Tucson Innovative Home Tour
Tucson Solar Tour

A community sharing of new and better ways
to have a much better home that costs a lot less

Practical Sustainability in Action™

"Tell me, I forget. Show me, I remember. Involve me, I understand." - ancient Chinese proverb

The Tucson Innovative Home Tour and Tucson Solar Tour are your tickets to greater prosperity. These annual non-profit, non-commercial, community educational events bring people together to share ideas and experience in the search for ways to make homes better and cost less. You can see sustaining homes that fit in well with the natural environment, homes that draw on the best aspects of the local climate for greater comfort with much lower utility bills, and homes with quality and durability for a greater affordability that lasts. In short, it's about how to live in nature's sustaining flow, instead of trying to swim against it. New advances for designing, building and renovating such homes are the focus of the tour, recognized as one of the largest local events of its kind in the nation.

News Community Tours and Seminar Saturday & Sunday, November 10 & 11 Coming soon is your best opportunity to see the latest and most important new advances in sustainability and green building - and learn how you can put them to good practical, cost-effective use yourself to have a much better home that costs you much less. Choose among 24 exceptional, award-winning and nationally recognized homes and other special features, and speak with owners, designers, builders and some of Tucson's top experts.   Tucson Innovative Home Tour - Details follow below   Tucson Solar Tour - Details follow below   Next Generation Home Seminar - Click for more details Tickets are now available available at locations around Tucson - see below. Be sure to click here for updates and any changes that may occur. They will be posted at the end of the next section. Beautiful fall weather is forecast for this weekend - great days to get out and find out how you can enjoy such things more!

News You too can have a much better home that costs much less Whether you are planning the home of your dreams, or improving or adding to the home you love, the Solar Institute can help you do it. The Next Generation Home Project is accepting applications for consulting support for the planning, design and construction of the first Next Generation Homes, as well as renovations of a similar nature.   If you would like a home that is much better and costs much less over the longer term, as well as fit in much better with its environment, be sure to get in touch with us.

Tucson Innovative Home Tour and Tucson Solar Tour
With many highly acclaimed, award winning and nationally recognized homes and buildings this is a fun community non-profit non-commercial learning opportunity to see the latest innovations, speak with owners, designers & builders, discover new alternatives and big savings. It's community sharing at its best.

Live better for less. Tucson's officially recognized Next Generation Home Project found that, through special design and construction, you can greatly reduce the costs of home ownership, yet live much better. New advances in home design and construction are attracting professionals to Tucson from around the world. Now you can see them too. This is the largest home tour of its kind in the nation. Every year, most of the homes are new to the tour and have not been open to the public before. The tour and seminar are organized as a community service in cooperation with many professional and community organizations, educational institutions and government jurisdictions. Homeowners receive no compensation. Proceeds benefit community low income housing programs. Please plan on joining us for the next tour.

The tour includes ...

• New advances for designing and building homes for living better, more comfortably, more affordably and more in harmony with the natural environment.
• A wide range of good practical and cost-effective passive solar and environmental design and technology.
• A wide variety of advances in heating and cooling and other ways to be more comfortable.
• Many kinds of adobe, rammed earth, straw bale, masonry, ICFs, SIPs, steel frame, insulation, thermal mass and other advances in building materials.
• A wide range of healthy home, non-toxic materials, low-VOCs and indoor air quality measures.
• How to incorporate lifetime design, accessibility and visitability at very little added cost.
• Many ways to save energy, water and other resources – and cut utility bills by 75% and more.
• Many other ideas for home and garden, with an emphasis on practicality and cost effectiveness.

"Real homes for real people" is a central theme of the tour, emphasizing practicality and cost effectiveness. Homes on the tour are carefully chosen to give you an opportunity to see exceptional examples of important contributing elements of a good desert-adapted home. You will also be able to talk with homeowners, architects, designers and builders about how they did it, what works and what doesn't.

This year’s tour offers a wealth of new ideas, products and technologies. The sheer variety and range of new ideas and products is amazing. There are many things to interest everyone, including the most advanced and finest homes in southwest!

This special community event is affiliated with the National Solar Tour, sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society and the U.S. Department of Energy. Every year, the Tucson tour has been recognized as one of the largest in the nation, both in terms of the number of homes offered and the number of people who visited them.

