"We were totally impressed with how well they listened to what we wanted, designed our Net Zero home around that, and built us the most fabulous house we could imagine." - Phillip

This 3,100 sf house is Net Zero + Net Positive.  Designed as a dream home for a retired couple, it has two bedrooms and two offices.

The homeowners, originally from Atlanta, dreamed of moving close enough to New York City to enjoy the theater and nightlife, but far enough away to have a serene and very private piece of land. They also wanted a community that applauded modern design. They found the perfect piece of land among a small development of other modern homes in Pound Ridge, NY. Avid gardeners, the landscape immediately became an integral part of the house design. 

An open layout and extensive custom built-ins promote a simple, clutter-free lifestyle. The super-efficient building envelope and the sustainable landscape make for a carefree ‘homestead’ in which to enjoy their retirement. 

SPECIFICATIONS:

HERS Index -9 

NET ZERO + NET POSITIVE Home - producing about $600 more electricity a year than it uses.

INDOOR AIR - Indoor airPLUS certified, Zehnder ERV Fresh Air system. 

SOLAR - Concealed 15.7kW solar PV system. 

FOUNDATION -  Insulated concrete forms used for frost walls (R-20.) 

SLAB - ‘A Slab-less-Slab Home’ This means that the entire house sits on the ground with no crawl space and no basement and instead of a concrete slab it utilizes a unique super-insulated floor system featuring a double ¾” Plywood subfloor that floats over 6” of EPS foam board (Total R-24) over vapor barrier and crushed stone. 

WALLS - 2 x 8 framed walls insulated with mineral wool batts (R30, with continuous 3” mineral wool ‘Comfort Board’ (R12) insulation on the exterior. (Total R-42) 

ROOF - Flat roof framed with 16” I-joists with tapered polyisocyanurate above the sheathing (R-20 average) and 16” dense packed cellulose (R58) between the rafters. 

HOUSE WRAP - Adhesive house wrap used as weather resistive barrier and to achieve exceptional air-tightness of 0.69 @ ACH50. 

WINDOWS - German triple-glazed, aluminum-clad wood windows with u-values of 0.16 (roughly R-.6) 

HVAC - Ducted air-source heat pump system heats and cools the entire house.

WATER - High-efficiency, instantaneous, propane-fired domestic tankless water heater.