Habitat for Humanity South Sarasota County built this 1,437-square-foot affordable home in North Port, Florida, to the high performance criteria of the U.S. Department of Energy Zero Energy Ready Home (ZERH) program.

ENERGY STAR appliances and ceiling fans, and LED lighting help reduce energy usage in the efficient home.

The affiliate builds all of its homes to meet the Florida Water Star guidelines, which includes low-flow plumbing fixtures and drought-resistant landscaping.

The home is constructed of concrete block, a common Florida building material, and insulated on the interior with a continuous layer of 3/4-inch rigid EPS plus a 3/4-inch air gap of furring strips topped with perforated craft-faced foil insulation and drywall.

The attic is sealed and insulated along the underside of the roof deck with 5.5 inches of polyurethane spray foam. The roof trusses and all other interior framing is treated with borate for mold and termite resistance.

The ducts for the ducted high-efficiency 15.5-SEER minisplit heat pump system are located within the conditioned attic space.

The high-efficiency minisplit heat pump provides cooling and heating.

The home’s ventilation system uses a controller that controls the mechanical damper on a filtered fresh-air intake that uses the central heat pump fan to draw in outdoor air, which is distributed through the cooling system ducts. The controller also operates an exhaust fan to maintain balanced pressures within the home.

Climate-specific features include bug- and moisture-resistant concrete block construction and borate-treated interior framing; a hurricane-resistant hip roof design that resists uplift in high winds; an unvented attic that avoids the entry of wind-driven rain through open soffit vents, and spray foam on the underside of the roof deck that helps “glue” together the roof. ENERGY STAR reflective roof shingles and low-SHGC windows with low-emissivity coatings help to minimize solar heat gain.