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Next Generation Home Alliance
A new standard for better living
and lower costs
Sustainability in action!
"Don't find a fault.
Find a remedy." - Henry Ford
The Next
Generation Home Alliance is a non-profit community approach to
sharing knowledge, experience and information on advances in making homes
better and cost less. It was selected to perform advanced work for City, County
and Federal housing programs to determine how to achieve both higher quality
AND greater affordability. The project found ways to greatly improve the
quality and performance of houses and yet cut the costs of home ownership for
most people by as much as 50% - and even more. For the average homeowner this
amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars over a typical 30-year mortgage
period.
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News
Applications are now being accepted for the
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Next Generation Home Program.
If
you are planning to build your dream home, you can have a much better home that
costs a lot less in the long term. Information
follows.
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Now
is the time to build your dream home
The news gets worse every day for home owners: the
costs of houses, materials, products, utilities, taxes and everything
associated with homes are not just going up, they are increasing at alarming
rates. [See "The latest ..." on the Homeowner's Alliance page.] However, those
who are interested in pioneering a new approach to designing and building a
high quality home that will cost a lot less over the long term now have a
unique opportunity to fuflfill that dream.
For years, Tucson's
officially recognized Next Generation Home
Alliance has analyzed not only all the functions and values of a
home and how to improve them, but also all of the major costs of a home and how
to reduce them as much as possible. Designing and building a new home the right
way can result in total savings of up to 50% for the long-term cost of home
ownership. This includes reductions as much as 75-80% for utility bills and
other operations, maintenance and repair costs.
Think of what
it would mean to cut your costs of home ownership in half. The Alliance is now
ready to make the results of all this effort available to a few aspiring
homeowners who are willing to be the first pioneers to put this new approach to
designing and building a home to the test.
The Next Generation Home Project is accepting
applications for the first pioneers of Next Generation Homes.
Applicants must understand that this is a new approach to designing and
building a home that has never been attempted before. Like any new pioneering
development, it will encounter new challenges and problems, and, of course, has
risks associated with that. Applicants should be highly interested, willling
and able to work together cooperatively with architects, engineers, scientists,
builders and others to faithfully follow this method through to satisfactory
completion, test the results and share their experience with the community.
Because this is a test of real-world conditions, applicants must also be
financially sound and have their own financing. The project will take advantage
of available tax credits, rebates and other measures to minimize costs, but no
grants are available for the project. It should be anticipated that the initial
price of the house will be higher than comparable standard homes to achieve the
quality necessary to reduce costs over the longer term.
Click here for
information on how to get in touch with
us. |
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News
 "Solar and
Sustainability Month". 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 has declared 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.
Passive solar design is the “hot
building technology” of our times, according to renowned
building scientist, J. Douglas Balcomb. "I see two reasons for it to lead
architectural design in coming years: It is a critical technology for the 21st
century, and it works." Read this article and others in
Solar
Today, the journal of the American Solar Energy Society,
including coverage of the National Solar Tour. You can many applications of
passive solar design principals on the tour.
 "Home Sustainable Home: A tour of eco-friendly
Tucson houses shows the possibilities for a brighter future." Click here to
see the fine article in the Tucson Weekly about one of the homes on last
year's tour, that of an expert on permaculture and rainwater harvesting.
"There's an insurgent joy to the clipped power cables ... a defiant beauty to
the lush enclave that surrounds his old adobe ... his world thrives on a
fraction of the energy and water used by most Tucsonans." Total utility bills?
"Right now, it's about $20 a month," he says with a big smile. "This gives
people a chance to find out how to live better in the desert."
Sustainable living in the desert. Click here to
see the Arizona Daily Daily Star's great Sunday Home feature on
one of the fascinating homes on the 2006 Tucson Innovative Home Tour, a chance
to see homes with "practical and cost-effective ways to exist better in
Southern Arizona's climate." The featured home is a "... treasure trove of
items that reduce environmental impact ... 70 percent of exterior irrigation
comes from gray water or rainwater ... By the kitchen sink, a tap dispenses
water from the rooftop solar water still ..." and much more.
Universal design is an important
new concept for anyone planning to build or buy a new home. It's
about designing homes as if people mattered. It means greater functionality,
adaptability, flexibility and much lower long-term costs in a home to meet our
current and changing needs. Thanks to the leadership of the Tucson
Commission on Disability Issues, our community is also at the forefront of
advances in this field. Click above to learn more about why this is important
to you.
