet There are several developments in London with communal biomass or heat pump systems, or CHP systems. However residents are finding they are paying well over traditional rates for power, and are unable to switch suppliers. Some estates also have huge management charges to pay the maintenance of the systems. They are a good idea in principal, but unless they work out significantly cheaper than traditional sources of power and heat then they won't be widely adopted.
Nice one Robert. Good video. Surprised you didn't talk about solar passive design - would love it if you could do a video on that! For some reason it never seems to come up in a lot of house design videos but in my opinion it is the cheapest most effective thing you can do to make an energy efficient house. It's not that hard - just make sure you put most of your windows facing South (in Northern hemisphere) or facing North (in Southern hemisphere), insulate well and have thermal mass on the inside. Also - if you haven't orientated your house correctly the insulation and thermal mass will actually work against you. I live in a solar passive designed house in Australia (near Canberra) and we rarely have to use any additional heating or cooling. Love your work Robert!
I recall a program in the early 2000's that covered the early stages of them building this house, where they were only at the stage of boring the geothermal hole and laying the ground heat network. It's nice to see someone go back and actually document the finished work.
This vid did touch on that matters have moved on technically. Having a geothermal borehole is an expensive undertaking. It would need to be communal, or a very large house with a well heeled owner.
Very impressive and obviously Building Regs. for new builds could and should replicate this at scale. However, I would suggest the real challenge is what to do with the 27 million existing households in the UK, particularly the millions of Victorian 2-up 2-down solid wall properties densely situated where space prohibits ground source pumps and dense insulation. Please Fully Charged do some episodes not exhibiting the tech. of the top 5% richest in society, e.g. renovating existing houses, the second hand EV market etc. etc. p.s. love the show!
What a beautiful home, and what a beautiful philosophy that went into its construction. Not just another massive wasteful house...but one that is helping its neighbors.
Everyone I know uses 100% renewable energy to heat their homes. I live in southwestern British Columbia, and almost all of us use hydroelectric power to run heat pumps (if they're lucky) or baseboard heaters (if they're unlucky). So I was confused by the title until I realized it wasn't about heating and powering a house with renewables so much, as it was making a really efficient house that has some on-site electric generation. Reading about "HEAT[ing]" and "POWER[ing]" a house confused me initially. To me they're one and the same, as one typically uses electricity to heat a house here too. When I was a kid some people were still on oil heat, but everyone I know upgraded their oil heat to heat pumps so I haven't thought of the two as being separate things since I was a little kid. It was a good video, with a bit of culture shock for me (as usual). Thank you. :)
LIKE if you like the idea of heating & powering your house without burning anything and SHARE if you think all new houses should be built with renewable technologies.
Robert visits the inspiring, and award-winning, Moonstone House, to find out how this massive property uses zero burnt energy and in fact is actually generating power. It is bursting with new technology, is being constantly updated and is a true insight into a future where all new and normal houses are free from fossil fuels. For easy reference through each section of this episode, see *timestamps* below. *AND* If you like this episode, you might enjoy the previous episode on Tesla's Powerwall and how quickly it can respond in a powercut: ua-cam.com/video/9xuleBA4Zcg/v-deo.html
Excellent, Sharing Through TheTRUTH Network...
Excellent, Added To My Research Library...
He may have missed a trick, he could run the ground source heat pump in reverse during summer when he has too much heat to heat up the ground slightly and make it even more efficient at pulling out heat during winter. Depending on local conditions and how fast the heat dissipates away in the ground.
Having grown up in housing estate with communal heating system (Roehampton in SW London) I remember the delight we all felt when the boiler broke down in the winter. Oh how we laughed as we danced to keep warm!
Good video nonetheless ;-)
Robert, you are an great advocate of not burning oil and gas, but I would love to see some future videos on the most efficient wood stoves, wood pellet boilers etc. Keep up the great work.
This should be enforced viewing for every planning authority in the country. There is a housing estate currently being built near us with over 300 houses and not a single solar panel, heat pump or EV charge point in sight. When will these idiots wake up?
Never. Until forced.
Profit (short term) is the key, sadly. If planning made them compulsory and if estates were made to plan the layout with all homes south facing, it would be a winner.
Why do you feel you know more than them?
A super energy efficient home is like an EV
Nice but twice the price
It might be nice to imagine a world in which everyone drives a Tesla but it's also nice to imagine a world where everyone buys from Waitrose or FarmFoods and Tesco doesn't exist. Would screw the poor having to pay 3x for their food
@@kaya051285 rubbish
@@kaya051285 If insulated at the build stage the cost is minimal, The biggest cost of many 'affordable houses' is CEO's bonus.
Robert, please do not apologise for your rants, we are with you on many of them.
on ALL of them!
Count me in.
He's British, it can't be helped...
Probably my favorite parts of the show.
@@AWildBard One of, yes.
Imagine, for a moment, the idea that instead of investing in huge power stations and gas fields and coal mines, power companies instead combined with estate companies to build affordable housing across the country with green energy generation on a similar scale to this house... Having renters that can reduce their carbon footprint simply by living there, and also generating massive amounts of electricity for the grid in a decentralized fashion, all while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I know that I would invest in a power company like that.
