Project Description

This certified Zero Energy Ready Home* has four-bedrooms, four bathrooms and is in a private community on the Guilford, Connecticut coast. The home is the new residence of a young couple and child relocating from a downtown apartment in New Haven, Connecticut, who wanted a new home green, sustainable, and healthy home to raise their child.

*This home has a small photovoltaic solar panel system. With additional solar panels, this home can achieve Net Zero Energy Home and even Positive Energy Home performance.

Type: New Construction, Custom Green Home

 

Special Features:

  • Open plan layout on the main floor with gourmet center island kitchen
  • Large windows at southern exposure capturing expansive water views and solar gain
  • 10’ ceilings on 1st floor and 9’ on 2nd floor with white oak flooring throughout
  • Custom white oak waterfall staircase with stainless steel railing
  • Walnut wrap-around feature wall enclosing HVAC equipment system below the staircase
  • Extensive landscaping blending the home into the rock ledge the house was built upon

Green Building Approaches:

  • 2 kW translucent trellis mounted photovoltaic solar array offsetting the homes power needs
    • The home has space for roof-mounted solar panels that could easily bring to home to Net Zero Energy use or even Positive Energy 
  • 1st Floor system features double subfloor installed on 12” open web trusses over 6” of EPS rigid foamboard (R-24) over compacted crushed stone
  • 2×8 framed walls insulated with dense-pack cellulose and sheathed with 2.5” continuous Zip R sheathing (R-36)
  • Flat roof consisting of 12” open web trusses filled with dense-pack cellulose, covered with continuous tapered polyisocyanurate above the sheathing (R-65)
  • Acrylic sheathing tapes used at all sheathing intersections to achieve exceptional airtightness of 0.7 ACH50
  • Orientation/design optimizes passive wintertime solar energy gains while limiting summertime gains
  • Polish triple-glazed aluminum-clad doors and tilt/turn windows with u-values of 0.15 (roughly R-6.5)
  • Ducted air-source heat pump system heats and cools the entire house
  • High-efficiency CO2 based split heat pump domestic hot water heater provides domestic hot water
  • Independent ducted ventilation system with energy recovery
  • 100% LED lighting throughout
  • Low-flow water fixtures throughout