Whether or not there’s global warming, Southern Arizona’s climate has always been a problem to contend with. In response to local and world-wide environmental challenges, major changes in home building have recently taken place. Green now means economical, not expensive.

New homes by SAHBA builders are more comfortable, healthy, and durable and use far less energy and water than homes built just a few years ago. And they accomplish this without sacrificing style. Today’s builders are constantly becoming better at optimizing the lifetime value of their homes – including utility costs. This paradigm shift has been made possible by advances in building science and technology coupled with increased buyer awareness and demand for sustainable homes.

Raising the Green Building Bar

Green is now the home building industry standard. Energy-saving, water-saving, and air-friendly building components, materials, and methods that not long ago were little used or nonexistent are now common or standards. These include such well known elements as double-pane windows, low-E glazing, Energy Star appliances, tankless water heaters, programmable thermostats, high SEER (16 and above) air conditioners, and rainwater harvesting as well as more esoteric ones like third-party energy-performance certification, water-based spray-foam insulation, low and no VOC paints and carpets, gray water piping, ducts located in conditioned spaces, duct pressure testing, and automatically controlled fresh air supply systems.

As specific examples, all builders nowadays provide at least an option for photovoltaic (PV) systems and in some Meritage, Pepper Viner, and Pulte communities PV systems are standard or have been. All KB homes include WaterSense labeled faucets, toilets, and showerheads. Spray-foam insulation is standard for Pepper Viner and Meritage Homes. Custom homes, where budgets are often more generous, can include features that are unlikely to occur in production homes. For example Hayes Construction has built homes of Integra block, a thermally efficient post-tensioned masonry system.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly why the move to green building has accelerated in the last few years. It’s true that building code revisions have mandated that new homes be designed to use less and less energy and water. And utility companies have provided incentives to help builders accomplish that. However incentives have been dwindling. Perhaps more important than codes and incentives is that the changes they initiated and incubated set the stage for realization by the public that green energy-efficient homes are better homes. They are more economical to heat and cool and maintain and are more comfortable to live in.

But maybe the Great Recession is what really made green building mainstream. With less money in their pockets, consumers demanded better product value. Ford prospered in the recent past by introducing more fuel efficient cars. Home builders responded by building more energy efficient homes. According to one builder, “providing PV as a standard helped keep [our company] going during the worst times of the downturn.”

Whatever the reason for the switch to green, it seems that nearly all builders proudly advertise their homes’ green features and low projected heating and cooling costs. While buyers compare home HERS and other energy ratings just like they do car MPG ratings. Not all that long ago a HERS rating in the 70s was considered good. Now HERS ratings in the 40s and 50s are common and Pulte offers one model with a 21 HERS score. (The lower the HERS score the better.) Also the vast majority of homes built today are Energy Star Certified New Homes. KB, Meritage, Miramonte, Pepper Viner, Pulte, and many other Tucson builders participate in the Energy Star program.

Sustainable Communities

The basic principle of green home building – minimize the environmental resources that a home uses during construction and operation – extend to creating green sustainable communities. For example, lot geometry should facilitate house orientations that minimize unwanted solar heat gain and trees should shade houses and walkways. Transportation networks should be designed to minimize the necessity for driving and maximize the convenience of walking and cycling. Plants used for landscape should be native to the region so that, once established, landscape will need minimal or no irrigation and provide habitat for native birds. Grading should be done so that water can be easily harvested from roofs and streets to be used for landscape watering and groundwater recharge.

But a sustainable community is more than the sum of its on-site green parts. Sustainable communities are good not only for the environment within their boundaries, but also beyond. They utilize existing infrastructure without overburdening it. Proximity and connectivity to nearby existing activity centers and amenities are maximized. Travel distances from homes to frequent destinations like work, schools, recreation, and shopping are minimized.

 What’s on the horizon?

The next stage of green home building may have more to do with improvements in technology than with improvements in building methods. T.E.P. and other Arizona electric utilities have recently proposed changes to their electric rate structures that will make home PV systems less economically attractive. However new storage battery technologies that will allow home solar systems to save the excess power that they generate during the day for use during the night are close to becoming a reality. KB Home, and others, are working to make solar battery storage systems available. Once this happens, home PV system economic feasibility will be much less affected by electric utility rate policies.

Additionally, home energy management systems are becoming more sophisticated, yet easier to use. Advances in microprocessor sensors and controls will soon allow home heating and cooling systems to economically monitor inside and outside air temperatures and humidities.   During Tucson’s moderate spring and fall seasons, because of relatively wide difference in day and night temperatures, this will allow outside air to automatically be brought in when appropriate to cool or heat indoor spaces without running a furnace, air conditioner, or heat pump. Pepper Viner Homes is taking preliminary steps toward the future integration of these systems into their homes. It’s encouraging to imagine a near future when we can work with, rather than fight, our climate to make our homes more comfortable.

Thank you to Randy Agron of A.F. Sterling homes, Richard Barna of Pepper Viner Homes, Gerrie Gray of Miramonte Homes, Andrew Hayes of Hayes Construction, CB Herro of Meritage Homes, Alia Jones of KB Home, and Jacque Petroulakis of Pulte Homes for providing information for this article.

Dante Archangeli is the owner of Tucson Artisan Builders LLC, has been a Southern Arizona Home Builders Association member since 2000, and a green builder for longer than that. He also blogs about sustainability at GoodNewsForNature.com and terrain.org/author/darchangeli/.