Energy-Smart Homes, in Detail
Six of the most efficient homes ever published in Fine Homebuilding
See six of the most efficient homes ever published in Fine Homebuilding in this resourceful slide show. Learn from their detailed wall and roof assemblies, mechanical and renewable systems, material choices, and the expertise of the designers and builders.
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This 1000-sq.-ft. retirement home, designed for comfort and flexibility, cost about $160 per sq. ft. to build. Depending on siting, a house built with the same plans is capable of meeting the Passive House standard.
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A highly insulated, airtight building shell that makes use of solar gain to lower space-heating demands means that the cost and complexity of the mechanical systems can be minimized.
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Best New Home: Passive House Perfection
This California farmhouse has a beautifully inviting exterior, an open floor plan, and a strong connection to outdoor spaces. It also met the stringent Passive House standard.
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Best New Home: Passive House Perfection
This home consumes as little energy as possible and holds onto that energy for as long as possible through a series of components that have been detailed to ensure optimum performance while being practical to build.
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Blending the comforts of traditional farmhouse design with a slightly more sparse, modern treatment yields a cutting-edge, high-performance home in rural Michigan.
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Superinsulation was the goal from the foundation to the roof, and particularly with the Larsen-truss wall assembly in between.
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Stepping Off the Grid in Hill Country
This home in Driftwood, Texas, captures net-zero efficiency in an attractive, affordable house.
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Stepping Off the Grid in Hill Country
A series of carefully chosen mechanical systems allow this conventionally built hilltop home to feed off its surrounding environment for electricity, heating and cooling, and its occupants’ complete water needs.
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Exploiting the Elements of Passive Design
From the rainwater collection to the timber-frame joinery, this house illustrates environmentally responsible design and a contemporary style prominent in the Pacific Northwest.
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Exploiting the Elements of Passive Design
The home uses five strategies to optimize comfort and performance while lowering energy bills: passive heating and cooling, solar shading, rainwater harvesting, earth sheltering, and natural daylighting.
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In a hot and humid climate where air-conditioning runs electric bills through the roof, this gut rehab is now a comfortable, efficient, and durable home with energy bills about half those of similar homes in the area.
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To maximize efficiency, this HVAC system is based around a dehumidifier that removes moisture from outside air before it’s processed by the small minisplit upstairs and the air conditioner downstairs.
View Comments
Can see any details in these small pictures. Frustrating, learned nothing, except that in the last one, they dehumidify and then run it through an AC system... seems like a waste. An air conditioner will condense the moisture out of the air as it cools it. The resulting air from the AC will be cool and dry.
Ditto user-5401167. Picture size too small for any use by me.
Worthless click-bate.
"Learn from their detailed wall and roof assemblies, mechanical and renewable systems, material choices, and the expertise of the designers and builders."
But the images are too small to show any of that. Taunton used to be such a solid name.
Useless information. Why not make the images in the slideshow click thru to the article they came from?
Thank you for your valuable feedback on our redesigned website. Based on your feedback I have submitted a request to our web development team to make it more obvious but additional information about each photograph and illustration in the slideshow can be found by clicking on the title of each slide. The issue number and date of when each article was originally published in Fine Homebuilding magazine can also be found by clicking on the title of each slide. Members of FineHomebuilding.com can click on the "view pdf" button at the bottom of each page to access each article in its entirety. Regards, Maureen from Fine Homebuilding.