D. Bloomfield and R. Brewer from the Building Research Establishment, I. Cooper and S. Lera from Eclipse Research Consultants and B. Stringer from the Energy Technology Support Unit at the Harwell Laboratory describe the UK experience gained by participation in the International Energy Agency programme on passive solar gain and hybrid low‐energy building. It concludes that much work is still to be done on modelling, that presentation of design guidelines needs to be appropriate to the audience, and building practice and occupant behaviour should not be underestimated when collaborating on international ventures.