An energy plus house is a house that produces more energy generated by renewable sources, over the course of an average year, compared to the energy imported from the grid. This requires a combination of microgeneration technology and a low energy building through the implementation of passive solar building design techniques, thermal insulation along with a careful choice of site and location.

It may imply a certain postmodern minimalism that uses a minimum of modern equipment, which requires little energy to operate. However, many energy plus houses are indistinguishable from a traditional home, in terms of formal image, since they simply use the most energy efficient solutions (for example: appliances; low consumption lighting; doors and windows; heat exchangers in the heating and ventilation system "Ventilation (architecture)"); insulation in walls, ceilings and installations, etc.); throughout the entire house or building.

A building with these characteristics is then characterized by spending very little energy and that the energy generated is greater in one year than that consumed.

This does not ensure that the home is comfortable from a hygrothermal point of view, since it may be hot in summer or cool down very quickly in winter or even overheat if there is no optimized thermal balance. And it is much more advisable to adjust the design through numerical simulations with specific programs such as Energy Plus"), Simedif") and Codyba"), among others. The first two are free and the last paid and neither is GNU.

The renewable energy source most used in this type of buildings is solar, both photovoltaic (for electricity supply) and thermal (for domestic hot water, heating and even air conditioning or pool heating).

Other possibilities are geothermal or even wind power through microgenerators.