This 3,600-square-foot custom home built by Evolutionary Home Builders LLC (formerly Weiss Building and Development) is the first certified U.S. DOE Zero Energy Ready Home in Illinois.

The high-performance, three-story home is expected to cost its homeowners about $40 per month in heating and cooling bills, thanks in part to high-efficiency comfort equipment, high-efficiency insulation, and advanced home sealing technology.

The use of low-/no-VOC stains and finishes helps this home comply with the EPA Indoor airPLUS guidelines for a healthier indoor environment.

Ultra-efficient triple-pane windows include insulated vinyl frames and clear advanced technology coatings that keep heat out in summer and inside in the winter.

High-efficiency, ENERGY STAR-rated appliances and water-saving, low-flow EPA WaterSense-labeled fixtures provide water and energy savings in the high-performance homes.

Advanced lighting technology, including LED and compact fluorescent fixtures, supplements the natural daylight in this home.

The home was literally built over a peat bog, so the builder sunk steel-reinforced caissons 35 feet into the ground, then erected steel framing on the piers about 4 feet above-ground and set the floor joists on the framing. To handle storm water runoff, a series of underground tanks and drain pipes were installed beneath and behind the house to collect and slowly release water that might flow under the house during large storms. During a 100-year flood that occurred a month after construction, the site and the neighbor’s yard drained in three hours.

A variety of advanced home-sealing technologies provide comprehensive draft protection. These include sprayer-applied sealants at all framing seams; caulk, gaskets, and tape around piping and wiring; and quadruple flashing around windows with pitched sills.

The 2-by-6 advanced-framed walls were dense-packed with R-23 of fiberglass insulation then wrapped with a continuous exterior thermal blanket of coated rigid foam insulation (R-23). The wall water barrier system includes taped house wrap over the taped rigid foam. Vertical furring strips were installed to provide a drainage gap behind the engineered wood siding as part of the dry-by-design wall construction.