The addition of a Mother-in-law suite and an extra deep garage stall completes this great ranch house in Vernon
This home is the most energy efficient net zero home to be built in Wisconsin which is even more impressive with its cost per square foot at the low range for a traditional custom built home. The tightness of this home was conducted by an independent company with a blower door test. The air pressure lost was only 440cfm, the lower the number the better. This is 78% better than the Energy Star target of 1,971cfm lost. This home also exceeds the 450cfm requirement for the German Passivhaus system. Attention to the heating and cooling loads, played an important role in the design and materials selected.
Other builders claim they can build net zero houses by using excess high priced solar panels to offset the total household energy usage.
We believe you start with the most efficient building envelope to minimize the amount of expensive solar panels and geothermal HVAC systems. The New Berlin Passive House has the proper emphasis placed on energy efficiency. This house can become net-zero for minimal additional cost and with less total per-square-foot cost than the competition. It fits on a standard lot in the Milwaukee suburbs and we were able to do a lower cost horizontal loop for the geothermal system.
