In this climate, how a home is built is what it costs to own.
Custom Homes Built Right From the First Decision.
Peak One builds luxury custom homes on current building science and real energy efficiency — engineered by a builder with a structural engineering degree, for a desert where the way a home is built shows up on every utility bill, in every room, for as long as you own it.
Built by an engineer, not just a builder.
Where it Starts
Mike Christensen holds a structural engineering degree from Northern Illinois University, with more than two decades of building on top of it. That training is the reason Peak One builds past code minimum by default. Code is the least you’re legally allowed to build. It is not the standard a multimillion-dollar home should be held to.
What that means for you: a home engineered so well we double the required workmanship warranty, and provide a 10-year waterproofing warranty. Standard.
What we build
A high Performance Home, Defined
A high-performance home isn’t one upgrade you add on. It’s a set of systems engineered to work together from the foundation up, so the home stays comfortable, costs less to run, and lasts longer. Here’s what that actually means.
The structure
Superior framing, insulation, air sealing, and high-performance windows working as one system to keep the desert heat where it belongs: outside. The tighter the envelope, the less the home leans on its air conditioning to hold a temperature.
Right-sized, high-efficiency HVAC
Nearly half of a typical home's energy goes to heating and cooling. We size the system to the home's actual load — calculated, not guessed. In this climate, getting that sizing right matters more than almost anywhere in the country. An oversized unit costs more, runs in short bursts, and leaves rooms uneven. A right-sized one runs steady and quiet.
A water management system
Built to move water away from the structure by design. The most expensive failure in a desert home usually isn't heat — it's the water event you didn't plan for. We detail the site, foundation, walls, and roof to keep water out and the structure dry.
Efficient lighting, appliances, and controls
The systems you touch every day, specified to draw less and last longer, without asking you to live differently.
In the desert, efficiency isn't a green feature. It's math.
WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU
10-20% more efficient than code, at minimum (ENERGY STAR verified)
The years in which your home will continue to outperform
A large home in Arizona can save over $600 per year on energy costs
The utility bill is only half the story.
A tight, well-built home is quieter. It holds an even temperature from room to room. It keeps the desert’s dust and allergens on the other side of the wall. That’s what you feel every day — the savings just show up in the background.
Solar in Arizona,
sized to the home
Arizona has the sun. What changed is the math behind it. The state moved off traditional net metering — utilities now credit the power you send back to the grid at roughly half of what they charge you to buy it, and less on some plans. Two things follow from that.
First, oversizing a system to “sell power back” doesn’t pay the way it once did. Second — and this is where building science earns its keep — the most valuable dollar is the one spent reducing the home’s energy load before a single panel goes up. A high-performance home needs a smaller, smarter array to do the same job. We design the home first, then size the solar to the home. Never the reverse.
One truth, because you’ll hear otherwise: the federal tax credit for buying a residential solar system ended at the close of 2025. The case for solar today rests on lower bills, energy independence, and control over rising rates — not a write-off. For most homes here, that case is now strongest when solar is paired with storage, and the home itself is efficient enough that the array doesn’t have to be enormous.
Net Zero Ready Homes
You’ll hear “net zero” used loosely. We don’t. A net-zero home produces as much energy as it uses over a year. A net-zero-ready home is built to that same efficiency standard and wired for solar, so it can reach net zero whenever you choose to add or expand the array — without paying on day one for capacity you may never need. Every Peak One home is built to that net-zero-ready standard if the customer wants it. The envelope, the efficiency, the solar wiring — all of it. The official Energy Star certification from the government is a separate step you invest in, and plenty of our homeowners rest easy in the superior construction of their home without it. The home performs the same either way. We build the house to the standard; the badge is optional.