Beazer Homes Las Vegas division president Kyle Tibbitts joins Green Builder Media CEO Sara Gutterman to discuss the VISION House Las Vegas project, and how zero energy ready, all-electric, solar-powered homes can be delivered at attainable price points. He details the efficiency measures behind them, from energy recovery ventilators and slab insulation to high-performance attics and very tight building envelopes.
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Sara Gutterman: Hi, I'm Sarah Gutman and CEO of Green Builder Media, and I'm here today with Kyle Tibbets, Las Vegas division president for Beazer Homes. Let's talk a little bit about the vision House Las Vegas that we are working on together. We're so excited about this project. We have used the seventh theme, Crossing the Rubicon, because we believe that with this project, we are showcasing that there is no longer a world where net zero all electric, healthy, connected, solar powered homes don't exist at affordable or attainable price points.
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Sara Gutterman: So can you talk a little bit about the vision House Las Vegas project and the elements that you're most excited about?
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Kyle Tibbitts: Yeah, we're excited about the whole house. I mean, you take about the vision House and the things that we're doing, some of these things we've been working on for several years to kind of learn how to do it. And we made some mistakes along the way. And it's awesome to be able to go into a new community. Now, put it all together.
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Kyle Tibbitts: And how not only kind of the zero energy certified by the Doe, but also now solar panels on it. And so a lot of times you think about, hey, you can go throw solar panels on any home, but does it really building inefficient home? Is it really that exciting? Is it really that cool because they have solar. So now we're able to put it together.
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Kyle Tibbitts: We're building a very efficient. And in addition to that, these are all electric homes. So so there's no gaps. So the nice thing is all your needs for the heat and full and to cook all those things are all electric. And so with our solar system that we're able to put on the home, we're going to offset the entire need of someone living in this home.
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Kyle Tibbitts: And we can do it because we felt this is this home and we have the roof space. We don't have to put a huge system on to offset it because it's efficient. So we have the roof space to put a big enough system on the home to offset the needs. And so it's super exciting just to see all come together and really show the industry and our customers and everybody else that it can't be done.
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Kyle Tibbitts: Like you said, it was at a tangible price and we're doing this on a mass scale, in fact, across the country. You know, these are homes. That's the only builder that's committed to do on 2025. Is Zero Energy ready certified for the dough. So it's bringing us all together, and it's super exciting to to be able to put it in the community.
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Sara Gutterman: So give us some specific examples of what you're doing to make homes higher performance, healthier and better and just more sustainable in general. The really differentiate you there in Las Vegas from your competitors.
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Kyle Tibbitts: Well, there's a lot of things that we're doing in our homes to make them more energy efficient, more comfortable. You know, a lot of these things are part of the deal. We are zero energy ready to certified homes. And so all our homes, now that we're building something out the ground, are actually all certified by the deal. Is zero energy ready?
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Kyle Tibbitts: And so what does that mean? That means are there really energy efficient? You take energy stars even, you know, stepping on energy star. And so some of the things that we're doing now we have EVs, energy recovery ventilator systems that actually kind of like the lungs of the homes, you know, it takes it outside air bringing fresh air, but it's actually conditioning that air as it comes in.
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Kyle Tibbitts: So the system not having to work as hard condition. And they're working really thoughtful and intentional on where that air is coming, coming in and it's being filtered in. That's one of the things that we're doing. I think that, you know, others aren't too slab insulation, making sure that all our care slabs are actually to the outside birth and making sure that that home is well inside their high performance addicts.
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Kyle Tibbitts: So we're using open cell phone, make high performance addicts. We're lowering all our mechanical equipment down into a room inside the home. So it's in well conditioned space. The efficiency of our windows ensure that we have really energy solar heat gain. One of the things I would like to mention to is it's often to overlook, is how tight our homes are.
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Kyle Tibbitts: So you really think about, you know, how a home operates is one of the things that really kills efficiency is there are a lot of holes in your home, a lot of air that's leaking the outside, so you're getting cold air in the wintertime, hotter in the summertime. The more holes you have in your home, harder your system has to work.
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Kyle Tibbitts: So we actually make sure their homes are extremely tight. So really tight, well built ohms makes our systems not only be more efficient, but they don't have to work as hard. So they're going to be more durable and last longer as well for our customers.