The Vesta™: Greenhouse Home Design
The Ceres kit house is leading the way in energy-efficient home design. The goal of the Vesta™ design is to provide you with a self heating, food producing home that is affordable to purchase, fast to construct, low maintenance and designed with beauty in mind.
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Watch the Vesta™ construction from the ground up!
Why the Vesta™ Kit House?
Is the Vesta™ a Modular Home? Kit Home?
The Vesta™ is a kit home. Kit homes are constructed from raw materials and pre-cut parts that are shipped to the site and assembled from scratch. They arrive only 0–10% complete, so construction time is similar to a traditional build. They offer a lot of design freedom and lower material costs.
Modular homes arrive 90–95% finished in large factory-built sections — wiring, plumbing, and finishes already done — and are craned onto a permanent foundation. Because factory work and site prep happen at the same time, build time is often cut in half. They’re less freely customizable than kit homes but are far closer to move-in ready.
Kit Home vs Modular Home Comparison Chart
| Category |
Kit home Build it yourself |
Modular home Factory-built sections |
|---|---|---|
How it's built |
Pre-cut parts shipped to site — all construction happens on location, like a large flat-pack kit. | Large modules built in a factory with wiring, plumbing & finishes installed, then craned onto a foundation. |
Completion at delivery |
0–10% complete
|
90–95% complete
|
Build time |
Longer — comparable to traditional site-built construction. | Much faster — factory work and site prep happen simultaneously, often cutting total time in half. |
Cost profile |
Lower material cost, but on-site labor adds up significantly. | Higher upfront factory cost, offset by lower on-site labor due to faster assembly. |
Customization |
Highly flexible — A-frames, log cabins, Scandinavian styles and more. | Customizable within the manufacturer's floor plans and module configurations. |
Skills needed |
Skilled contractors or an experienced DIY self-builder. | Manufacturer's crew or specialist contractor — not a DIY project. |
Move-in readiness |
Requires full on-site build-out before occupancy. | Near move-in ready after modules are joined and connections finished. |
Both types sit on permanent foundations and are treated as real property.
The core tradeoff is control vs. convenience — a kit home gives you more flexibility and potentially lower upfront costs, while a modular home gets you into the house faster with less hands-on building required.
A Flexible Home Layout for Your House in a Greenhouse
We leave the layout and interior design to you so that you can customize any Vesta™ model to your own style and needs.
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Integrated & Automated Home Controller
The Ceres designed Vesta™ controller makes the highly efficient structure a truly smart home. The controller works as a standard thermostat to control your HVAC equipment, while also controlling greenhouse exhaust fans, heat, supplemental lighting and shading if desired. The controller can open and close strategic windows to move heat from the greenhouse into the main house on cooler days, and can open upper clerestory windows for cooling when needed on warmer days.
Ceres Greenhouse Options
The Vesta™ FAQs
Yes. A forklift or telescopic handler is required for raising some of the large columns and placing the rafter beams. All of the main framing is bolted together (bolts supplied) and the lighter gauge framing is connected with bolts/tek screws. That being said, having construction experience or hiring a general contractor/framer to build the house is recommended.
Yes, expansion is possible. Because we are not specifically designing for expansion, design fees may apply.
Yes. The tightness of the building and high insulation value works great in both hot and cold climates.
The Vesta can be built by the anyone with some construction experience or a local general contractor. Ceres is always there to provide guidance and support during the build process.
Ceres offers several recommended floor plans at no cost. Owners can design their own floor plans or work with an architect/design-build firm to design their own layouts as well.
The client or contractor. This is not supplied by Ceres. We understand where we offer value and where the customer can find the same materials elsewhere and save money on extra shipping costs.
No. The greenhouse is separated from the house with exterior wall panels as well as exterior grade windows, so you can view them as two separate spaces. The greenhouse also comes with a ventilation system, which includes exhaust fans and intake louvers. A retractable shade curtain can be installed for additional cooling or removable shade paint can be used during the hottest months.
Depending on your power needs, the Vesta™ has space for a 4 kilowatt solar system (assuming 11, 375 watt panels) on the south facing solid portion of the attached greenhouse. With efficient appliances and mechanical systems this could be enough to make the house net zero or net positive. Ceres can offer a solar layout design and recommendation for a small fee, to be installed by a local solar contractor.
We have designed space for 11 3.5×5.5ft solar panels on the south facing solid portion of the attached greenhouse roof. If this is grid tied, it may make sense to add more solar panels on the roof of the house as well. While the orientation of the roof is not ideal, it is advantageous in certain locations to increase solar capacity.
Ceres can also incorporate solar PV glass into the greenhouse structure of the Vesta™ Naturehouse.
Yes. The entire roof of the house is steel and slopes to the north with approximately 1,000sqft of surface area. A rainwater collection system can be connected to the north side of the roof. Please note that rainwater collection can be illegal in certain locations, so we advise you to call your local authorities for regulations where you live.
Currently we have not sought out any certifications, but we may in the future. If that is something you would like to explore for your own home, we would be happy to support you in the process.
At this point we are anticipating 2-3 months for delivery. While some of this time is for design and permitting, clients can be working on foundation, etc, once plans are complete.
If radon is detected a mitigation system can be installed under the slab before construction. This is dealt with by the homeowner or contractor, and does not fall under the responsibility of Ceres.
In the greenhouse, venting is the first step and an optional dehumidifier will help with dehumidification in the winter months. The greenhouse heater will also help with greenhouse humidification loads.
Yes. The Vesta™ and Vesta™ Nature house can be customized to include an additional basement under the house, however the greenhouse would not. Clients design their own foundation so this is something to sort our with your local general contractor.
Yes. Each Vesta™ option is expandable in the east/west direction.
The Naturehouse is constructed with heavy gauge steel I-beams as the main frame of the house and greenhouse. The house is clad in insulated metal panels, the walls are 4” thick with an R-32 insulation value, the roof is 6” thick with an R-value of 48. The windows are triple pane fiberglass.
The greenhouse glass is double pane, and the aluminum connection system is thermally broken throughout to minimize the transfer of heat and cold from outside the greenhouse to inside the greenhouse.