I dunno.... sounds kinda communist to me
council housing estates + municipal power utilities + community ownership & democratic management = sounds great to me
@@matthewseymour8972 of the fully automated luxury type :-)
😍👍🏻
Two weeks ago, Tesla registered as a power co in the the U.K.
Fully Charged, you fine people are doing an amazing job during these difficult times! Your content is appreciated :)
This channel is getting better. Good jobs guys!
+++1
When I decided to build a new house some eight years ago major consideration in the design stage was Insulation. Living in a semi-urban area I was unable to have a 'modern' design but had to conform to being in keeping with my neighbours. I went for a fairly conventional build. The ground floor is suspended concrete beam with Polystyrene block fill, and flowscreed layer, with underfloor heating pipes. The first floor is standard block and beam with u/floor heating. The exterior walls are Thermalite block inside, with Brick exterior.A 200 mm cavity is insulated with pumped Expanded foam . The roof is of SIPs construction . All windows were to the highest spec available at the time. Ventilation is whole house via a heat recovery unit, Air supply comes via 40 mtrs of Earth pipe , exhausted air goes via the ASHP .
On hot summer days we bring air from under the floor at 15-16 degrees for very cheap aircon.
The roof has of course solar PV and Solar Thermal. The house has three bathrooms and six bedrooms, plus two large living rooms
Although not free to run, the house costs last year were £2600.. For this we got heating and lighting for six people in two family groups with two dishwashers, two washing machines and two cookers. Plus TVs , computers, etc. Plus a heated Garage (30x20 ft with workshop in the roof) plus 15000 miles of EV motoring.
The most important part of the design of course was Insulation , the House is a Tea cosy. During its first winter we had a failure of the heating system which was not noticed for five days, even with a heavy frost each night.
You do not need a 'grand design' to make real energy savings, just some thought.
How big is the house and how much did the insulation cost?
@@emilybarrance6460
I am not answering for Barry. His house was _some years ago._ As the vid shows, there has been amazing insulation advances. Matters have to be better today.
@@emilybarrance6460 The house is 11 x 10 two storied with gallery loft area, the garage 9.1 x 6 with a 9 x 3 room in the roof.
The cost of the insulation has changed so much recently as has its material that a price from eight years ago has little relevance. My point is that insulation is probably the most important feature at the build stage as it is almost impossible to retrofit, and its benefits stay for the life of the building.
IAM. A BRICKLAYER OF 45 YEA,RS, JUST. FINISHED BUILDING OUR FAMILY HOUSE. IN LONDON , ( conservation area , Pain in the. Arss.). HAS A B EPC. , UP GRADE THE THERMO BLOCKS. to 125 mm . 80mm pir, AND LOT,S OF. GLASS AT THE-BACK . “” IT NOW NEED. AIR CONDITIONING .
@Peter Hicks You point being? By the way , as I type this my car is being charged from the roof, the house is currently using NO imported electricity!
I watch every vid you put out, but occasionally there's one that's a total and delightful surprise. This is one of those. Thank you (& thanks to the contributors too).
As a Patreon supporter of FullyCharged (to the tune of a contribution of a few dollars a month) ... Your Welcome Mark
@@markcayer4859 Mark thanks so much for your contribution. You are a hero
My wife and I are about 8 years out on building our (dream) green home, so I always appreciate seeing stuff like this. Would love to see more houses like this and see the details of how they're getting all these systems working together. He touched on that, but more detail would be great.
Wouldn't be a fully charged episode without a little rant! 😂
Fascinating. Perhaps the most important point was the heavy use of insulation. Depending upon where you are solar and/or batteries and/or heat pumps may or may not make sense, but insulation *always* makes sense.
As an OG follower of this channel, I remember when Robert use to do so many videos about innovation for homes and building, energy efficiency and costs. It's been 10 years and it's great to see another video like this, that is a leap forward.
I think it is sad and highly misinformed when I see estate houses and developments around me in Atlanta, being called luxury based on the price and location when they still require you to pay rising heating and cooling bills and water without any systems in place to either eliminate them from the cost of ownership or to save money or to generate energy for those around them.
The necessary shift is what is "affordable" and "lux" needs to change. I would much rather have an off grid capable home that produces on site all that I need and feeds it back to grid when I produce more than I can use than the mac mansions that will only be more expensive to run from day one. Just because you can afford something doesn't mean you should spend it.
I am a solid fuel heating engineer and I welcome this technology with open arms! We need more courses on how to design,install and maintain these systems! Come on! Let’s get the ball rolling and make it snowball!
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder! Architecurally speaking I'm not a fan at all, but the drive and determination of the owner is thrilling! He should start a UA-cam channel of his own and go into greater detail about every aspect - maybe open source the blueprints and designs!
Looks better than most UK housing, though. Much better than the beginning of A20 by the port.
An ugly blot on a beautiful landscape.
Our Passive House is stock neo Georgian ... dunno what the attraction is of Modern, I can't think of anything "groundbreaking" built 10, 20, 30 ... years ago that still looks good. But walk down a street in e.g. Bath and it is remains impressive year after year. ...