Before the tour, the Next Generation Home Seminar provides a unique opportunity to learn in detail how you too can enjoy a much better home at much lower costs. You will not only learn many practical. money saving tips you can put to good use right away, you will also get detailed guidelines on what you can do to have a much better house and substantially reduce the costs of homeownership.

The Tucson Innovative Home Tour is made possible through the enthusiastic support of many volunteers and community nonprofit organizations, educational and government institutions. Our community values are stated below and we stand by them. The Tucson Innovative Home Tour is an annual community educational event based on community sharing. No one with any financial or personal interests in the homes chosen for the tour is involved in organizing the Tucson Innovative Home Tour. Many of the top experts in Tucson contribute to identifying exceptional examples of good, practical, cost-effective applications of advances that can be useful to you in your quest for a much better home that costs you less. No salesmen will call.

These events are organized by the Solar Institute as a community service in cooperation with many other local, state and national non-profit organizations and educational institutions, with the support of the City of Tucson, Pima County, State of Arizona and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Highlights and features of the 2012 Tours The Tucson Innovative Home Tour and Tucson Solar Tour have grown to be one of the largest and most diverse tours ever seen in Tucson, or anywhere else for that matter. On this year's tour, you will be able to see the widest range and most extensive variety of new advances ever available in the seventeen years these tours have been offered.   Whether you are interested in improving or adding to the home you love or you would like to plan, design and build the home of your dreams, this is your special opportunity to to learn how you can do it far better at much lower cost, with cost savings that will continue year after year.   Highlights and features follow.

Newly expanded special feature this year: many examples show how you can improve your current home
With the recent interest in improving and renovating existing homes, the Tour this year features many homes that offer homeowners a wide variety of good ideas of how to make homes much better and cost less: This will also be a major topic at the Next Generation Home Seminar on Saturday morning before the tour.
   A beautiful renovation and expansion of a nice old adobe home in the Tucson Mountain foothills that is expected to rate at the highest level of Pima County's new Green Building Program. The owners report that they attended the Tucson Innovative Home Tour and Next Generation Home Seminar a number of times to learn about new advances and how they could put them to good work themselves.
   A nice two-story 1980 condo improved by its owner, a professional energy efficiency specialist, on a do-it-yourself basis to such an extent that the utility bills are less than half what they used to be. You can talk with him and learn how he did it.
   A mid-town home undergoing an extensive renovation with a big addition by one of Tucson's best innovative custom builders that includes one of the best green roofs we have seen, complete with a roof deck, vegetation, landscaping and solar power. It embodies years of low cost DIY, low maintenance, recycling, low energy and water use, conservation and art.
   A recently completed thorough renovation of a modest mid-town 1955 house into a comfortable sustaining modern home that was so extraordinary that it is expected to receive the highest level Platinum LEED rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. The owners report a far higher level of comfort at a fraction of the former costs. This is one of the best examples of practical and cost-effect renovations of an average home that we have seen here. See the Arizona Daily Star's special feature in the Sunday home section: Older home sprouts 'green'

   A major renovation of a mid-town home with a spectacular big new addition with lots of features.
   A mid-town brick home that was completely stripped to the shell and interior studs and rebuilt into a wonderful modern home.
   An older mid-town brick home that was wrapped in exterior insulation for much great comfort and much lower heating and cooling costs.
   A condo that was improved over time by its owner himself to cut its energy use by more than 50% - now it is powered by solar energy, also installed by the owner.

Surprising new innovations offer great ideas for your dream home
You will also be able to see ...
   Three homes that cost between $50,000 - $75,000 for their inexperienced owners to build, demonstrating that good, practical sustainable and sustaining homes can be built at very modest cost.
   A new home featured in local and national publications that is one of the most energy-efficient modern homes ever built in Tucson. Using a wide range of measures to reduce both the need for energy and increase efficiency of energy used, it has attracted widespread attention nationally and won a number of national awards.
   A very innovative and sustaining rammed earth home nearing completion by one of the top experts in the field, where you can learn the process of forming rammed earth walls for a new home. This location was the first tour sold out for the nation's biggest annual green building conference the year before last, where many professionals from around the world paid over $1,000 in conference and tour fees to see this.
   An owner-built, low-cost, self-sustaining, straw bale home well along under construction so that you can speak with the owner and see how it is built. It will be completely independent of any utility connections, using solar power, rainwater harvesting and a septic system.

