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• A framework for retrofitting existing houses to NZEBs is proposed. • The framework includes renewable system design, building envelope improvement and energy system retrofit. • The framework practicability and reliability were demonstrated in a real building retrofit. • Energy consumptions before and after retrofit were presented and compared. Nearly zero energy building is a promising solution for tackling the conflict between the reducing fossil fuel reserves and the ever-increasing energy demand. Initiatives and goals for nearly zero energy buildings have been announced in different countries, as well as a series of strategies and incentives for advocating renewable energy applications. Within this context, homeowners' energy awareness has been strengthened and more and more of them are willing to invest on energy efficiency improvement and renewable energy application. However, there is no clear method or procedure for common practitioners to follow in the practice of energy retrofit of existing buildings, more specifically existing houses. This paper fills this pressing research gap by developing a framework for retrofitting existing houses to nearly zero energy buildings. The developed framework is then implemented on a real house in Beijing to demonstrate its reliability and practicability. The innovations of this study lie in the full consideration of the actual conditions of existing houses as well as the practicability of the framework, and for the first time, the detailed energy performance measurements of a real-life house from its original inefficient condition to after being retrofitted to a nearly zero energy building are presented. The framework can be easily extended to applications of other renewables and serve as a guideline for the wide common practitioners in their real building renovation practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]