Pardee Homes has done it again. The California-based builder has created yet another award-winning design that puts green building on parade, challenging big builder beliefs that green building can’t be done in a production setting.
The 3,622-square-foot Plan 3, with a Colonial Monterey elevation, is the builder’s latest and greatest testament to green and energy-efficient building. The model, tricked out with the company’s Living Smart features—including energy and water-efficient products, sustainable materials, and health-conscious products—and located within the environmental-friendly, master-planned Santa Rosa community in Southern California, helped Pardee clinch its latest green accolade. Last month, the builder was honored as the production home builder of the year at the NAHB’s green building conference.
According to Joyce Mason, Pardee’s vice president of marketing, the four-bedroom, four-and-a-half-bath model’s crowning jewel is its standard-issue solar electricity system. A 2.4Kw photovoltaic roof panel system is incorporated into a flat-tile roof. Mason says the design, which makes the system barely noticeable from the street, “helps to overcome one of the stigmas of solar: Most people are afraid it’s not going to look good on their home.”
But with a base price in the $900,000s, the solar-standard home isn’t exactly a bargain. However, Mason says that the investment pays for itself in roughly seven years and attests that homeowners will see an immediate savings in the monthly energy bills. “It’s probably an extra $30 a month for the photovoltaic system, because you rolled it into the mortgage, but you save $35, $40, $50 a month [in energy].”
And because the home comes equipped with a digital energy monitor located in the second-floor laundry room, homeowners can be especially vigilant about their energy-consumption. Excess energy generated by the photovoltaic system is fed back to the utility, which pays the homeowner back for the unused energy.
Sun Spot