@@wannabeowner
You haven't seen many new well designed and built houses.
Gagh! Just to be clear I'm not a luddite, I like a lot of modern architecture (and also Georgian stuff in Bath!). I'm a huge fan of brutalism but this building just doesn't have any style IMHO - again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder but it just reminds me of a newer motorway service station, or a retail park or the roof of a petrol station forecourt or... bleugh! So long as the person who lives there is happy, that's all that matters and they're sharing the technology with us, not the design so that's all we should be judging! More power to him for creating the house he loves :)
Thanks to you Robert. Not only I learn a lot about electric cars and modern houses with renewable technologies, but my English is improving as well. Teaching English to French people through your videos was probably not expected by you and your team. Go on this way. It's incredibly profitable for us. Thanks again.
this looks really impressive, but could you do an episode with tiny houses, would be nice!
We want to do lots with normal houses, but and *sssshh* don’t tell anyone but this was local and convenient for our first filming post lockdown.
@@fullychargedshow You did smaller houses in scotland that had some of this tech in them.
I have done this with my average size 100 year old house - 2 solar thermal panels in Garden, 3kwh PV on the roof, Air source heat pump, triple glazing, tons of insulation. My energy suite (Zappi, Eddi, Harvi, Hub) Have been 'filling up' my E-Niro and heating all my hot water without any input from the grid since March. Just waiting till I can afford a few more PV panels and battery storage.
@@antwnpowell Excellent. I'm looking to do the same when we move to a doer-upper. Did you do a blog, or have online resources you could share. I'm researching this stuff now. I'm especially interested in the costs/budget.
mugger858 the most cost effective in terms of quick payback was the solar thermal (compulsory on new builds in Spain) which is about 90% efficient compared to PV. Nick raimo has a good video on building an eco efficient house. I installed most of the stuff myself apart from the PVs, and I only have basic DIY skills .
Really great video - it should be broadcast on mainstream TV! I found it compelling viewing.
John's passion is clearly evident and he's put his money where his mouth is to prove his beliefs. It demonstrates beyond any doubt that we can and must change the way we build in the UK.
Adoption of the technologies available now should be made mandatory on all new building development schemes in the UK, whether they be residential housing, public buildings, commercial or industrial developments.
The next stage that John is embarking upon is also critically important to the UK's future. Local power generation and storage across the UK is likely to be the most cost-effective way of stabilising the National Grid and help reduce the UK's dependence on imported energy.
Looking forward to seeing more about this in future videos! 👍
WOW. Imagine if every house, building in the UK had sola and power walls. How clean would our air become!
Its simple Robert every new house should have a GSHP and be super insulated no excuse
And PV!
Not so simple when housing needs to be affordable.
@@ChocolateFrog Agreed. We need a system where eco-house-building is subsidised, and the subsidy is paid back over many years by a small surcharge on the energy bill. Thus the house costs the buyer the same as now and some, but not all, the energy cost savings are taken to pay for the insulation, PV, and heat pumps.
We have the renewable heat incentive scheme which does that, but it closes next March.
@@ChocolateFrog At least the insulation isn't that expensive as long is planned from beginning, high energy costs will be much higher over the years than an proper insulation from the start on. You can retrofit PV and other stuff later, but insulate a existing house is more expensive than doing it during construction.
I have been off the grid for 25 tears. I would really enjoy giving you a tour. If you search the web under "mad scientist lab in Montana" or "pyramid house in Montana". you will find me. It would be right up your street. I challenge and welcome you. No, I do not sell tin hats. I adore your show !
25 tears? jk Looks like a superb place though. Well done!
Excellent job 👏
Brilliant video. Reminds me of a couple of decades ago when I visited the Alternative Energy Centre in North Wales. This further proves what can be done. What should be done, and eventually, what has to be done.
And I'm so glad you didn't cut out the radical chat. 👍
The toolbar along the bottom is fantastic......& Amazing house & video.
Robert goes Grand Designs :-)
Doh! you beat me to it!
I was expecting to see Kevin McCloud pop his head round the corner
Watching the first series of Grand Designs it is amazing to see how modern (by today’s standards) Kevin’s take on some of the builds we’re back then in early 2000s
As an HVAC engineer I am extremely interested in that vacuum core insulation... I just found a manufacturer who claims an R60 in just 50mm (~2 in)! That's unbelievable!
With modern codes, the biggest challenge has become ventilation. Assemblies need to be so tight to prevent unwanted drafts that you need dedicated machines to provide breathable air. I'd have been interested to learn more about the ventilation system (it would almost have to be some form of energy recovery, right?)
look up erv and hrv units on youtube. very good info on how they work.
I'm going to take a guess at it being actually unbelievable, and suggest that R60 applies to the center of a piece of product, and the installed overall insulation value of the wall, floor or roof, etc. being not as good. still, worth keeping an eye on. good for retrofit work, tight spaces.
@@Mike-Minion Yeah I've been specifying them for over a decade. You pretty much have to these days to meet both energy code and ventilation rate requirements.
