Las Vegas hosts many conventions every year. One of this years big events was the International Builders Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. A small group of investors bought a house in Paradise Palms in order to completely retrofit the property for energy efficiency, “green” materials and sustainability. The result was the 2010 ReVISION house which was open for tours during the Builders Show, and was open for anyone to check out on Sunday January 24th.

As the picture here illustrates, the house is an example of the Mid-Century Modern style. Emphasis was placed upon preserving the general feel and look of that style while converting the house into an energy efficient and sustainable building. Jack LeVine, who blogs at Very Vintage Vegas and is involved in local preservation efforts, served as a consultant for the purpose. The result is a house with a great deal of architectural integrity that actually produces more energy than it consumes.

That claim seems too good to be true, but it is not. In the picture to the right of this are shown two electric meters. The one on the left is connected to the power grid, just as is mine, and probably yours as well. The one on the right is connected to the photovoltaic array on the roof of the house. While I was at the house, the meter on the right was spinning merrily in the way of electric meters on a chilly day. The meter on the left, the one connected to the grid, was also spinning, but spinning backwards! The owners of the property were actually selling power to the electric company, not buying it from them.

There is more to the roof than power generation. The roof is two-layered with ventilation between the layers. The bottom layer is the old roof. The top layer is metal, with an air space between the layers. Air circulating between these two layers keeps the house much cooler in our intense summers than does any standard roof. This sort of adaptation is designed to make the house not need as much heating and cooling as a standard house. In fact, this 1700 square foot space is heated and cooled by a 3-ton heat pump, where the equivalent of an 8-ton pump was needed before the retrofit. Craig Savage, the owner of Building Media and the driving force behind the ReVision House, estimated that the average heating or cooling costs would be about $40.00 per month. If, that is, you had to buy the electricity.

The exterior walls are also designed with energy efficiency and “green living” in mind. The photo to the left shows a peel-away section that was left unfinished so that visitors could see how it was done. The steps used in building the wall can be seen if you look at the photograph from left to right. On the left side is a plain stud wall, constructed in the sixties. The blue tube is a Pex tube, a water supply tube that can be bent around corners and that also connects very easily to other types of pipe or plumbing fixtures. The next layer, seen just to the right, is blown-in insulation. Then comes sheathing, covered by an additional water barrier (there is also a water barrier on the inside of the wall.) On top of the sheathing is a layer of sheet insulation. Finally a three-stage stucco is applied. Overall the walls have an R-15 insulation value. The windows are all triple pane and treated with a heat blocking coating that inhibits summer heat gain and winter heat loss. Still, since the goal was a 70% reduction in energy use, the celestory windows on the front (south) side of the house were covered over to block the fierce summer sun.

Other “green” touches include the use of recycled materials wherever possible, high-efficiency appliances in the kitchen, solar water heating with an on-demand heater for backup, and sophisticated systems to control heat, cooling, and lights. As I heard one of the owners saying during the open house, it is very doubtful that anyone would ever do all of the things to his or her house that these people did to the ReVISION house. But this house certainly does prove just how much can be done to live sustainably, even in an older, “classic” part of Las Vegas. More information about the ReVISION House program can be found here.