Self-Build Lab
See how a house works
Learn how a well-built home stays warm in winter, cool in summer and fresh all year round, and why the choices made at design stage keep paying off for decades. Change the weather, move the controls and watch the house respond. Each lab has a short guided tour and a written version with the detail.
- AirAbout 8 minutes
MVHR: swap the air, keep the heat
Mechanical ventilation with heat recovery in a two-storey house. Change the weather, run a shower, open up the unit and watch fresh air arrive warm.
Open the lab → - FabricAbout 8 minutes
Thermal bridges: find where the heat leaks
A museum exhibit of a two-storey slice of a house, roof and all, cut open between a frosty garden and two warm rooms. Make the night colder and the room damper, swap poor details for good ones and watch where mould grows.
Open the lab → - FabricAbout 9 minutes
Overheating: shade the glass, cool the night
A bedroom and living space behind a big glazed wall, through five hot July days. Turn the house to the sun, size and shade the glass, open up at night and check it against Part O.
Open the lab → - PowerAbout 12 minutes
Solar and battery: follow the sunshine
A museum bench you can work: six experiments follow sunlight from the sky through a panel, an inverter and a battery to the kettle and the grid.
Open the lab → - WaterAbout 12 minutes
Plumbing: where the heat goes
A museum bench you can work: a gas boiler and a heat pump on a turntable, the heating circuit, an unvented cylinder cut in half and its safety kit, in six experiments.
Open the lab →