How to Build a Net Zero Carbon Dream Home!

This might be true but misses the point; the vast majority of homes we’ll have in 2050; even a majority of the homes will have by the end of the century have already been built. The big gains will come from retrofitting our existing housing stock to make it carbon neutral not from new builds. This doesn’t mean the latter are unimportant and houses such as the one in the video can act as inspiration for change. Ultimately though we need to improve what we’ve already got; by far and away the most sustainable route

Step 1: Be a millionaire.

Beautiful! We've renovated (2010) an old concrete house with straw bales, insulated roof, insulated windows, solar thermal water heater & storage, PV (producing 4 times more electricity than we use, selling the surplus electricity to the grid for a good tariff), no organic waste for us and for a few more families (feeds the chickens). The house and our family are proudly carbon negative 💪🏼

Just goes to show, everything is possible, if you have loads of money… the vast majority do not have that level of funds available. They also live on old stock housing. I think that, even if the property you’re reviewing is as high end as this, there needs to be explicit examples of things all the ‘normal’ people may be able to adopt… and afford.

Looking forward to Fully Charged getting into building a "net zero" community housing project!!

What happened to this channel? Luxury unsustainable homes and luxury unsustainable cars? I remember watching videos about stuff like the Twizy, now it's big ships with 100kWh batteries.

I feel like Fully Charged really missed the mark on this one. Calling it net zero might be technically true, but is quite misleading when it relies on 'saving credits' over summer and spending them over winter when demand is much higher. Also, while they don't go into details, it seems like this house isn't even built to the minimum requirement of new houses in countries like Denmark. No ventilation with passive heat exchange (such as Genvex), no limit to the windows (making the house warm on sunny summer days which requires more cooling), no air pressure testing?? Never mind the opening shots of the cleared forests that made way for these low density, single family homes. An analysis of migrating to net positive by this step system could have been an interesting video, but highlighting this house as some sort of amazing achievement seems particularly off-colour in these financial times. Not to mention how much better it could be even with technologies from 15 years ago. While existing buildings are retrofitted with post-insulation, moisture barriers, solar, and improved heating, new buildings need to be FAR BETTER than 'technically net zero but only if the electricity from the grid in winter is renewable', and detached single family dwellings with road infrastructure need to be condemned as an extravagant and wasteful luxury, not held up as the (North) American dream everyone should aspire to.

This is very impressive and it should be considering this looks like a high end net zero property, but I would really like to see and I think others do too is to see what a low end affordable net zero property would look like for ordinary people.

This is great, Dan. Now - Show a 20 - 30 y/o level one house being brought up to level 4 and/or net zero. What it takes and what it costs.

Completely agree with the take home. This house is a luxury thing. It is good that the family are doing something to reduce their footprint but the reality is a large house out of town takes far more resource than high density housing. The industry needs to change to make a difference

imagine the energy saving that could have been made had this building been smaller....

Please have a look at some of the net zero homes being built in europe. They are far cheaper and are being built at scale. I am in the process of buying a standard 2 bed flat in the UK that I hope in time I can convert to all electric. My first two jobs are switching the remaining lights to LED and fitting waste water heat recovery in the shower room. I will be doing the changeover on a shoestring budget so changes will happen as I can afford them.

I would recommend insulating the pipes and using high efficiency pumps once the old ones ain't doing the job anymore, that is mandatory here in Germany since idk 10+ years.

I think one of the biggest take aways from this episode should be that a single slope south facing roof should become a design standard as it allows a solar array to make maximum use of the available space for generation.

Important to highlight the difference between net zero carbon and net zero energy. Just because you produce more than you use doesn't make you carbon neutral/negative. If you have to dip into the grid when it's at it's most dirty it can cost you a large chunk of carbon.

This is, SO FAR removed from where we are here in the UK, and I understand the example of what can be done, with builders and planners etc is a luxury that just seems decades away in this country. We have already seen many examples of such designs in previous videos. But for us living in a 1963 bungalow, our reality involves buying five sheets of polystyrene 2.40m x 1.2m by 10cm think and sticking it to the walls of our bedroom, cost £236. That's the reality of UK home owners trying to save energy and money in the long run. We need to take action now, so all this fluffy show room designs really doesn't wash with us. If you want reality come here to mid Wales, and we will show you reality in action that demonstartes 5 years of determination to the change!! So far we have cut our carbonfoot print by 50%.

Your proactive acknowledgement that this home is beyond the means of the overwhelming majority is appreciated. That said, innovation happens at the bookends . Those of modest means find ways to make do and economize, reducing costs along with carbon, while the wealthy – those with a sense of noblesse oblige, like these folks – enable investments in new tech that may ultimately be scaleable.

Beautifully produced video but I’m looking forward to your tours of more accessible homes in the UK.

That's beautiful - but a bit ironic to highlight the net zero house of somebody but then fail to mention the fact that this person has also spent decades working in, and made their money for said house, from fossil fuels (oil sands and coal mining)...

Wait... A net zero home with 24kW of solar and yet it still has a gas boiler?? That little detail should probably have been mentioned.