Garbett Construction built this 1,564-square-foot multifamily project in Salt Lake City, Utah, to the high performance criteria of the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program.

Garbett constructed these townhomes with 2-by-6, 24-inch on-center walls. With advanced framing techniques like two-stud corners, single headers, and drywall clips, Garbett estimates it is able to eliminate about 300 hundred studs per home, which provides space in the walls for another 120 cubic feet of high-density blown-in fiberglass insulation, increasing the wall total insulation value to R-23.

The shed roofs were covered with carefully applied thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) roofing membrane and were designed to structurally support photovoltaic and solar thermal panels anywhere on the roof where there is good solar access. This unit came with 1.7-kW of solar panels; however, the roof and the electrical panel are designed to handle more.

All of the homes’ interior and exterior lighting is provided by fixtures with LED light sources.

A highly efficient 96.5 AFUE natural-gas multistage furnace heats the home and cooling is provided by a SEER 15 air conditioner. An energy recovery ventilator (ERV) provides continuous fresh air throughout the home.

A sprayer-applied air sealant is used to seal seams in framing, where top plates meet the ceiling drywall and where bottom plates meet the subfloor.

The home’s walls are filled with blown fiberglass. A thick R-60 layer of blown fiberglass also blankets the ceiling.

Mudded and taped drywall and canned spray foam help keep garage fumes from leaking into the home

The home’s double-pane windows have low-emissivity coatings, insulated vinyl frames, and U-values of 0.30 that far exceed local codes.