   An artist's desert retreat that is both an innovative work of art and good construction.
   A unique upscale central urban residential community that draws from traditional southwest Sonoran and Spanish Colonial streetscapes and architecture, plus environmentally-friendly sustainable design and New Urbanist elements, as well as many innovative and advanced features.

Lots of great new advances for yards and outdoor living spaces
   Two exceptional first place winners of the annual Arizona Xeriscape Awards.
   One of the most remarkable home food production gardens in southern Arizona, with fruit and nut trees, vegetable and fruit gardens, chickens, ducks and geese.
   An award-winning, nationally acclaimed yard renovation that demonstrates how an ordinary yard can be transformed at very low cost into an exceptional landscape using rainwater for most of its water.
   An extraordinary nationally acclaimed innovative gardening program and urban natural habitat project that includes heirloom vegetable garden and fruit trees, aquaponic food system with herbs, vegetables and tilapia fish, greenhouse, hot box compost bin, chicken coop, Audubon bird & pollinator habitat, desert tortoise habitat, desert ecology, plus extensive rainwater harvesting and distribution.

   The local headquarters of one of the world's top environmental organizations has many sustainable features that help it walk its talk and help others learn how to use such advances too – docents and guided tours available.
   The continuing renovation of a fine old desert home on large acreage into a model of sustainability and fitting in with the desert environment.
   Homes of people who attended Next Generation Home Seminars, went on the tours and put their experience to good use in renovating their home or building a new one.

Tour Highlights
The Tucson Innovative Home Tour gives you a unique opportunity to learn about new advances that can help you live better by fitting in with your natural environment. It also turns out to cost a lot less in the long run.

On the tour, you can see highly acclaimed, award-winning and nationally recognized homes, including
  Winners of local, state and national awards,
  New homes by top award-winning architects and builders,
  Many new building systems and materials, including straw bale, rammed earth, adobe, Insulated Concrete Forms (ICFs), Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), steel frame and more,
  Great desert-adapted homes featured in the Arizona Daily Star, the Tucson Weekly and other Tucson, Arizona and national publications.

  Exceptional examples of virtually every kind of solar application you might like to have, including passive solar design, solar photovoltaic electric power systems, solar water heaters, solar pool heaters, solar space heating and cooling, solar water distillation, solar lighting, solar tube skylights, solar cooking and lots more
  Some great do-it-yourself solar installations that are among the finest quality systems you'll find in the state,
  Tucson's first large-scale use of solar photovoltaic modules integrated in a shading system for parking
  Lots of other interesting new technology, including high efficiency heating and cooling systems, radiant floor heating systems, water conservation, rainwater harvesting, graywater and lots more.

  Practical and cost-effective examples of landscaping, xeriscape, and permaculture.
  Rainwater harvesting, graywater, swales and collection basins and other ways to use on-site water resources.
  A special wetlands system that treats and recycles all wastewater.
  Oasis patios, vegetated basins and organic gardens.
  Alternatives to paving with concrete and asphalt.
  and lots more.

The best advances in building science and applied sustainability
You will have a unique opportunity to speak with owners, designers, builders, and others to learn what's new, what works and what doesn't, how to do it right and discover many new ways to make your own home better, including ...
   Four new building systems that are new to Tucson,
   A wide range of other building systems including rammed earth, straw bale, adobe, masonry, concrete, Insulated Concrete Forms (ICPs), Structurally Insulated Panels (SIPs), and steel frame,
   Long lasting, no maintenance roofs that have warranties up to fifty years,
   Stronger foundations that minimize cracks,
   A wide range of passive solar and environmental design and solar technology,
   A variety of advances in heating and cooling and other ways to be more comfortable,
   Many kinds of insulation, thermal mass and other advances in building materials,
   Many healthy home, non-toxic materials, low-VOC and indoor environmental measures,
   Lifetime design, accessibility and visitability measures,
   Many ways to save energy, water and other resources, and cut utility bills,
   Passive solar design and a wide variety of other ways to put solar energy to good use,
   Xeriscape, native plants, low-water use, rainwater retention and harvesting, fruit and vegetable gardens, permaculture and lots of other yard and landscape ideas (even chickens and ducks!),
   Many homes still under construction, so you can see how they are built.

