The New American Home: This is green?
The New American Home celebrated its 25th anniversary at the International Builders Show in Orlando earlier this month. The home, for the last 25 years, has acted as a showcase for the latest homebuilding innovations. Think of it as a test kitchen, for builders: Developers are supposed to study the New American Home and then incorporate its innovations in their own homebuilding plans.
This year, the National Association of Home Builders is making a big deal out of the fact that this year’s New American Home has been built to the standards of the association’s National Green Building Program. This means that the home uses environmentally friendly building materials, energy-efficient appliances, highly effective insulation and other energy-saving innovations.
But … the home is 6,725 square feet. Maybe I’m missing something here, but how can any house that large really be called green? The home even contains a club room with theater-quality entertainment. That’s green?
I don’t mean to pick on the New American Home. It’s designed as a show house, so it’s not necessarily a realistic residence. But I’ve seen many instances where builders proudly declare the home they’re building to be green, even though these residences include a whopping 5,000 or 6,000 square feet of living space. Maybe I’m old-fashioned, or maybe I expect too much out of green building, but to me, green doesn’t mean you can build the largest house possible as long as it has Energy Star-rated windows.
And don’t try to tell me that today’s homebuyers need that space to accommodate their busy lives. Today’s spoiled homeowners might think they need it. But who really needs 6,000-square-feet of living space?
What’s greener: A modest 1,800-square-foot house that doesn’t have a geothermal heat pump or a 6,000-square-foot one that does?
For me, it’s the 2,000-square-foot house any day.
Tags: green-building, national-association-of-home-builders, New American HomeRelated Stories
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