Diane Melendez of Mesa and her four children recently toured one of the new model houses that Meritage Homes has built at the Lyon's Gate development in Gilbert.
"It's like looking at how all homes will be built in the future," she said.
That was exactly what C.R. Herro, Meritage's vice president for environmental affairs, wanted to hear. He has been telling anyone who will listen that "these houses are what our CEO believes are the 'next type' of home in Arizona and the U.S."
"Meritage is one of the 10 largest homebuilders in the United States and everything we are doing here - all the energy efficiency and there's a lot of it - we plan to do nationwide," Herro said. "These homes will bring real energy savings to everyone who buys them. Huge savings."
Herro said the 210 homes in the community near Ray and Higley roads will save homeowners up to 80 percent on energy bills.
"It will be startling savings: Your annual cost to produce hot water for your house could go down from about $266 to $2," he said. "Your annual cooling cost could drop from about $1,000 to about $320. Heating could fall from about $200 to about $50."
Herro said there were no miracles involved. "It's mostly just intelligently using technology that has been around for a long time, but putting it together in an efficient way."
That means, he said, a standard 9-inch wall system that uses spray-foam insulation to greatly reduce heat transfer into the home. It means using solar panels and thermal-heating systems.
"We're using standard clean-air components and air-circulation systems so that the home not only is more energy-efficient it's got better-quality air and it's built with more sustainable materials," Herro said.
The subdivision's homes will range from about 1,600 to 3,000 square feet with prices starting at $175,000 for the smaller homes and $229,000 for the largest home.
"It's an investment in us, and we're taking a reduced profitability on these homes because we believe that, first, it's the corporate-responsible thing to do," he said. "Second, we believe this is the direction homebuilding is leaning and we want to lead that."
Herro said that because educating the buyer will be a major factor in making sales, one of the model homes is a learning center, with exposed walls and air-conditioning ducts.
"We talk to people about how we've been able to get so much energy efficiency out of that home," he said. "We explain about the utilities, the water savings, how the various systems work and we make it simple and easy to understand."
Melendez said she and her husband are strongly considering buying one of the homes.
"You can get a large home with really amazing energy savings for the same price or less as you can get a smaller home with old technology," she said. "It's seems like a pretty good deal."
More on this topic
Meritage's energy plan
• Solar-electric thermal system: The system produces up to 10,000 kilowatt hours of energy offset annually.
• High-performance windows: Vinyl windows have a 0.2 Solar Heat Gain Co-efficient. The typical home has windows with a 0.9 SHGC.
• Spray-foam insulation: It keeps air-conditioning in, dirt and pollution out.
• High-efficiency lighting: A minimum of 80 percent of the light produced is compact fluorescent lighting, which uses 75 percent less energy.
• Low-water-use fixtures: Dual-actuated toilets can reduce water usage of a typical toilet by 70 percent.
• 14 SEER air-conditioning unit: It can save 20 to 40 percent of energy used by other systems.
Meritage promises 'startling savings'
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