[JohnCClarke]

Well that's full of really useful tips. I'll get the builders in to construct a 1.37m (4.5ft) thick spine through the middle of my house. Obviously.

[loeg]

Modern insulation is really, really good, and modern heatpumps are very energy efficient and don't pollute your house with CO, CO2, and particulate matter like woodsmoke. Also, modern double- or triple-pane windows insulate much better than drafty Elizabethan windows. We live in a time of marvels.

[basilgohar]

You're talking about the best of what's available but that is rarely what builders use and retrofitting your already constructed house to use these could end up costing you 1/3 or more of your home's original value.

All that is to say that builders cheap out on new home construction so most people don't get to enjoy the benefits if these innovations.

[trhway]

You're missing out if you don't have such thick mass of warm brick/stone. If you only knew how great it is to sleep on top of it (my grandmother had similar to that in her house :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_stove

Modern fire codes require large space between a stove and walls which is usually goes unused where it could have been really filled with such a thick brick structure with the smoke passage snaking through it like in Russian and German stoves. Or like this:

https://www.mha-net.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2020/05...

[jimnotgym]

Fire codes in the UK would allow a stove as close to the wall as you would like

[m463]

the modern way of doing that is ICF - insulated concrete forms.

I remember talking to a builder once who was building a house this way. He said the mass wasn't allowed to be advertised with an R-value since it wasn't actually insulation, but he said it was comparable to an R-50 house.

[driverdan]

ICF is great but it's still uncommon. Most contractors know nothing about it.

[UltraSane]

ICF homes are also VERY air tight. They often need special variable output heating and cooling.

[ggm]

Passive solar houses do exactly this. But you're fundamentally right, it's not really a retrofit. It's a goal you set for the next house.