The New American Home®

A newly built home in an upscale neighborhood in Las Vegas, Nevada has become a real-world  laboratory demonstrating concepts, materials, designs, and construction techniques that can be replicated in housing built in any price range anywhere in the country.

The New American Home® was a huge draw for attendees at the 2009 International Home Builders' Show. The home is the most energy efficient in the 26-year history of the series and was awarded a Gold rating in the NAHB National Green Building Program.

The 9,000 square foot contemporary home features a heating and cooling system that runs on clean-burning natural gas, photovoltaic cells, a solar water-heating system, insulating concrete forms and many other innovative technologies. The contemporary home also includes fountains, pools and a basement-level subterranean courtyard. 

Las Vegas builder Blue Heron and architect Danielian Associates collaborated with interior designer Robb & Stucky Interiors to create a home that is elegant, functional, and efficient, and green – the home scored at the gold level under the NAHB National Green Building Program.

“The New American Home has been a leader in green building for years, but this latest edition is built to be the most energy-efficient home in the history of this series,” said Bill Nolan, chairman of The New American Home Task Force. “Builders, architects, engineers–anybody with an interest in housing construction will be fascinated by the natural gas-powered heating and cooling system, the photovoltaic cells and the solar water heating. Even the insulation in this home is exciting.

“The whole package of energy-efficiency products work together to make this a near-zero-energy home,” said Nolan, who runs The Nolan Group, a housing industry consulting firm in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Design aspects related to:

• Site development;
• Resource, energy and water efficiency;
• Indoor air quality; and
• Operation, maintenance, and homeowner education.

The house was situated onsite to optimize solar resources and incorporates natural plantings. The development avoided environmentally sensitive areas.  Soil erosion and disturbance was kept to a minimum with storm water pollution prevention plans and continued on-site monitoring and implementation of best management practices.

To gain top efficiency, a proprietary gas-powered heating and cooling system with a SEER rating of 18 combined with other energy-efficient features such as low-E windows, advanced insulation, vertical and horizontal solar overhangs and window louvers enabled the home to achieve a Five Star-Plus HERS rating of 57.  This is before factoring the installation of a 12,000+ khz solar panel system striving for a net-zero level of electrical consumption.

Insulated concrete forms (ICF) were used predominately for the basement and structural walls which provide exceptional insulating properties with R-values up to 50.

“The design concepts, construction techniques and materials used in The New American Home 2009 can be adopted for use in any home,” Nolan said. “In a sense, this showcase home is a collection of ideas for the industry to take away and put into any new or remodeled home.”

Comments

[Ray Bullard]

Aptly the new american home is 8700 sqft -
are we all gonna live there?

[T. Reed]

It is great that The New American House takes advantage of the latest technologies, but why is it 9,000sf?

[Dr. Mark Bjelland]

This house demonstrates a fatal flaw in the NAHB National Green Building rating system. That a 9,000 square foot house could be awarded a gold rating shows we haven't reckoned with the consumption component in our ecological footprint. As the IPAT equation reminds us, technology alone is not the solution--affluence and over-consumption need to be addressed. The Green Building ratings should be based on per capita energy consumption.

[Bryan Dehmler-Buckley]

Isn't this the "Old American Home"? Haven't we learned that having a McMansion or mansion in this case is not what average Americans need? Great concepts that they are introducing but would they really have been more well received if they weren't in a 2500 sq ft house?

[PM]

Popular Mechanics has a fantastic assessment:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journal/home_improvement/4301010.html

[used digger trucks]

I love the look of natural stone on homes

[Utility Digger Derrick]

Great blog! That house is gorgeous.

[Wood Chippers Forsale]

Is there any Pictures of the Interior of this house?

[Forestry Equipment]

I would like to live in this home!

[ULI Blog]

You can view more images of this home at: www.tnah.com

[Wedding Photographer]

Beautiful House