You generate your own electricity using solar power, and make money from it using the new export tariffs now available - mostly in the summer of course. The power you generate and the money you make from it is enough to pay for your winter's electricity to run and heat your house, if you use a highly efficient heat pump, and more clever time-of-use tariffs. You might even have enough spare to charge up an electric car.

If you own your own house and have the resources to, say, put in a new kitchen, then you can have a net zero home. But unlike a kitchen, it pays you back.

Any house can. It is harder for flats (but often possible) due to the lack of space for the key techs of heat pumps and solar panels. The more modern your house, the easier it is likely to be, but almost all houses can be fitted with the key techs - the highest efficiency heat pump we know of is in a 19C house.  You do NOT need some fancy Grand Designs ecohouse made of hemp! If you have a listed historic house, or are in a conservation area, then you may face some planning restrictions which limit how close you can get to Net Zero. And some houses with heavy tree shading or difficult roof shapes may not get full benefit from solar panels.

This is up to you of course, but we'd suggest considering about 10x your annual energy bills as an initial outline budget - as this is what you will save when you're at net zero, and that gives you a 10 year payback/10% return. But you may prefer different returns. (Note that we are an advice site only, and won't be seeking any of this!) You may not need to spend as much as this, and equally this investment will not guarantee you get to Net Zero, but it's a good starting point for a "what if?" type plan. Don't spend anything though without having an idea what you might get back. We outline likely costs and returns in financials.

You can go as gradually towards Net Zero as you like, depending on your priorities and wider plans. We took several years to edge our way to Net Zero. Equally, you could go beyond net zero, making your home a net income earner.

The main elements of the Net Zero Home, like loft insulation and solar panels, are easy to "bolt on", without any messy work. But if you wish to do more, and especially if you plan a refurb anyway, then improving your energy efficiency with fabric improvements will normally make it easier to get to (or past!) net zero.

Net Zero carbon: your net carbon emissions, balanced out over the year, come to zero or less. This is because, although you import some electricity in winter which have associated carbon emissions, you export as much or more electricity in summer, making your net electricity use zero or negative, and so your net carbon emissions from electricity net carbon or negative. Another way of looking at this is that if you have a Net Zero Home then global greenhouse gas emissions are lower than if your home did not exist at all. We are considering the home and its energy here, and not your wider activities such as car, shopping, holidays etc. (It may however be possible to bring an electric car within your Net Zero scope, and that is our next target). Note that, if you cause emissions from other sources, eg a wood burner, gas cooker or lawn mower, these are additional carbon emissions which could undermine your net zero goal. Cooking and garden gear are likely to have small emissions compared to your PV generation, but a wood burner could be significant. Burning wood is not necessarily carbon neutral. Net Zero cost: the same applies except in £££ rather than tonnes of CO2. Whatever you pay out in winter you get back in summer, making your net energy cost zero or even an earner, as you see below.