Year-round comfort and health
Maintain comfortable indoor temperatures throughout the year, warm in winter and cool in summer, with fewer draughts and consistently good indoor air quality.
Sustainable ways of living
Measured in the real world
Measured Ways explores practical, evidence-led approaches to lower-carbon living. We are starting with the retrofit of our own home, but over time we will also look at transport, electric vehicles, food and other everyday choices, using evidence and real-world experience to understand what genuinely makes a difference.
Project 01 follows the transformation of our house in the North East of England. Can our cold, draughty 1930s semi-detached house become comfortable and healthy to live in throughout the year? Can we renew it into a carbon-negative home that is also affordable to run? We are documenting the decisions and compromises along the way and measuring its performance before, during and after the retrofit.
Project 01
The House With The Flowery Carpet
Our first project is the whole-house retrofit of our ordinary 1930s semi-detached family home in the North East of England.
We are improving the building fabric, designing heating, cooling and ventilation systems around year-round comfort, and combining solar generation, battery storage and smarter energy management. The aim is a home that remains comfortable through winter and summer while reducing carbon emissions and long-term running costs.
Lower our carbon footprint
Reduce the energy needed to maintain comfortable conditions first, then meet as much of the remaining demand as practical through efficient electric systems and on-site generation.
Reduce running costs
Use lower demand, efficient systems, flexible tariffs and energy storage to reduce the long-term cost of running the house without compromising comfort or indoor air quality.
Journal
Decisions, changes and what we learn along the way
We are documenting the retrofit as it develops, including why decisions change, the compromises involved and, once the house is occupied, whether the results justify them.
Why did we choose to switch to three-phase power?
Our reasoning behind the decision to upgrade from single-phase to three-phase electricity
Read article →We got planning permission for external wall insulation
Why we moved from internal to external wall insulation, the trade-offs we considered and how planning shaped the final design.
Read article →Partnerships
Help build the evidence, not just the house
Measured Ways is open to collaboration with manufacturers, technology companies, researchers and other organisations interested in long-term building and system performance from a real occupied home.
Explore partnershipsWhat makes the project useful
Project 01 follows materials and systems from design and installation through commissioning and everyday occupation, with performance measured over time. Because the house is an ordinary 1930s semi, the lessons and compromises should also be relevant to millions of similar homes across the UK.
Follow the build
See the retrofit as it unfolds
Follow construction progress, installations and changing decisions as the retrofit takes shape. After completion, we will continue documenting commissioning, everyday use and how the house performs through the seasons.
See where to follow