Editor's note: Oklahoma builders were among the thousands at the recent International Builders Show in Las Vegas who made a field trip to nearby Henderson, Nev., to tour The New American Home that offered a vision of the future. We asked Wayne Farabough of Tulsa and Lyle Phillips of Enid to describe what stood out to them about the home.
Wayne Farabough
Wayne Farabough: The technology and the performance of the green building elements are what made it unique. This home had solar panels on the roof and was actually a negative energy home. It would put energy back into the grid because it was making more energy than it was using. Other green elements ranged from the tankless hot water system to the high-efficiency heating and cooling systems, insulated walls. I saw the green energy savings features and building elements you are seeing more and more in Oklahoma.
Lyle Phillips
Lyle Phillips: It was a pretty open and livable home. It had all these smart home technologies, where you can program everything from your cell phone. They created a big transition between the indoor and outdoor space with sliding walls that you can open up completely or close them off, all electronic. It had solar panels on the flat roof, which wouldn't work so well in Oklahoma. It was self-sustaining, generating enough electricity to offset the times when the sun wasn't out. I liked that feature. Although this home had all the bells and whistles - it was a $3 million home - I think it was pretty well representative of things to come.
-- by JIM STAFFORD, Carol Hartzog Communications
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