Insights · 1,965 words
Heat pumps in the UK in 2026: an honest state-of-play
I've now spent enough years living with a heat pump, talking to other owners, and reading performance data to be reasonably sure of two things. First, the technology works.…
Insights · 1,935 words
Solar PV without the marketing fog
Solar marketing in the UK is, to put it politely, optimistic. Generation figures get extrapolated from European peak-summer days; payback periods are calculated against pre-2022 en…
Insights · 1,855 words
The order of operations for proper UK retrofit insulation
The single most common retrofit mistake I see is doing the right things in the wrong order. External wall insulation gets installed before the roof is sorted; the roof gets insulat…
Insights · 1,881 words
Smart thermostats that actually save money (and ones that don't)
The smart-thermostat market has done a remarkable thing — it has converged on roughly the same feature set, while persuading three different consumer audiences that each manufactur…
Insights · 1,763 words
Battery storage vs export tariffs: the calculation that actually matters
Almost every household considering solar in 2026 ends up at the same fork in the road: should I add a battery, or should I just export my surplus? The answer is presented in market…
Insights · 1,939 words
EV charger installation in the UK: the real cost
The advertised cost of an EV home charger has never been more attractive. Headline prices of £700–£900 for a 7kW unit are everywhere.…
Insights · 1,846 words
Heat pump tariffs in 2026: how to model your real running cost
One of the things I hear most often from heat pump owners — both happy and unhappy — is a running-cost figure quoted in isolation. "It cost me £1,200 to heat the house this winter.…
Insights · 1,839 words
Condensation and mould
The condensation industry in the UK is a strange place. It produces miracle paints, magnetic dehumidifiers, anti-mould sprays, ionic air filters, and a small library of products pr…
Insights · 1,840 words
Building a smart home system that survives a decade of vendor turnover
The smart home industry has a problem the industry would rather you didn't think about: the average lifespan of a consumer-grade smart home product line is shorter than the average…
Insights · 1,944 words
The deep-retrofit decision tree: what to do, in what order, with which budget
The most common question I get from friends about retrofit is the most reasonable one: if I have £X to spend, what should I do? The honest answer depends on the house, but the stru…
Insights · 2,446 words
Heat pump buying guide 2026
Everything a UK household needs to make an informed heat pump decision in 2026 — sizing, grants, installer selection, running cost, and the red flags that separate a good install f…
Insights · 2,292 words
Solar PV buying guide 2026
A measurement-led 2026 UK solar PV buying guide for households who want a system that actually pays back rather than one that looks good in a brochure.…
Insights · 2,466 words
Insulation buying guide 2026
How to think about insulation properly: where it goes, which material fits the building, what U-value to target, why ventilation matters, and how to capture ECO4 funding.…
Insights · 2,820 words
Smart thermostat buying guide 2026
An installer-grade comparison of the five smart thermostats UK households actually buy in 2026 — covering OpenTherm vs on/off control, load compensation, multi-zone, hub-vs-hubless…
Insights · 2,617 words
Battery storage buying guide 2026
A measurement-led 2026 UK buyer's guide to home battery storage — chemistry, sizing for self-consumption and time-of-use tariffs, MCS installer rules, fire safety, and cost-per-kWh…
Insights · 2,869 words
EV charger buying guide 2026
A practical 2026 UK buyer's guide to home EV chargers — tethered vs untethered, 7kW vs 22kW, smart features that actually save money, brand comparisons, grant eligibility, and DNO …
Insights · 2,144 words
Heat pumps vs gas boilers
A grounded look at heat pumps versus gas boilers in 2026. We compare install costs after the BUS grant, 25-year running costs across three house types, three tariff scenarios, and …
Insights · 2,010 words
Solar PV vs solar thermal
Solar PV and solar thermal both put panels on your roof, but they do very different jobs. We compare install costs, payback, and the practical scenarios where each one wins in 2026…
Insights · 1,990 words
Cavity wall vs external wall insulation
Cavity wall insulation costs a fraction of external wall insulation, but they solve different problems for different homes. We compare cost, U-value, planning, and the real scenari…
Insights · 1,937 words
Smart TRVs vs zoned heating systems
Per-radiator smart TRVs are the cheap, flexible answer to room-by-room heating control. Full zoned systems like EvoHome cost more but integrate more cleanly. We compare cost, savin…