3 Green Projects Showcase Key Home Building Strategies
[caption id="attachment_17353" align="alignleft" width="300"] The Cortana neighborhood by Lennar features rooftop solar PV panels as a standard feature.[/caption]
One of many green offerings during the recent International Builders' Show (IBS) was the opportunity to participate in a Green Home Tour, showcasing energy-efficient strategies, high-performance features and green construction practices being used in the desert climate of Las Vegas.
"The green home tour was a great opportunity to see green solutions implemented into multiple facets of construction," shared Dylan Burford, a recipient of the inaugural NAHB Sustainability and Green IBS Scholarship. "We were able to see green solutions for production-built homes, multifamily housing, and a 10,000-square-foot custom home. The similarities, as well as the differences between these, was something everyone should take the time to explore."
[caption id="attachment_17351" align="alignright" width="300"] Growth Luxury Homes offers electric vehicle charging stations in the garages of its homes.[/caption]
Local NAR Green Realtor Annette Bubak, who has promoted green and sustainable building in the Las Vegas area for more than two decades, set the stage for the two single-family sites, which included the following key features:
- The Cortona neighborhood by Lennar featured lines of homes outfitted with rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. "These panels are a standard feature, which lower the Home Energy Rating System (HERS) scores from the mid-50s to the mid-30s," said Dennis Helblig of Sunstreet. "Our system on these homes helps them be about 65% more energy efficient than a standard new home."
- Rooftop solar PV panels — as well as whole-house automation, an electric vehicle charging station and an energy storage system — were also strategies incorporated into Growth Luxury Homes' projects in the Augusta Canyon area of Southern Highlands. "We designed these homes to meet the DOE Zero Energy Ready Program; they were built to be highly energy efficient and able to have all of the homes’ annual energy consumption offset by a renewable energy source, such as rooftop solar," shared Steve Escalante of Growth Holdings.