@@DanielBates2 Insulation is always rated for the product, not the whole assembly; How could a manufacturer rate an assembly their product will be part of before it's even designed? With respect to the overall assembly, though, depending on how the insulation is used (e.g. between studs/furring strips vs. full cladding) the entire thing will still perform so much better than the equivalent construction using more traditional materials.
Smidge204 can you name a company selling insulations like that?
An inspiring view of how close we are to being able to make significant changes to our lives. The intelligent optimism that this episode, and this channel brings really helps me continue to believe in a better future. Thank you guys for keeping on keeping on. 👍🙏♥️🖖
You are my favorite "electric channel" on YT. Thank you! 👍👍👍
Great episode Robert…Passive House standard mentioned for design/building results in 90% less energy used and now with the Plus and Premium versions - it's very straight forward to build every house like the the Moonstone House in the UK…Exeter City Council are building a sports centre to Passive House and there's a hospital in Frankfurt that is also built to PH (uses 50% less energy than a normal hospital). Social housing and private homes are being built to Passive House standard across the UK at similar costs as a normal house with massive ongoing savings and comfort/health benefits. Simple principles - insulation, high performance windows, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery, eliminated thermal bridging and airtight (draft free) structure. We've just finished a Passive House Premium home in New Zealand which exports to the grid, runs our EV, etc.
Incredible. I absolutely love watching stuff like this. I dream of being able to do something like this. You share you dream with other and they think your mad! This is epic. Well done all involved
Thank you for this extremely inspiring episode! Please, please, please, do a special that delves deep into these types of systems and what it takes (technically) to get our homes completely off the grid like this (or indeed supply the grid as well). The selection, design and integration of so many systems is overwhelming for most of us however someone like Kaine from Virtus could do an in-depth look at what it takes I'm sure... If all 665,000 of your subscribers soaked up the info and acted on it and took 10 of their buddies along for the ride, the world would be a large step closer to a better place. Again, well done and our hats are off to all the Moonstone Legends!!
My favourite show yet, confirms everything I dare to imagine. Even the use of carbon negative materilas could be introduced to future housing builds that could support farming.
We should knock down large estates starting with the most deprived areas first.
Make life secure and comfortable for those trying to exist on the fringes of society benefits the whole of society.
owners passion is infectious ( in that good way). THANKS for another great video
Just slighty over my budget, but what an amazing house. Loved the explanations and motivations. Awesome.
John is a hero in my estimation for demonstrating what is possible. The comparison of the insulation thickness required in 2002 v 2020 was absolutely mind blowing. When I studied environmental science in 1993 I came across articles on houses built in Norway with zero heat loss and have wondered ever since why this is not made more of building standards because efficiency has always been the most effective means of reducing environmental impact and cost to the consumer. As long as the DoE is staffed with supporters of the corporate housing lobby noting can be expected to change, but why not have community led projects that embrace these types of technology? This man is shining a light for all to follow.
This is such a good prediction of the future of housing, we have been incredibly slow in adopting this technology , which allows us to reduce dependency on fossil fuels . Well done F/C lets see more examples . We are building an off grid house in Greece and will be using some of the ideas in Johns house , thank you .
If only the UK government were serious about reducing out carbon output. Legislation is the only way
We're literally one of the world leaders in renewable energy. Largest wind farm in the world in Yorkshire, 100% of energy from renewable sources on some days now.
The government is a little busy at present with COVID and Brexit... they'll get back to you in 2025.
You can go the beat them with a Stick rout via legislation or you can go the Carrot rout and have low cost to do and install with high returns for doing the improvements. Special interests usually end up wielding the Stick by the way.
They’ve just approved Cleve Hill solar park, the largest in the country and subsidy free. It comes with battery storage five times that of the Tesla built park in Australia! That and removing restrictions on further onshore wind makes the UK a leader in renewable energy.
@@begood6011 Excellent! Economies improve with low cost energy availability.
What a gorgeous house!
1) Thank you for Social Distancing.
2) Thank you for the timestamps.
If you need to ask the price you can't afford it!
Fully Charged goes Grand Designs and it is a great success! The most interesting FC episode in a very long time. Thanks to everyone for inviting you in and making the programme.
12:51 - this is where I notice/realize why everyone is so far apart. excellent.
This is one of the most inspiring episodes yet. All three of the chaps on the film clearly present their inspiring (what's a synonym for 'inspiring'?) passion for what this house represents. Thank you FC!
Excellent video! To echo what others have said, I'd love to see these concepts combined with tiny houses!
What a beautifully made video. Incredible work team. Can't believe it's free for everyone. Thank you.
I love these kinds of videos! thanks for sharing such an amazing home.
Another great video, we're doing the exact same thing here at Helios Eco Lab with a 12.5 kWp solar PV system (54 panels) powering / heating the house with heat pumps and charging our fleet of electric cars which via our own simple V2H technology charges the house batteries when its cloudy. We are off grid in Greece which helps with a decent amount of sun. Haven't spent a cent on energy bills or petrol in many years. As you say house is a power station, car is an integral part of the house, a new paradigm. Also we grow a proportion of our own food, no sewage waste, all used for the veg gardens, rainwater harvesting, recycled materials, wind turbine, workshop making electric bikes, solar thermal heating for hot water and storage in internal pool. Loads more new innovations in the pipe line.
