Demonstration home

We built our demonstration home in Searsport, Maine in 2025.

Featuring a traditional Cape style to fit in well with its Maine community, the demonstration home is a 2 bedroom, 1 bath, with 896 square feet of living area on one floor (28x32’). The design went on to become the Osprey home model.

The demonstration home was set on a foundation with a partial basement. The 2nd floor can be finished in the future for 1 or 2 additional bedrooms/living area.

The home is connected to the grid, on town water and sewer, and includes a solar array sized to power the energy needs of the house and provided by Maine Solar Solutions.

Zero Energy Homes sold the demonstration home to a year-round homebuyer earning 80% of area median income (as defined by MaineHousing). 

Zero Energy Homes partnered with Maker Construction to build the wall and roof sections in panels, off-site in western Maine. The panels were trucked to Searsport where they were assembled on the foundation and made weathertight in a single day. Watch a time-lapse video of the home set here.

A local project manager and subcontractors completed the interior and exterior finish work. We appreciate the skill and innovation these builders bring to helping develop new housing solutions.  

The Elmina B. Sewall Foundation provided the construction loan.