As others on here have said the real problem is Britain's housing design and expectations. Individual houses with solid or possibly cavity walls are not a good start.  If you look at the continental building styles, especially in the colder lands, multiple occupancy homes are the norm. This immediately reduces the surface area to volume ratio. Our apartment has two external surfaces. The other 4 surface are 'insulated' by other apartments.


The structure is usually a mixture of brick and concrete (wood in some areas) with a thick external layer of insulation (20-30cm) and then a hard waterproof skin. This allow the heavy structure to act as a heat buffer (in summer and winter)


Heating is usually by a wood or oil fired boiler serving all the apartments or sometimes a link to  a district heating scheme. A bigger boiler is generally more efficient, once again a better surface area to volume ratio.


How could we acheive something like this in Britain? Could we move peoples mindsets away from my home is my castle? Could we change the various building regulations to encourage an efficient build?

As others on here have said the real problem is Britain's housing design and expectations. Individual houses with solid or possibly cavity walls are not a good start.  If you look at the continental building styles, especially in the colder lands, multiple occupancy homes are the norm. This immediately reduces the surface area to volume ratio. Our apartment has two external surfaces. The other 4 surface are 'insulated' by other apartments.


The structure is usually a mixture of brick and concrete (wood in some areas) with a thick external layer of insulation (20-30cm) and then a hard waterproof skin. This allow the heavy structure to act as a heat buffer (in summer and winter)


Heating is usually by a wood or oil fired boiler serving all the apartments or sometimes a link to  a district heating scheme. A bigger boiler is generally more efficient, once again a better surface area to volume ratio.


How could we acheive something like this in Britain? Could we move peoples mindsets away from my home is my castle? Could we change the various building regulations to encourage an efficient build?