1.    Design and orientation of the house.  The costs are not excessive as long as the design and orientation of the house are carefully considered. Some general points about design: a) Consider a bulky rectangular or square shape with minimal wall surface area and very few corners. b) Large windows to south almost none to north (for southern states of America do opposite). c) As few external doors as possible. d) One roof-half in direction true south for solar collectors. e) Consider building a single-storey house. f) Consider building a duplex with two or more apartments in one body.

2.    The house must be airtight.  The vapor barrier where needed must be overlapping 500mm and sealed everywhere. All windows and doors must meet the required air-leakage standards.

3.    Use thermal mass effect of the concrete.  Build both walls and floors with concrete. It will act as a big heat accumulator and release heat when outside air is cold and provide coldness when outside temperature is high.

4.    For zero energy home use insulation with higher R-value then one would use for regular home construction.  Dont use fiberglass insulation at least for walls, it will settle with time and walls will have air gaps. All 2, 3 and 4 can be achieved by using Insulating Concrete Forms (ICFs) to build your house.  

5.    Use triple glazed windows and well insulated or double external doors.  Use limited number of skylights (high quality double glazed only).  The passive gain of incoming solar heat through the windows will cover close to 40% of the heat losses if all guidelines are followed. Optimized south facing glazing with none or minimal window openings to the north is a requisite. Most windows should be fixed as these have a higher performance than the opening type. As with all components making up a ZEH, the total performance of the house must be considered. A large house with many doors will have much larger heart-losses and this must be compensated by significant improvement of all components. In many well designed houses of moderate size, the standard door is sufficient.

6.    Completely avoid cold bridges. Run ducting in heating/conditioning space only.

7.    Use the most energy efficient models of appliances available and low energy lamps (for example modern high frequency fluorescents).

8.    Use radiant floor heating. It offers many advantages over traditional heating systems. Perhaps the most important advantage is the improved comfort level especially when combined with a concrete floor. Radiant heating allows a room to be heated evenly by increasing the room's average surface temperature. Another key benefit of radiant heat is energy efficiency. You are going to be able to save money on energy bills with radiant heating due to comfort at lower temperatures, room by room zoning, and lower water temperatures. Other advantages include no visible components, noise reduction, and dependability.

9.    Use Earths temperature and thermal mass. Install geothermal pump or/and Awadukt Thermo Ground Air Exchanger or similar system.

10.Use instant electrical tankless water heaters.