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The latest help for you from the Next Generation Home
Alliance
Information, consulting and referral
services. The Solar Institute's family of community organizations
offer expert help for a wide range of services and products for your home and
business. It's a non-profit, non-commercial, community sharing program that
helps you get the best unbiased expert information and advise to satisfy your
needs and the best value for your money. Join the Tucson Solar Alliance or the
Tucson Homeowners Alliance and you can get simple questions answered at no
charge, as well as complete consulting at greatly reduced rates. This works
like Consumer Reports: these organizations are not affiliated in any way with
any business and do not receive money or other considerations from any
commercial enterprise. Click here for information on how to get in touch with us.
 The Solar Institute has
solutions for you.
Not
many people realize that it is possible to substantially reduce the costs of
home ownership. Studies by the Next Generation Home Alliance analyzed all of
the major costs of home ownership in Tucson and then determined how to reduce
them. Designing and building a new home the right way can result in total
savings of up to 50% for all costs and savings as much as 75-80% for things
like gas and electric costs, and other operations, maintenance and repair
costs. Think of what it would mean to cut your costs of home ownership in half.
Savings for existing homes can also be substantial.
One of the
main focuses of the Tucson Innovative Home Tour and the Next Generation Home
Course is to show you how you can do that. You may be surprised at how much
better you can live at much lower costs.
To help you do that,
the Solar Institute now offers information, consulting and referral services
for members of any of its family of community organizations, generally at very
good discounts. Others have done this - we can show you how.
Click here for information on how
to get in touch with us.
Learn by doing. The Next Generation Affordable Housing Project is an
innovative nonprofit community service to recruit and engage the considerable
knowledge and experience of the broad community to put the remarkable recent
advances in home design and construction to use in City and County housing
programs. This is a voluntary effort helping non-profit housing providers
design and build a new generation of much better, much more affordable homes
for those who need them most. You too can help - and learn while you are
helping others! There are many ways you can help and no experience is
necessary. Click here for more
information.
Popular press discovers value of next generation of
homes.
"We are
building the wrong kinds of houses. Last month, while researching a story
on energy-efficient home building ... dozens of experts convinced me we can
change the way we build houses. The new methods range from subtle, such as
passive solar design and framing with structural insulated panels, to advanced,
such as using rooftop photovoltaic modules for converting the sun's rays to
electricity and constructing exterior walls with insulated concrete forms." -
Newsday, February 17, 2005. To read more of the article, click on the title
above.
Value of the Home Class and Tour:
Priceless! You will learn about a wealth of new innovations that can
not only revolutionize your castle, but also slash the cost of home ownership.
For most homeowners, the potential long term savings from such advances can be
up to 50% and even more. This adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars over
a typical 30 year mortgage period. |
Next
Generation Home Course
Tucson's
officially recognized Next Generation Home Program presents the best unbiased,
non-commercial information, advise & ideas from local experts for improving
your home, remodeling, building and buying – a comprehensive, factual,
information-packed class to help you get what you want in a home and greatly
reduce the costs of home ownership, with the emphasis on practicality and cost
savings. Every year, it features all new guest speakers and experts on
important issues in designing and building a better home in southern
Arizona.
Next Generation Home Course 2008
The Next Generation Home Course
focuses on the crucial needs of homeowners: how to improve the quality and
performance of a house and how to reduce the costs of a house. A weath of new
advances and innovations can not only transform your castle, but also slash the
costs of home ownership.
The course includes
an analysis of the real costs of home ownership and how you can reduce many of
them by large amounts. For the average homeowner, the potential long term
savings can be up to 50% and even more - savings of hundreds of thousands of
dollars over a typical 30 year mortgage period.
Each major component
of a house is discussed - including local environment, site, foundation, walls,
roof, building materials, heating and cooling, electrical, plumbing, and so on
- as well as how new advances and good sound design and construction practices
can result in a much better house that may cost you little more to build, but a
lot less over the long term. This includes results of fhe Next Generation Home
Program for Tucson and Southern Arizona.
