From The "Not Getting It" Dept. - NAHB Unveils "Green" Demo Home - 8,000+ sf, $4 Million (est.)

[hatrack]

f there's such a thing as being "economically incorrect," this house is it.

With consumers around the country mired in financial anxiety, the National Assn. of Home Builders nonetheless last month unveiled a showcase home in Las Vegas where its high-roller inhabitants will loll about in 8,800 square feet of spare-no-expense luxury. And they chose to build it in a city where the housing market is so bad it ought to be declared a disaster area.

Once you get past those little incongruities, however, the New American Home, a showcase for attendees of the home builders' recent annual convention, has some merits -- particularly its designers' efforts to pack one green feature on top of another. And another.

Among its bragging points, the annual gas and electric bills for the sprawling, four-level house in the desert are predicted to total $2,500. Its builders claim it achieves a 75% savings over the benchmark set by the federal Department of Energy's Building America program.

EDIT

http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/printedition/la-hmw-americanhome4-2009feb04,0,6841096.story

[geckosfeet]

1. My electric bill, in New England where I use electricity for heat and AC,

is about $3000 a year. I have no gas bill.

How is $2500 a year in LA something to brag about?

Note: I spend about $1000 a year on firewood.

[enlightenment]

3. $2500 isn't bad, considering the size of the house

and the cost of energy here. Heating isn't much of an issue in LV - we have the heat on at the moment, but don't run it at night or generally during the day; it's just taking the chill off in the morning.

AC, on the other hand, is much more important. It averages above 80F from around April until October - ambient air temp. Add in probably another 5 degrees reflected heat from the concrete jungle that is the city. June to September average above 90, and July/August above 100. The hottest days are above 110 (the hottest I've seen in 10 years here was 117, I think - but the thermometer at my house read 124).

Anyway - it's hot for a long time here and heat builds inside homes, making it tough to keep them livable (that being about 78 inside). You spend around $4000 to heat and cool your home, which I doubt is anywhere near the size of this recently built 'ode to excess'. $2500 is something to brag about.

The existence of the house is nothing to brag about. No one needs a house that size.

[geckosfeet]

5. True - I have a much smaller house. Wish I could get my electric bill down to $2500 a year.

Buying a huge house with a 10 fold increase in mortgage payments is not what I had in mind though.

[wtmusic]

6. You could probably do it with this

"Designed for clean, simple living. The Glidehouse is built in a factory, using the most modern and environmentally friendly building methods and materials. It can be built in as little as 10 to 14 months at a cost comparable to or below traditional site-built homes."

http://www.mkd-arc.com/homes/glidehouse/

About $375K

One of Michele Kaufman's modular homes is an exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Pretty amazing.

[n2doc]

2. And of course gotta have that hybrid Chevy Tahoe and Lexus 600h in the garage

Wouldn't be complete without them!


8800 sq ft! Jeez, what the heck does one do with all that? The pics make it look like some kind of hotel.

[zeemike]

4. It is all about big profits

Big house=big profits

[XemaSab]

7. Huge can never be green

:banghead:

And here we have two people and three dogs living in 900 square feet... I'm sure we're falling all over each other in such close quarters. :eyes:

[wtmusic]

8. You have almost as much room as Al Gore does...on his boat

Love Al, but he should lose the boat