The New American Home

For more than 30 years, the National Association of Homebuilders (NAHB) has built The New American Home® near the site of that year’s International Builders’ Show—typically in warm climates such as Orlando, Las Vegas, Atlanta, or various Texas cities. These lavish homes, ranging in size from nearly 4,000 to 9,500 square feet, are for-sale products that showcase for production homebuilders best practices in the areas of design, products, materials and construction technologies. 

In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building American program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, IBACOS partnered with NAHB in eight of The New American Homes (2003–2010) to ensure the homes met the intended energy performance targets. IBACOS used a systems approach of designing, testing, and redesigning the various systems, with each component integrated into the home and all components working together to achieve the maximum performance available at that time.

The New American Home provided a real-world laboratory to educate production homebuilders about innovation in residential construction and energy efficiency.