Environmental Showcase Home Greens the Desert and Saves “Green” with a $30/Month Energy Bill
Project Description
The Arizona Public Service (APS) is a utility concerned about future levels of energy consumption, water use, and waste in its service area. The Environmental Showcase Home (ESH) was born from this concern and completed in February 1995. The 2,640 square-foot home features four bedrooms, three baths, a triple garage with electric vehicle charging station, a swimming pool, and four outdoor living areas. Its average energy bill is about $30 per month using the home’s 2.7-kilowatt photovoltaic system.
The ESH was intended as a supermarket of ideas and new building practices, not as a model home. It contains over 150 technologies, strategies, concepts and materials, many of which are redundant. For example, the ESH has three different water heating systems. This approach increases the potential to demonstrate the wide range of choices available today. The home features mostly off-the-shelf technology and housing concepts that are appropriate for the desert climate. In a rapidly growing and competitive housing market which is often too price-sensitive to incorporate a lot of environmental features, there is evidence that the ESH has had some positive influence on local builders. Nearly every local builder has toured the home and several developers are incorporating some of the ESH’s building concepts and technologies in newer developments. The home would cost an estimated $170,000 in the current housing market. However, cost comparisons to a similar conventional homes are not possible because cost and quality vary widely.
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