I absolutely loved this! Please produce more of these, this is a very important message!
Love it. Another superb episode. Thank you John for letting us into your incredible home.
Great content. Just an interesting point I considered while watching this: That house is perfectly suited to its environment. If you were to build it in somewhere like the south of France you'd sizzle like a sausage with the sun coming through the windows. Would be fascinating to see how to build something like this in hotter regions.
The thing people often forget is that insulation works both ways. It can also stop heat getting in, as well as heat getting out. So vacuum insulation can serve much the same purpose in a hot climate - the problem is that human beings themselves generate heat - as we're warm-blooded animals - so you would need some way to get rid of that heat to keep it cool. But, of course, heat is energy, so it could be converted into power for running the air conditioning, perhaps.
Though, I do like the sound of the implicit engineering challenge you've thrown down there. It would require different solutions to lose heat than to try to keep it in. And, I agree, it'd be fascinating to see how to build something like this - in reverse - for hotter climates.
(In ancient times, they actually used to make "ice pits" to keep food cold for preservation. Basically, when it's Winter and there's ice around, dig a hole and fill it with straw to insulate it, then pop the ice into the hole. Put some more straw on top and then cover it over. As I say, insulation works both ways and it's surprising how long they could keep a big lump of ice from melting - so it could keep food and drink literally "on ice" - purely with good insulation. Alexander the Great reportedly used "ice pits" on his world-conquering adventures.)
Look again. Those glazed walls have pretty big overhangs. In summer when the sun is high this reduces solar gain, and in winter when it is low, the solar gain is maximised. Basic passive house design principle.
The big windows are facing SW and have massive overhangs - keeping high Summer Sun out but letting low Winter Sun in. Our Passive House takes at least a week long Summer Heatwave for the internal temperature to get to the point where we consider opening windows in the evening to cool it down. (Plus the mechanical ventilation bypasses the heat exchanger at night in summer when house is warm and outside is cool)
Robert, what a beautiful piece of film-making and what a stunning property. If every home were self sufficient in this manner, what a difference it would make to our planet. Life in tranquility. Thanks for all the work you put into this.
The "chapters" in the timeline are interesting.
New youtube feature. You should see them on most new videos. I like 'em.
Fascinating video. I really admire people who are trying to push matters forward at their cost to show the way to the rest of us. The key as I see it is to make the key parts of this scaleable and affordable for the masses.
It would be very interesting for this home owner to create a set of design guidelines based upon his experience to convert existing homes into power generators (producing more energy than is used) I think most people wouldn't know step 1 about how to go about it and of course typical homes are much much smaller
I think the snag would be that most houses don't have a massive former pig shed alongside on which to mount huge numbers of solar panels! Electric Export pays peanuts, currently, I reckon the limit for Average Person would be achieved if they had an Electric Car at Home during the day, as many PV panels as they can fit on the roof, and a car charger that would divert any excess PV into the car. Beyond that currently spending more would be because you can, not for good economics.
I'm so glad you've done a video about this house!! I've always wondered what its like inside while driving past!
Amazing episode! It is so inspiring. I love your show. Thank you for doing what you do
Thank you for this. We have just purchased land in country Victoria, Australia and are now designing. Passive heating, insulation (earth shield), hydronic climate control, double glazed windows, solar, earth loop, recycled water, water catchment and maybe wind are all part of the mix. Where we are building is an average 5 degrees C colder than Melbourne, nowhere near as cold as the UK but cold enough. But, being Australia we will still have the hot weather, so we are looking at cooling solutions as well. Cross ventilation, orientation, the use of shading and eaves are also in the mix. Our intention is a high capital expense upfront (at the time of building) and low operating expenses for years to come - especially in retirement. One of the main issues we have the area we are building is the possibility of bushfires and the loss of electricity when needed most. To protect the house using a pumped sprinkler system connected to rainwater tanks using renewable stored electricity. So, having battery backup not only will be used to store excess electricity but to ensure continuous power when most needed. To date, I had not seen all of the concepts, I have been researching, working together until this show. Appreciated.
Nice to see a new "out and about" video again.
Excellent content, this message needs to be pushed to the National house builders who are only focused on bottom line profit. We build our current housing stock in such an old fashioned way and use outdated methods to heat them, it’s crazy. I would have loved to have done the air test on that house! Great work 👍
This week we got 5.4 Kw of solar and 7.5 kWh of batteries and Eddie device for hot water, zappie 2 charger for car. Drive electric car, all about trying to lower carbon, footprint and in long run cheaper.
This show give direction what you can do, batteries are still not cheap but more achievable. Only way to go with solar.
But these things should be done from days 1 in houses. Less expensive to do when new house being constructed.
I normally can't stand mansions, but just seeing the genius, the efficiency, elegance and beauty.... that is a gorgeous house.
Robert, another very informative show would be great to see what can be achieved on a more modest budget, maybe a show for the future
We will be doing quite a bit of this!
