Zero Energy Ready Homes

Zero Energy Ready Home Certification Standards

Zero Energy Ready Home certification standards are set and administered by the US Department of Energy (DOE). ZERH standards build upon—and go beyond—the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ENERGY STAR® home certification program. For example, ENERGY STAR rated appliances, windows, heating, and cooling systems are required under the ZERH standard.

Benefits That BPC’s Zero Energy Ready Homes Offer

Highly Energy Efficient

To be certified as a Zero Energy Ready Home, a newly constructed or completely renovated home must follow a certification process that ensures the home is highly energy efficient. The advanced building methods BPC uses, coupled with high-efficiency appliances and energy-saving major systems, provide substantial energy cost and homeownership savings. The energy requirements for a ZERH are low enough that even a modest solar panel array can meet all your household energy needs.

Healthier Indoor Air Quality

Your BPC ZERH will provide you with exceptionally high indoor air quality. BPC ZERH certified homes meet or exceed the EPA Indoor airPLUS certification standards. This is beneficial for all home occupants but especially so for any family with members who have allergies, respiratory problems, or simply like their home to be healthy.

Zero Energy Ready Homes built by BPC have ventilation and air filtration systems built into the home and use materials that greatly minimize indoor air pollutants, irritants, particulates, and allergens. They are also built to reduce and control radon gas (a carcinogen found in the soil) entry into a home. BPC homes use Energy Recovery Ventilators to provide continuous fresh filtered air which recover almost all the energy from the air exchange and repurpose it to heat or cool the home. Your ZERH is both healthy and energy efficient.

Durability

A Certified Zero Energy Ready Home must be built to withstand the test of time. Systems are carefully engineered to optimize their useful life and minimize repair and replacement costs. Advanced building materials and assemblies are utilized to ensure your home will last longer and require less maintenance.

Lower Cost of Home Ownership

Zero Energy Ready Homes lower the cost of homeownership in many ways:

• They are super energy efficient, saving you money on energy bills. If built with solar photovoltaic systems, they can offset all your energy costs.
• They are highly engineered and built to reduce the number and frequency of repairs and replacements.
• While there is usually some, often small, marginal cost increase to build a Zero Energy Ready Home, in the BPC service area, these marginal costs are quickly recovered and from that point on, you are saving money each year.
• If you take out a mortgage for the home, your monthly energy savings are often equal to the slight increase in your mortgage payment due to slightly higher construction costs.*

*The marginal increase in the cost to construct a ZERH is minimized due to BPC’s quarter century of experience building green homes.

The time it takes you to fully recover any marginal costs of construction and then get the full cost savings of living in a Zero Energy Ready Home is relatively short in the Connecticut and New York areas that BPC serves. And when you include solar panels on your home, your energy cost savings are even higher.

Quiet and Comfort

BPC Zero Energy Ready Homes are designed to be welcoming and provide superior levels of home comfort and quiet.

Using building science’s best practices and insulation approaches, high-performance heating and cooling systems, and superior quality and high-efficiency windows and doors, BPC creates homes that are virtually draft-free and have consistent, comfortable temperatures and humidity levels.

The insulation methods and materials used in ZERH homes that BPC builds not only insulate the home thermally but also provide superior sound insulation. These homes minimize, if not eliminate, almost all annoying sounds coming from the outdoors. 

Advanced Technology

BPC’s Zero Energy Ready Homes are built using advanced building methods and technology based on established building science, from high-performance heat pumps and water heaters to high-efficiency solar panels, appliances, lighting, insulation, windows and doors, and more. We can also incorporate smart home technology that controls and monitors your energy use as well as other smart home functions.

Conscientious, Environmentally Responsible Construction

With the addition of solar renewable energy systems, Zero Energy Ready Homes use little to no fossil fuel-generated power and so are responsible for less carbon emission and environmental damage from fossil fuel extraction, processing, transportation, and combustion.

Owning a Zero Energy Ready Home not only plays an important role in mitigating climate change, air pollution, and other environmental damage, but shows that you care about the environment and sets a good example for your children, grandchildren, friends, and family. You just might inspire others to follow suit.

A Wiser Investment and Improved Resale

It is virtually impossible to predict the future value of any home, but there are plenty of reasons to believe that a ZERH built by BPC will be more attractive to potential future buyers. Likewise, it is logical to expect a home that uses little to no energy from the electric grid and can have zero energy costs will command a higher price than homes that have high annual energy expenses.

In many parts of the country, green homes are already commanding increased sale prices.