Health-E Community Enterprises of Virginia built this 4,691-square-foot custom home in Hampton, Virginia, to the high performance criteria of the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program.

The lower half of the ground-floor walls of this coastal home consist of foam-filled concrete block, while the upper half and second and third floors are 2-by-6 stud-framed walls covered with an R-3.6-insulated coated OSB sheathing product taped at the seams for water and wind resistance. On the north and east sides of the home, house wrap is added as a second layer of protection against severe storms. The walls are then covered with a durable fiber cement siding.

ENERGY STAR appliances and ceiling fans and LED lighting add to the energy savings.

The double-pane vinyl-framed windows feature impact-resistant glass with a high insulation value of U-0.23 (R-4.35) and a low solar heat gain coefficient of 0.17 to keep out unwanted heat. The mostly casement style vinyl-framed windows have an argon gas fill and two layers of low-emissivity coatings to slow heat transmission.

Full-width decks on the ocean-facing side of the home provide commanding views while the gabled roof behind has unobstructed sunlight for the 13.1-kW PV array. Eight-foot setbacks on this 50-foot-wide beachfront infill lot left only 34 feet of buildable width so the home rises 32 feet up from its 35-foot deep piling and grade-beam foundation.

All of the HVAC system ducts are fully sealed with mastic and installed between floors in the open-web floor joists.

The lower-level walls are filled with 2 inches (R-13) of closed-cell foam and 10 inches (R-36) of open-cell foam. This combination is also used in the rim bands between floors. The second- and third-floor walls are filled with 5.5 inches (R-22) of blown fiberglass insulation.

The attic is insulated on the underside of the OSB roof decking with 3 inches (R-19.5) of closed-cell spray foam plus 7 inches (R-25.2) of open-cell spray foam for a total insulation value of R-44.7, providing a climate-controlled location for the top-floor HVAC ducts. The roof is topped with reflective metal roofing to minimize solar heat gain.

An R-3.7-insulated coated OSB wraps the exterior of the house in a continuous layer of thermal, air, and water protection.

Standing-seam metal roofing, fiber cement siding, impact-resistant glass, a steel-girder-reinforced structure, and concrete first-floor walls are among the storm-resistant features of this ocean-front home.