Page 18 - Green Builder Sept-Oct 2019 Issue

Harnessing nature. High Performance Homes’ custom Zero
Energy Ready Home (ZERH), Rose Acres, uses Mother Nature Annual Building Science Roundup 2020 A GRAND SYNERGY
and Mother Earth to heat, cool and power the residence.
COURTESY OF HIGH PERFORMANCE HOMES

Double Duty years, we now look forward each month to seeing how small our
utility bills are,” say the homeowners.
The couple adds that it is enjoying various ZERH creature com-
forts, such as its geothermal heat pump, R-value, airtight Structural
This Maryland project incorporates SIPs Insulated Panel (SIP) construction, and insulated concrete foundation
walls. The home “effortlessly maintains even temperatures through-
to achieve excellent efficiency in a house out, while delivering super clean air.”
The homeowners also sing the praises of their builder, Kiere
that also includes two home offices. DeGrandchamp, who launched High Performance Homes in
BY GREEN BUILDER STAFF Gettysburg, Pa., in 2014. DeGrandchamp builds up to 10 custom or
N EMPTY NESTER COUPLE found everything they semi-custom homes per year, all of which are certified to the DOE
needed and more in this custom home built to the ZERH program. “The program encapsulates everything we try to
exacting standards of the U.S. Department of Energy achieve—a quality built home that is livable, efficient, healthy and
(DOE)’s Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program environmentally friendly,” DeGrandchamp says.
A in Westminster, Md. The 2018 award-winning home,
dubbed Rose Acres by its owners, Suzanne and Dan Swisher, pro- PRECAST BELOW, SIPS ABOVE
vides 4,270 square feet of living space, including two bedrooms plus Rose Acres is a one-and-a-half-story home with a walk-out base-
his-and-her offices for the work-from-home couple; a great room, ment. High Performance Homes constructed the below-grade walls
breakfast room, dining room, kitchen and bathrooms on the main of precast concrete panels with an integrated R-21 of rigid foam and
floor with full wheelchair accessibility; a second-story loft; a hot tub; integral metal-faced foam-insulated concrete studs. The panels were
a complete two-bedroom mother-in-law apartment in the daylight installed on site; then, two inches of rigid extruded polystyrene (XPS)
basement; and beautiful views of the surrounding countryside—all foam was laid down to provide an R-10 insulation layer under the
at energy bills of less than $50 per month. entire poured concrete basement slab.
“After having outrageously high energy costs over the past several The above-grade walls were constructed of 6.5-inch R-23 SIPs,

16 GREEN BUILDER September/October 2019 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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