A vet turned his 3-bed semi into a passivehouse (with an extension too) for 60K last year. Retrofit is always going to be quite expensive, which is why it's _so_ important to build the damn things right in the first place. I've spent ~5K on this house so far, and it's going to be about 28K by the time I'm done (to turn a 1960s detached house into an enerphit passivehouse). But spread over 12 years that's a very manageable £2,200/year. Getting hordes of unemployed people retrofitting all the houses in the UK with grants is a good way to deal with the depression that is coming. But I'm not sure our govt has the vision for it...
Thank you! You’re content is always great but something about this video really struck me. Seriously, amazing work! I’ll be doing a reno soon and will be using this video for inspiration. Thanks again!
That's more like it. Terrific episode.
Moved to France in 2013 where we bought a 200 yr old stone house which needed completely renovating. Ripped everything back to the stone and started again. We put double the insulation required by French building standards and have put 3 wood burning stoves in. That is all the heating we need as once warmed up in the winter the massive walls retain the heat. The house is 200 square metres floor area. In March last year bought the first and only new car I will ever buy in my life (I am retired now), the Kia e-Niro. We have 2 acres here plus an acre of woodland 5 mins walk from the house. Last year replaced the petrol lawnmower and strimmer with Li-On powered machines and this year the chainsaw went electric too..In May last year added 8 x solar panels on the barn and produced 2,150 kWh in the first year with them, enough to power the e-Niro for 14,000 km. It isn’t perfect but we burn no gas or oil in heating the house, half of which comes from compressed oak sawdust logs recycled from the French forestry industry which is huge (France has the same area of forest cover as the entire UK land area)..the rest comes from coppicing and maintaining our own woodland and from local farmers. The common firewood here is coppiced sweet chestnut and hazel which they run on a 20 year cycle, clearcutting an acre or so at a time...it is amazing to see how fast it regenerates. Financial constraints mean it will be a few years before the next steps which will be an air source heat pump and 4 more solar panels. Some friends here have air source heat pumps and these things are getting more and more popular now which government subsidies to install them. Our experiences with the car, solar and garden equipment recorded on my UA-cam channel ‘Kia e-Niro Diaries'
With that amount of solar, it probably is providing enough even on the most cloudy, dark, winter days to keep the house & batteries up. That's the key point with overcapacity. It helps you compensate for those periods.
Also, cooling the house in the summer is as much of a topic as heating is. With global warming, well insulated houses and systems that can keep the temperature at whatever desired level is going to be more important. Of course, with that amount of solar energy they can probably turn the swimming pool into an ice skating rig in the middle of the summer :-).
The design has significant roof overhangs of the main SW facing windows, thus keeping high Summer sun off the glass, but allowing low Winter sun in. IME that amount of insulation, sufficient to avoid heating in Winter, should mean that no cooling is needed in Summer, but reversible heat pump putting some cooled water though under floor heating would do the trick - only a tiny amount of energy would be needed, given how little external heat will get through the insulation
One disadvantage of this PV installation is the inclination of the panels, they are relatively flat. If it's snowing, the snow covers them until it melts away. With modules inclined 45 ° the snow is sliding off in a couple of hours, and the panels start to work again.
But overall the house is really impressive, good work.
Thank you for this glorious dose of hope in this trying time. Hopefully we here in the U.S. can get back into the business of hope in January. Please wish us luck.
that place looks amazing.
Thanks to Robert and the FC team for another eye-opener and positive report on people getting on with doing the right thing and thinking past the ends of their noses. Thanks also to Mr Croft for his own perspective and self belief that doing this was the right thing, and doing it properly right from the get go.
Another great episode.. Don't apologise for the politics!
Dump fossil fuels = no wars!
I'm afraid there will be always a reason for war but I love the idea
Thank you to John for sharing this. Of course for most of us it’s a house from our dreams, but the message is that this is reality. This sort of technology should be compulsory for all new builds and subsidised for existing homes.
what is that insulation product name? the one that replaced the 5 panels of extruded poly styrene .
Vacupor
I was interested in that product too. Living in a tiny 1900s end terrace with no cavity walls the heating bills are huge for the property size. Standard insulation is too bulky, we'd end up with rabbit hutch rooms!! Will defo look into vacupor
Vacupor might have a good R value, but it is a pain in the A**e to fit...you cannot cut it plus any slight penetration damage to the panels during fitting renders them useless...so careful where you put screws and nails!
@@minuslr thank you Lee .
@@davewilliams6172 The other thing that concerns me is the longevity. It seems like that is not entirely certain. One reference I found was talking 30-50 years. Now granted, I'll statistically likely be dead by then, but we really should be looking to reduce the cycle of demolition and recreation if sustainability is the focus. My house is originally around 150 years old. It's a hog for the gas. Should I look to add this as internal insulation? Would it even be effective? Would it last? Do mice like chewing on it? (Rural location)
Now that's what building smart and responsible looks like.
Why don't others take this into consideration? Especially in the context of very large or unlimited budgets.
Why not building smart from the beginning and have very little maintenance costs later? Why do they go head on and then start looking for solutions that may or may not apply at later stages?
