Will the sun shine on Meritage Home's energy-efficiency building efforts? A nine-panel array from Echo Solar Systems provides some of the power, hot water and heat for homes in the company's solar communities.
Big production homebuilders are getting green. KB Homes, Ashton Woods Homes and Pulte Group (including Centex and Del Webb communities) are providing home energy labels that give an energy score so prospective homebuyers can compare the energy efficiencies of their potential new digs.
Arizona-based Meritage Homes, is going even further, by offering several solar communities with combination solar PV and solar thermal systems as standard—and now the company is offering upgrades to net-zero homes, which produce all of their own energy.
Meritage’s first net-zero home was built in the Verrado developmet in Buckeye, Ariz., and the company gave away another net-zero home in its Lyon’s Gate community in Gilbert, Ariz., on Memorial Day. The companies first net zero home features an Echo Solar System 15,000-kilowatt, 24-panel photovoltaic solar system that also heats water and air for heating and domestic hot water use, by using 180-degree air that collects behind the solar PV panels. In addition, the net-zero and solar homes are built with better insulation, energy-efficient lighting and include Energy Star-rated appliances.
We’re not talking unaffordable, either. Meritage’s homes are generally priced in the $140,000 to $300,000-plus range, and the net-zero option amounts to a $10,000 to $15,000 upgrade, much of which can be covered by $10,000 in tax credits and rebates available from the federal government and the state of Arizona, according to C.R. Herro, vice president of environmental affairs for Meritage.
Really Getting Green
Builders such as Meritage are not only getting green in their building practices—they are getting green, as in truly understanding its potential. And in the process, they are learning how to market green and energy efficiency to an often skeptical public.
Meritage, for one, is using green building and energy efficiency to distinguish itself in an increasingly restricted and difficult market. Green and energy efficiency offers value against the glut of distressed properties on the market.
“It makes sense to come to market with value that can’t be replaced today,” Herro says. “Otherwise you’re a commodity, and being a commodity in this economy is a terrible thing.”
Meritage, for one, is also saving homeowners interested in energy efficiency and green building from having to research reams of information about doing that.
“The average consumer is changing perceptions. [Buying a home is not] just about location and countertops, but how well the home performs,” Herro says. “But it’s too much to expect even well informed consumers to go through the whole process of building.”
To that end, Meritage is building learning centers along with its normal model complexes so potential homebuyers can see what goes into a green home.
Still Must See Value
Meritage is taking potential homebuyers behind the walls so they can see what goes into building a green home.
All of this didn’t happen for Meritage overnight. The company worked with the Department of Energy’s Building America program for a couple of years to learn the ropes and develop a sound market strategy.
“It doesn’t make sense not to build green once you have a template for a program. It’s not something that you just slap together,” says Herro.
Meritage wasn’t even going to offer solar, because the company couldn’t find the value in installing such expensive system, but then found Echo Solar. “We’re getting two to three times more energy out of it,” Herro says of Echo’s ability to provide air and water heating, along with electricity. The heat expended by the solar panels collects beneath them and is ducted into the house via air vents. The solar thermal component added enough value for Meritage to sign on. And now it can market solar and net-zero homes to the public.
The job isn’t finished yet. Meritage still has to get people to buy the net-zero homes. That’s the reason behind the learning centers, which along with other homebuilder initiatives like energy labeling help create awareness among consumers.
But there are still the issues of energy-efficient and green homes not being appraised at higher values and convincing appraisers to do so. That should eventually happen as more and more net-zero homes are built and sold—and as people pay premiums for them. That’s all a part of the value proposition that both consumers and green marketers continue to face.
Geesh, just look around you. Some monthly utility bills today are what a mortgage once was. Get as green as you can as fast as you can; turn on the big screen TV, aircon & hot tub — soak your economic blues away. It feels so good all your neighbors will come over too.
A zero energy home will save you $25,000 – $60,000 every 10 years, depending on your local utility rates, which increase 6-10% per year.
Sorry, not buying that!