Intentional and Integrated Design
Building high performance, energy efficient homes requires intentional and thoughtful design. It’s not just about installing solar panels on your roof or re-insulating your walls—it’s an integrated process that is a wonderful experience when built in harmony.
Our Net-Zero Home Building Process
Getting to net-zero is an integrated process. Learn about what goes into building a green home.
Plan for the elements
Building your net-zero home starts with site orientation. We’ll position your home to take full advantage of the sun in every season, so the low-rising winter sun will naturally warm your house when it’s cold and the high-rising summer sun will be tamed by intentionally designed overhangs to keep you cool in the heat. This intentional site orientation will require less energy to heat or cool your home. A properly oriented home site is a wonderful experience.
Create an air tight home shell
Designing, constructing, and optimizing your home shell is one of the most important parts of the net-zero home building process. For example, we intentionally design roof overhang to let sunlight in when you want it and out when you don’t. We install triple paned windows with a window seal, use advanced framing techniques and more, so that you’ll experience a well-insulated, air-tight home. Best of all, your optimized net-zero home shell will reduce energy consumption, and eliminate drafts so you can enjoy even, comfortable temperatures in every room of your house.
Reduce energy consumption
In other words, improve energy efficiency by installing high performance products. High efficiency furnaces and heat pump products can save you 50-75% in heating and cooling costs. We can integrate ground source heat pumps, energy recovery ventilators, and solar hot water systems to improve these efficiencies even more. LED lighting strategies will improve your indoor well-being, brighten home work areas, and use 95% less energy than incandescent light bulbs.
Improve air quality
Since your net-zero home shell is well-insulated and air-tight, it’s very important that your indoor air quality is second to none. Utilizing your energy recovery ventilator, you’ll constantly have fresh air coming in and stale air going out. But just as with every step in the net-zero home building process, this has to be as efficient as possible. As fresh air comes in, your ventilator will filter out bacteria, pollen, and more, while pre-conditioning the air to nearly match current room temperature. In the end, you breath easier while your high-efficiency home uses significantly less energy. And we’re not done yet.
