Addison Homes built this 1,896-square-foot custom home in Greenville, South Carolina, to the high performance criteria of the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program.

Porches and overhangs protect doors and windows from rain and high overhead summer sun.

The home is equipped with an ENERGY STAR refrigerator, dishwasher, clothes washer, and ceiling fans for added energy savings.

Skylights, solar tubes, and ENERGY STAR-rated double-pane low-e windows bring natural daylight into nearly every room of the home, while LED fixtures provide efficient lighting at night.

Handicap-accessible features in the home include a curbless-entry shower.

An ENERGY STAR-labeled tankless high-efficiency (0.98 EF) gas water heater provides hot water to the home's ENERGY STAR-labeled appliances and low-flow plumbing fixtures.

Instead of venting the crawlspaces, Addison Homes seals and insulates them, to provide a clean, dry space for the home's heating and cooling system ducts.

The exterior walls were covered with a 1-inch-thick sheet of extruded polystyrene rigid foam that provides R-5 of continuous insulation. With the seams taped, it also provides a continuous air and weather-resistant barrier so no house wrap is needed.

The exterior walls are filled with unfaced fiberglass insulation and sheathed with OSB plus 1" R-5 XPS rigid foam. A strip of foam fabric is attached to the top and bottom plates to serve as an air-tight gasket between framing and drywall.

The high-performance home is equipped with internet-connected monitoring equipment, including a thermostat that can send error codes to the HVAC contractor for remote diagnostics, a system that tracks solar panel output and operation, and a crawlspace monitoring system that notifies the builder if it detects high humidity or bulk water intrusion.