The Artistic Homes Story
Give Jerry Wade a quick glance and you might not stereotype him as “green.” With his jeans, boots, long-sleeved
button-down, and head full of silver hair, his look doesn’t scream environmentalist. But leave preconceived notions at the door; he is one of the greenest homebuilders in America.
Jerry and his son Tom Wade of Artistic Homes have in the past 10 years turned their 43-year-old home building business into a national model, earning honors from green building groups across the country while building affordable, energy-efficient, healthy homes across New Mexico and southwestern
Colorado.
From Artistic’s headquarters in an industrial area of southwest Albuquerque, Jerry says that when he came home to Roswell from four years at Oklahoma State his father hoped he would do something besides enter the family construction business. He took over the company in 1966 and Tom, a New Mexico State University alum, joined him in 1998. In 43 years, Artistic has built 13,000 homes. Suggest building must be in their blood and Jerry jokes with a slight southern drawl, “Or we’re not smart enough to do anything else.”
But smart decisions over the years, including entering the U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program in 1999, have positioned the production builder to meet consumers growing interest in homes that do more than just put a roof over their heads. The program shares its research with builders to improve overall housing performance, increase housing durability and comfort and reduce energy use.
“I feel real fortunate to have the backing of experts across the country,” Jerry says. “(Build America) took our plans and said here’s what you need to do to make it energy efficient. We went with the whole ball of wax. We could see that what they were talking about had a lot of merit. Now all of this is the big deal – energy efficiency and reducing your carbon footprint. And we’re ready to go with that.”
In 2008 Artistic became one of the first home builders in the United States to offer “true net zero” energy construction as an optional upgrade on every home it builds. That means a house that is optimally efficient in its energy use and that is powered by photovoltaic (PV) solar power. With rooftop PV panels
and a solar water heater, these all-electric homes zero out the utility bill.
Artistic’s other solar packages include “net zero” homes that have gas appliances and more PV panels than they need to
generate extra electricity that is sold back to the utility
company, and “Solar 30,” a smaller PV package that reduces electric bills by about 30 percent.
Depending upon the package and the size of the home, solar options add to the base price of the home anywhere from $6,000 for a Solar 30 home to $60,000 for a True Net Zero home. Federal and state tax incentives and rebates are
available to buyers who invest in solar to help with those costs. Base prices of Artistic homes range from about $149,000 to $260,000 depending on size and location. Artistic currently is building in Albuquerque, Artesia, Farmington, Hobbs, Los
Lunas, Rio Rancho, Roswell, Santa Fe and Durango, Colorado.
Even buyers who don’t go for the solar packages are benefiting from Artistic’s commitment to build energy efficient homes. According to the DOE a typical new home has a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) score of 100, with lower numbers
representing better energy performance. Artistic is committed to building all of its homes to a HERS score of 60 or lower and has an average closer to a score of 52 – meaning its homes see about a 48 percent annual energy savings over a year compared to a typical new home.
Tom says Artistic expects to build 200 homes this year, 6 to 10 of those being zero energy solar homes and 30 of them with
the Solar 30 option. “We believe that as people see these
communities crop up with Solar 30s, it will encourage new buyers to investigate these types of energy products,” Tom says.
The importance of a healthy home is not lost on Jerry. His
parents moved from Mississippi to Roswell in 1954 to find relief for his father’s asthma. Artistic’s efforts in the area
include an Indoor Air Package providing an energy recovery ventilator and HEPA filter to provide steady circulation of fresh conditioned air throughout the home. The addition marks the company as one of the first in the country to gain the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Indoor Air Quality certification on all of its homes.
“We mechanically create a drafty house, which because of the exchange of air is a healthier house,” Tom says. “The direct feedback we get from homebuyers is that they see a profound difference in their allergy and asthma symptoms.”
For its work in these areas Artistic earned the U.S. Green Builders Council Outstanding Production Builder Award in 2008 and a DOE Builder’s Challenge Award. It’s first true net zero energy home in 2008 was the first in the country to meet the requirements of the DOE Builders Challenge, Energy Star’s Indoor Air Quality certification, and the USGBC’s LEED
platinum level – the highest standard of environmentally
sustainable construction.
“We’re pleased with our work of the last 10 years – trying to build a house that is healthy and where the utilities won’t kill you,” Jerry says. “I’ve learned more about construction in the last 10 years than the previous 33 because all the technical knowledge that’s been acquired that I was not privy to before.”
All of these efforts have made Artistic recognized as the
leading private builder in the nation for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified homes.
“It is a continual change as knowledge is acquired and
manufacturing improves,” Jerry says. “Two years from now it will be different because the technology is always improving. We’re trying to stay on the cutting edge of those
improvements.”
|