Guy Martin’s House Without Bills
www.nesta.org.uk/project-updates/guys-martins-house-without-bills/
www.nesta.org.uk/project-updates/guys-martins-house-without-bills/
Nesta has partnered with production company North One and Channel 4 on a 90-minute television special, Guy Martin’s House Without Bills.
Broadcast on Monday 9 February 2026 on Channel 4, the programme follows the nine-month eco-transformation and renovation of a semi-detached house in Stretford, Greater Manchester. It is now available to stream on the Channel 4 website.
The show was co-funded by Nesta as part of its Greener Homes initiative. It is part of a wider slate of content Nesta is enabling through the Greener Homes arts initiative, bringing compelling new stories about the changing ways we heat and power our homes to the screen.
Energy bills have increased by around 70% in the last five years, and now Guy Martin, one of Channel 4’s most high-profile faces, is using his engineering experience to investigate how homeowners can make their homes cheaper to heat. What does it take to create a zero-bills home?
This 90-minute feature-length special follows the nine-month renovation of an average family house in the Manchester suburb of Stretford, with the ultimate aim of driving its heating bills as low as possible. Along the way, Guy investigates an array of independent advice about how to improve our homes, even on a budget, and takes a particular interest in air source heat pumps.
You can watch Guy’s House Without Bills on All 4. Selected clips from the show are available to watch below.
Guy creates a simple mock-up of an air source heat pump to demonstrate the science that makes them work and compares their efficiency to that of a gas boiler.
Guy shows us how the air source heat pump works
In the garden of the Stretford house, Guy is able to do a direct comparison between the noise from the outlet of the neighbours’s gas boiler and a heat pump.
Guy debunks the heat pump noise myth
Professor Richard Fitton, technical lead at the University of Salford's Energy House 2.0, explains to Guy how turning down the flow temperature on your gas boiler can save you money.
Guy chats with Prof. Richard Fitton about simple ways to lower bills
Using a genuine energy bill, Guy explains how, with the right technology, you can achieve zero bills.
Guy explains an energy provider’s zero bills promise
Mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham joins Guy in the kitchen of the finished Stretford house to ask one crucial question - did he achieve “zero bills”?
Guy shows Andy Burnham the Stretford house
Channel 4 exists to create change through entertainment. Publicly owned yet commercially funded, Channel 4 generates significant and sustainable cultural, economic and social impact across the UK - at no cost to the taxpayer.
Note: Channel 4 maintained editorial control throughout.
For the last three decades, North One has been a global producer of world-class factual entertainment, sport and live event TV programming, combining sport productions such as MotoGP, NFL and Isle of Man TT, with factual entertainment strands such as Travel Man, Guy Martin fronted programming for Channel 4, Sky Coppers, Fifth Gear and Shop Smart, Save Money.
Most recently North One produced the award-winning Joe Lycett’s United States of Birmingham for Sky and the Emmy-winning four-part series for Disney+, starring Hollywood superstar Keanu Reeves - Brawn: The Impossible Formula One Story.