I really can't imagine the joy and satisfaction this guy must feel, every day, just knowing he's built and lives in such an amazing home, yet have virtually no running costs. Transportation included.
Great, inspiring video, Robert, as always. Cheers!
This looks to me to be a new way to building and selling houses. The builder /developer builds a 100 house estate with ground source built in for all the douses and all the other systems described in this video. Then he sells houses that do not have heating or hot water, these are provided on a leasehold system but the rest of the house is on an owner/occupier sale. This way the developer /builder then sells the excess electricity to the grid making a profit some of which goes towards maintaining the condition of the estate i.e. keeping the grounds and open spaces spruce.
Nice seeing you use the new time stamp chapters feature on UA-cam, I really like this functionality, even if this video was so beautifully shot that I wouldn't jump ahead to any chapter but still it's really useful for coming back to a video later and watching only a certain part.
“You need a clever bit of grid work”
Just need Elon’s Bi-Directional charging and Autobidder - job done!
Graham Brown if you understand how much electricity would be required to go through the grid to power every car (as they would all be electric), you would also understand that the grid would not cope with it.
Autobidder is a game changer, so excited to see it's impact.
@@Martian74 BS!
1. It is going to take 10-15 years to replace every car on the road.
2. Wind and Solar will be providing much more energy by then.
3. Bi directional V2G charging will actually assist the grid at peak demand as opposed to putting pressure on.
4. Domestic Solar and Battery storage is dropping in price, and will be a no brainer within 5 years.
5. EV's are currently only on about 3% of total car sales, it is hardly a surge in energy demand from EV's, so even for UK government, we will have plenty of time to PLAN!
5. You consume far too much mainstream media if you say that.
@Martian74, BS^2, Graham is perfectly right. Just go google 'National Grid Future Energy Scenarios' for their pdf. The grid at large is entirely happy about any EV scenario between now and 2030, any issues are more likely in the local infrastructure.
@@Martian74 Solar City roofs so onsite production and you are assuming all the cars start off empty.
I don’t just like it, I LOVE IT!!! I wish that a lot of this technology could be retrofitted into modern day houses for reasonable prices. Robert has hit the nail on the head about the underground heating makes so much sense, even if it brought the incoming water a few degrees hotter, a typical gas bill would be greatly reduced. The insulation aspect looked brilliant and sensible to do, I was amazed by the thinnest eco board equals the meter of polystyrene!!! Take my money!!! Thanks for the wonderful show guys and gals. It’s brilliant brilliant and brilliant!...Phil 🇬🇧. 👍👍👍
I always wondered why wouldn't the governments subsidise solar panels and batteries instead of building a nuclear plant?
Because nuclear gives high quality and reliable baseload power. Solar doesn't, especially in countries like England. You also don't need a complicated and extremely expensive smart grid that may not actually work well. A combination of nuclear and whatever grid scale storage technology is being developed for renewables (for peak power requirements) would do a much better job with far less land use.
I really enjoy your videos and what I learn from them. I really like the idea of developing a new neighborhood and the idea of setting aside space within the neighborhood to create a virtual power plant to run the homes on. Super-insulate each home and setup solar, wind, ground source heat and battery storage to power the homes and provide comfortable living spaces. Here in the U.S. I've seen some neighborhoods put together a co-op and bring in solar power to homes in their area at reduced installation and material costs due to the number of homes adding solar power.
11:56 I spy with my little eye, something starting with petrol....lawnmower.
Mean Green Mowers would solve that...did for me.
I'm sure the chap can afford an electric mower, maybe he was just waiting for the PV install ;)
Audio and video quality is the best in these videos. It's amazing.
UA-cam says there’s no stream. :(
We can see it, keep trying Clive!
Same for me
I see the ad
fullychargedshow not working here either, maybe because I’m in the states?
Me too
I watch all your programmes and find them very informative. I have a suggestion. I completely understand that there is a degree of reforming zeal still required around renewable energy (we are all creatures of habit after all and changing habits requires overcoming quite a lot of inertia).
For those of us who aren't in a position to build in state of the art renewable-friendly technology from scratch, we are faced with having to adapt what we have.
From a very selfish point of view I wondered if there was some mileage in looking at, for instance, converting your average domestic property from gas to totally electric. I took the plunge last year and installed 5.5KWh of solar panels on my roof and am trying to get my head round what to replace my current gas combi boiler with when it's useful life ends in a couple of year's time. I think I'm going to need some sort of boiler + storage tank combo. For me, and I'm sure a lot of people, tanks for hot water were something that you got rid off with the advent of the gas combi boiler, so it feels like a retro-step even if the actuality is quite different. Just a thought.
getting a little worried about that belly, robert. please consider switching some of your carbs out for veggies.
awesome episode btw. ;)
He should get an ebike, they are fun and help with the hills. Probably could review some and get it free on loan.
tom duke he’s trying to keep his body heat locked inside efficiently 😏
PSHP - paunch source heat pump.
Amazing episode. The future is exciting ,as well as the present!
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, the future is so exciting!
Fantastic episode. It shows what can be done by an intelligent forward thinking owner and company in partnership. Brilliant.