Homes and special highlights are carefully selected for exceptional features that offer ways to live better in the desert by fitting in with the processes of nature, with a focus on practicality and cost-effectiveness.

Whether you have a professional interest in these fields or are thinking of improving your home, planning and building a new home, or buying one, you won't want to miss it.

The best in alternative building materials and innovations
You can see exceptional examples of
  straw bale
  rammed earth
  adobe and pressed adobe
  a variety of insulated concrete form (ICF) systems
  structurally insulated panels (SIPs)
  A variety of other masonry systems
  steel frame

  Among the many new and interesting innovations are
  a variety of highly cost effective water harvesting and storage systems
  some of the first composting toilets allowed by permit in Tucson and Pima County
  an independent subsurface wetlands wastewater treatment system - first in Tucson
  Building Science measures to improve indoor air quality, health and safety
  Smart House measures that extend electronic flexibility and control

Key features for a better home and better living
Home features that offer important new and greater value to homeowners may include
  passive solar and environmental design
  solar photovoltaic electric power systems, including exceptionally low-cost owner installed systems
  solar water heating
  solar water distillation system, direct to the tap
  solar hot water instant demand systems
  hydronic radiant floor heating
  energy efficient appliances, lighting and other energy efficiency measures
  high performance windows and doors
  high efficiency heating and cooling equipment systems and strategies
  water efficiency and conservation
  rainwater harvesting
  graywater systems
  composting toilets and waterless urinals
  long lasting no-maintenance metal roofs
  radiant barriers
  superinsulated ceilings
  blown cellulose insulation
  superinsulated walls
  internal mass walls
  colored concrete, brick paver, adobe and hand hewn stone paver floors
  reused and recycled materials
  small is beautiful - and more cost-effective
  universal and lifetime design, aging in place
  accessibility, visitability and wheelchair friendly measures
  high tech electronic and communications systems
  healthy home, low allergen, clean air strategies
  non-toxic, low VOC materials
  low water use oasis garden
  solar pool heating (a BIG money saver)
  solar cooking

Next Generation Home Seminar - learn how you can do this too
After you have collected lots of good ideas and information on the tour, why not learn how to put them together and put them to work for you? Learn how from experts.

For homeowners as well as professionals, the Next Generation Home Seminar features local experts with unbiased, non-commercial information, ideas and advise on planning, building, buying and remodeling for a well-adapted, more self-sustaining, desert home. You too can learn how to have a much better home and greatly reduce your costs of home ownership at the same time.

On Saturday morning before the tour, the seminar will provide lots of useful information and materials, plus a whole slate of new guest speakers. You will leave with lots of good ideas to make your house better and cost you a lot less – plus the knowledge to put them to work.

You won't want to miss this unique community sharing experience. For more information go to ...
   Next Generation Home Seminar - learn how from the experts.

Community Values inspire and guide these events
This annual community sharing event is special because ...
   It is of, by and for home owners. It is the only event of its kind in Tucson dedicated to homeowners helping each other learn about new ways to make homes a lot better and cost a lot less.
   It's one on one. You can talk directly with the owners, as well as the architects, builders, suppliers and others who contributed to designing and building these homes.
   It lets you get to the heart of the matter from people who know. You can ask questions of those who used these processes and materials and learn what works, what doesn't and how to avoid pitfalls.
   It's very selective. It features the highest quality and most interesting examples we can find.
   You see the best there is. It has more award-winners than any other tour in the state, by far.
   You see them first, before most others even hear about them. Many of the award-winners on the Tucson Innovative Home Tour win their awards after being on the tour.
   It is a genuine community event. Dozens of non-profit community partners, including well-known professional, health and community organizations, and government and educational institutions at the local, state and national levels, contribute to making this possible.
   It is open to the community. Each year, we talk with the top architects, the most progressive builders and the most innovative in related fields, we send invitations to professional organizations, we consult with university faculty, explore building sites and invite nominations - a process involving hundreds of people over an entire year - to identify the most exceptional examples we can find of the best, most practical and most cost-effective advances you might most useful and satisfying in your quest for a better home with lower costs.