In the next course, Paul
Huddy, physicist and chief scientist for the Solar Institute, will
discuss "Advances in Sustainability: How to Make Your
Home Much Better, and Cost a Lot Less". Step by step, Paul will show
how, by making good choices, you can use new technology, products and
experience in these fields to have a much better home that will cost you a lot
less. As a homeowner, you can apply this to your situation whether you would
like to design, build, purchase or remodel the home of your dreams. "By
appropriate design and construction, the Next Generation Home Program has shown
that you can have a far better home, yet cut the costs of home ownership during
the first 30 years alone by up to 50%," he reports. He reviews each key
component of a house in detail and how to design and build a new house,
substanitally improve your current house, or understand what to look for when
buying a house.
Each year, new guest
speakers present the latest news and information on selected important advances
in products and materials, design and construction.
Ten things you'll want to know
Also, you won't want to miss "Ten
things we all wish we had known before we got into this mess," ten things you
might prefer not to learn the hard way. You will want to hear about ...
The ten biggest and most expensive
sources of repair and maintenance problems for a homeowner and what you can do
to cut them by 75% and more.
Ten powerful trends that mean
trouble – trouble you don't want to be unprepared for.
Plus, the ten biggest mistakes
people make in designing and building a home.
The ten biggest mistakes people
make in buying a home.
The ten biggest mistakes people
make in repairing and remodeling their home – and, of course, how you can
avoid them.
Plus ten things you should do right
now to protect your home and save a lot of time and expense.
Other topics include
...
Homeowner
economics, an important opportunity to learn what the real costs of home
ownership look like over the long term and how you can save literally hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
The
latest advances in design and construction – what works, what doesn't, and
what these have to offer you.
New
building alternatives and what they mean to you, including straw bale, rammed
earth, adobe, concrete masonry units, insulated concrete forms, structurally
insulated panels, steel frame, plus many other ways of using high insulation
and thermal mass for extraordinary indoor comfort at low cost.
Plus an
opportunity to discuss all the interesting new things you saw on the home
tour.
The
Next Generation Home Course is one of the
best investments you will ever make in your home. You won't want to miss it.
Please help pass the
word ... and bring your family and friends. We look forward to seeing
you.
We would like to add
a big Thank you! to our friends at Pima Community
College, who are hosting this year's Next Generation Home
Course. You will find many courses available there relating to design and
construction.
Seven Keys to a
Better Home
A revolution in housing is taking shape - and Tucson
is nationally recognized as being in the forefront of it. Click here for a look
at key concepts for designing, building and renovating for a better home that
can cost much less.
Seven
Keys to a Better Home - the
home of the future can be yours today.
 Learn as you
do
The
Next Generation Affordable Housing Project,
one of our community projects, has now completed its fifth phase of work. It
focuses on helping the City and County and local non-profit housing providers
to develop a new generation of high quality houses that cost little more than
current construction, but offer much greater long-term savings, higher quality
and a better home environment. That's the biggest challenge. In doing that, we
can help everyone in similar ways.
Now we are starting the next phase
of the project: designing and building. Volunteers are needed right now
to help organize and carry out this big effort. We invite you to join in this
remarkable community work to make better homes a reality for everyone. If you
are interested in how to have a much better home that costs much less, this is
your opportunity to learn about it and help others who need it most. No
matter what your background, you can help. Please get in touch with us today.
This is a
non-profit, noncommercial public service organized by a community partnership
of many local, state and national nonprofit organizations and educational
institutions, as well as the City of Tucson, Pima County, the State of Arizona
and the U.S. Department of Energy.
What You
Can Do
Participants and
supporters of this community initiative include many individuals,
organizations, businesses, educational institutions and government. Anyone who
has lived in a house can raise questions or contribute ideas to this. Anyone
who lives in a house can learn from it.
If you would like to participate
or help, please get in touch with
us.
You Are
Invited
We invite you to become a
part of this community sharing too. Share your dreams for the future and get
some good ideas for your own use in return. Together we can make better homes
and communities. Put the power of community on your side. Join the Next Generation Home Alliance.
Here's
how!
jump to:
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Safe Site. This site does not use cookies or any
other information-gathering devices on visitors. We try to make this site as
accessible and useful as possible. If you encounter problems or have
suggestions, please be sure to let us know. Thank you!
Credits: We would like to thank
the City of Tucson, Pima County, the Tucson-Pima County Metropolitan Energy
Commission, Tucson Commission on Disability Issues 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 2007 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.
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