Homes that look traditional, perform like the future — and come with no energy bills

The Challenge

Energy-efficient homes have tended to struggle with a perception problem: unfamiliar aesthetics, premium costs and a persistent gap between the performance that’s promised and what occupants actually experience. The challenge here was to prove that genuinely low-energy homes could look like the houses buyers already want, sell on the open market without subsidy, and deliver on their promise.

What we did

In 2013, Electric Places designed and delivered 10 Zero Energy Bill (ZEB) homes at Priors Hall Park, Corby. These were built to look like conventional semi-detached houses, but with substantially enhanced insulation, solar PV, solar hot water and home automation. We guaranteed no energy bills for the first two years of occupation. All 10 homes sold at a premium on the open market, confirming there was genuine appetite for low-energy living amongst real buyers.

A second phase — ZEB 2, delivered as Eco Homes: Etopia — took the concept further with 47 energy-positive homes using Modern Methods of Construction, directly tackling the construction performance gap at greater scale. ZEB 2 is now a BEIS Building for 2050 case study and a SEMLEP Local Industrial Strategy case study.

Outcomes

Across both phases, ZEB established a replicable, commercially viable model for homes that perform as designed, sell at a premium and demonstrate what low-energy construction can achieve when ambition is matched with rigorous delivery.