   It is non-commercial. No corporate business interests are involved. Selection of homes is for things that can be most useful, practical, cost-effective and interesting to you, not about selling anything or "steering" you to selected companies.
   It is unbiased. No one who has a personal financial interest in or association with anything that appears on the tour participates in or has any influence in the selection process, our Board of Directors, or in anything having to do with our organization, for that matter.
   It is educational. The focus is on homeowners sharing information and experience. No marketers are involved in organizing the tour. There is no advertising of business interests. No salesmen will call.
   It is voluntary. This is a nonprofit community event that is organized completely by volunteers - no one is paid. Hundreds of people and dozens of organizations have contributed to the great success of this tour.
   It is organized by a well-known, established local organization, the Solar Institute, which is officially recognized by the U.S. government as a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational and research institution, supporting community action and individual choice in creating home and community environments to better sustain us and our world.
   We do other good things. The Tucson Innovative Home Tour benefits from the other community programs and projects of the Solar Institute and its nonprofit community partners in these and related fields. The Solar Institute has a strong record of community service.
   It is Tucson's largest community-wide home tour, its popularity based on giving people a chance to find out about practical, cost-effective new ideas for making their homes much better and cost much less.
   It has also been recognized as the largest community event of its kind in the nation.
   It has attracted such widespread interest that people come here from all over Arizona and the U.S. specially for it.
   It's a bargain. Over the years, we have simplified things, reduced the size of the guidebook and publishing costs, and found other ways to reduce the cost of organizing the tour so that we could reduce the cost of the tickets. Where else can you learn so much for so little?
   It's fun. Tour goers have told us for years how much they enjoy the tour and the opportunity to speak directly with homeowners and others who aren't trying to sell them something.
   It's for a good cause. First and foremost, its purpose is to help you find good ways to have a better home with lower costs. It's also about getting together to help build a better community and improve our local economy by lowering costs and keeping money in Tucson. Finally, any money left over from the tour goes to benefit community low income housing and information and referral services.

Previous years' events
For information on events from a previous year, see these:
   Home Tour 2005 - Review of Homes - descriptions of homes on this year's tour

   "Innovation the theme of October home tour" - Click here to read the Arizona Daily Star's Sunday feature article on the Tucson Innovative Home Tour 2004.

   October is "Solar and Sustainability Month" in Arizona. In recognition of the importance of solar energy and related sustainable measures to the people of Arizona, and in support of the contribution made by the Tucson Innovative Home Tour and Tucson Solar Tour and associated events in Arizona to progress in these fields, the Governor recently issued a proclamation declaring October to be “Solar and Sustainability Month” in Arizona. You can see the text and news release by clicking above. The Solar Institute is your source for help in putting sustainability to work in sustaining your life in better ways.

Home Tour Special Feature
We are honored by the sponsorship of the Tucson Commission on Disability Issues (CODI) . You can learn more about the fine work that CODI is doing for our community on ...
   Universal design, accessibility and visitability

Other Solar Tours in Arizona and the Nation         
The Tucson Innovative Home Tour and Tucson Solar Tour has been the local affiliate of the National Tour of Solar Homes, sponsored by the American Solar Energy Society and the U.S. Department of Energy, since the inception of the national tour in 1996. During the month of October, there are other solar tours around Arizona and in other states. For more information look here:
   Arizona and National tours

What You Can Do
Participants and supporters of this community initiative include many individuals, organizations, businesses, educational institutions and government.

We invite you to become a part of this community sharing too. If you have ideas and suggestions, know of a good home you would like to nominate, or would like to help or contribute to the home tour in some way, please get in touch with us.

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Credits: We would like to thank the City of Tucson, Pima County, the Tucson Commission on Disability Issues, Tucson-Pima County Metropolitan Energy Commission and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for support and funding, as well as the many organizations and individuals who have contributed to making these community initiatives such a success.

© Copyright 2012 Solar Institute, Inc. ® Solar Alliance, Tucson Solar Alliance, Solar Alliance of Greater Tucson, Tucson Innovative Home Tour, Next Generation Home, Next Generation Home Alliance, Next Generation Building Institute, Tucson Homeowners Alliance, Natural Living Alliance and Tucson Community Solar Program are registered trade names of the Solar Institute. All rights reserved.