This is good stuff and a bit of a return to the Fully Charged of a few years ago... you guys got just a bit too car-centric for a while there. Anyway, would be great to get a video on smaller scale home energy solutions more in reach for the average person to complement this one. Cheers!
Yes we did. Don’t worry back on track now. But some car review are coming too.
Brilliant program - loved every minute! Thanks a million, Elizabeth age 85
Can't be very warm in that house - Robert kept his coat and gloves on the whole time.
Yepp, Robert looking like a cool assassin:-)
Man's not hot.
16:45 Robert touches on the concept of negative externalities.
A Fully Charged video on negative externalities and pigouvian taxation would be great. A carbon tax in the UK is long overdue in my opinion but its more likely we will see wider implementation of the EU's cap and trade system in the years to come.
Its a pity we didn't see more of the heat pumps, where they three or single phase?
3-phase Nibe Fighter 1140
Love this sort of content - A deviation every now and again from cars - I know that is what it all starts in the conversation but I love the home focus too..
Can we have an update video on the Mixergy tank you had installed in your own home a year or two ago... good/bad/mixed??
Thumbs up!
A power station that's also a house. You could call it a... House-station
or a Power House.
I love that Fully Charged is covering heating and buildings in more detail. Emissions from the buildings we work, live and play in, dwarf those from transport.
Awesome People, Awesome Channel = Respect.
With love from France. 🙂
What an inspiring house and mindset.
It would be amazing if planning authorities became braver, and enforced this kind of thing with every single property that is built going forward.
Imagine buying a house and being told, by the way you won't have any energy bills and the communal heating/solar will generally pay you £X every year.... oh and except for wear and tear going anywhere in your car is also free! ... oh to dream!
Ask your MP for it. They don't get enough letters asking them to fix this stuff. Building regs are being reviewed right now, (they tried to make them worse! but there was a huge hoo-ha). But we need MPs to understand that this is good for everyone, because house-builders keep telling them it'll cost money and make houses expensive, which is just a lie. And of course they don't care how much they cost to _run_. The system optimises for the cheapest and nastiest possible _to build_ (that looks pretty) at the moment.
My brother lives in a new house with a communal heating system. I think it's a CHP setup that's supposedly biomass fired, but in fact I think it ends up gas fired most of the time. It still works out far cheaper, and makes much more sense than the individual boilers in most houses. Such a shame they didn't add some bore holes and heat pumps.
Gringe Haglet There are several developments in London with communal biomass or heat pump systems, or CHP systems. However residents are finding they are paying well over traditional rates for power, and are unable to switch suppliers. Some estates also have huge management charges to pay the maintenance of the systems. They are a good idea in principal, but unless they work out significantly cheaper than traditional sources of power and heat then they won't be widely adopted.
Nice one Robert. Good video. Surprised you didn't talk about solar passive design - would love it if you could do a video on that! For some reason it never seems to come up in a lot of house design videos but in my opinion it is the cheapest most effective thing you can do to make an energy efficient house. It's not that hard - just make sure you put most of your windows facing South (in Northern hemisphere) or facing North (in Southern hemisphere), insulate well and have thermal mass on the inside. Also - if you haven't orientated your house correctly the insulation and thermal mass will actually work against you. I live in a solar passive designed house in Australia (near Canberra) and we rarely have to use any additional heating or cooling. Love your work Robert!
I recall a program in the early 2000's that covered the early stages of them building this house, where they were only at the stage of boring the geothermal hole and laying the ground heat network. It's nice to see someone go back and actually document the finished work.
This vid did touch on that matters have moved on technically. Having a geothermal borehole is an expensive undertaking. It would need to be communal, or a very large house with a well heeled owner.
Very impressive and obviously Building Regs. for new builds could and should replicate this at scale. However, I would suggest the real challenge is what to do with the 27 million existing households in the UK, particularly the millions of Victorian 2-up 2-down solid wall properties densely situated where space prohibits ground source pumps and dense insulation. Please Fully Charged do some episodes not exhibiting the tech. of the top 5% richest in society, e.g. renovating existing houses, the second hand EV market etc. etc. p.s. love the show!
What a beautiful home, and what a beautiful philosophy that went into its construction. Not just another massive wasteful house...but one that is helping its neighbors.
Everyone I know uses 100% renewable energy to heat their homes. I live in southwestern British Columbia, and almost all of us use hydroelectric power to run heat pumps (if they're lucky) or baseboard heaters (if they're unlucky). So I was confused by the title until I realized it wasn't about heating and powering a house with renewables so much, as it was making a really efficient house that has some on-site electric generation.
Reading about "HEAT[ing]" and "POWER[ing]" a house confused me initially. To me they're one and the same, as one typically uses electricity to heat a house here too. When I was a kid some people were still on oil heat, but everyone I know upgraded their oil heat to heat pumps so I haven't thought of the two as being separate things since I was a little kid.
It was a good video, with a bit of culture shock for me (as usual). Thank you. :)
665,000 subscribers? Give it a couple of years and this will hit the 1,000,000 for sure. Another great video.
That’s the aim Greg! Thank you for your support
Very cool how the timeline of the video is divided into categories and you can click to certain parts , well done !