Here is our house from the street. It currently has 3 floors (not including a pretty big cellar) and we are adding a top floor loft conversion. The front of the house faces just very slightly west of south, ideal for some passive solar gain and solar panels. The software we’re using to model the energy performance of the house - PHPP (or PassivHaus Planning Package) - promises us that the house will not overheat in the summer. We’re hoping it is right… There are some houses of the same height opposite which shade the house in the winter, meaning that during the winter the sun does not reach below the second floor. More on this kind of detail to follow as we work through the build.

p.s. the car in front is one of the greentomatocar fleet, with a little twist. It is actually the first plug-in hybrid taxi in the world.