Located on Innovation Way within Babcock Ranch, one of the country’s first and largest solar-powered towns near Fort Myers, Florida, the Oakview, and its sister property the Cobblestone, were built by PulteGroup to explore how homeowners will live in the not-so-distant future.
The projects, unveiled last year and now in their second year of energy monitoring by Florida Power & Light (FPL), are experimenting with the latest, and in some cases not yet commercially available, advancements in sustainable new-home technologies and innovations.
“At Innovation Way, we are making the future right at home with cutting-edge technology and home building strategies that represent a new era of smart, comfortable, healthy, and sustainable living,” says Ryan Marshall, president and CEO of PulteGroup, which ranks No. 3 on the 2023 Builder 100 list. “Over time, the performance of these homes will provide valuable insight into how we innovate our homes and delight buyers well into the future.”
From Oakview’s innovative floor plan and its ability to be powered by a Ford truck during a power outage to its envelope and systems, the 3,654-square-foot home with five bedrooms, four baths, and a two-car garage has become a unique showcase piece where anyone, including buyers, industry professionals, and manufacturers, can come view and experience the home’s features that sport the latest in energy efficiency, healthy living, and smart-home technology.
“As production builders, we don’t always get the opportunity to create these environments and be able to really test these products in an actual built home,” explains Nicholas Crawford, strategic sourcing director at PulteGroup.
Danielle Calamela, vice president of sales at PulteGroup, adds that these model homes were constructed to serve as learning laboratories. “They basically serve as a testing ground for our consumer-inspired innovation,” she notes.
Functional Floor Plan
Oakview’s alley-loaded, two-story plan includes everything a post-COVID home buyer could want, from a prep kitchen to a planning center and a dedicated flex room.
“Everybody’s heard of a den, and everybody’s heard of an office, but what we did in this innovation home was we offered multiple flex spaces to show consumers how they can use their home more flexibly,” says Calamela. “For example, there’s a pocket gym. It’s a small space between your master suite and your master bathroom.”
On the first floor, the home includes a home office and a secondary bedroom toward the front, a central cooking and dining area, and a living room in the back with an adjacent covered lanai for a seamless indoor-outdoor feel.
Other notable features on the first level include the prep kitchen, situated behind the main kitchen, with a sink, counter space, ample cabinetry, an undercounter wine cooler, and an adjacent pantry for food storage. “It offers a place to hide everything, so the gourmet kitchen always looks best,” says Calamela.
Plus, on the opposite side of the main kitchen is Pulte’s signature planning center, or a multifunctional space designed to keep homeowners organized. The space can also function as a family office, craft storage, or a spot for kids to do homework.
“It’s a really nice pocket between the kitchen and the gathering room,” she adds. “It offers another opportunity to work from home or multitask right in the center of the way you’re living your life.”
Upstairs, in addition to three secondary bedrooms and two full baths, the home boasts a loft, a dedicated flex room, and an owner’s suite with its own bath, closet, and the pocket gym.
For Oakview, the flex room design shown is centered around the need for home schooling. The design features a flat working surface, comfortable seating, space for storage, and a place to stash afternoon snacks. Alternative designs for the flex space can be hobby rooms, craft rooms, playrooms, or more work-from-home space.
“We listen to what our homeowners tell us,” says Calamela. “We poured all of this into one home, two homes technically, to see what our consumers would say.”
Truck Technology
Another unique aspect of the PulteGroup Innovation Way project is its collaboration with Ford Motor Co. to test how the Ford Intelligent Backup Power system of the F-150 Lightning can serve as a critical lifeline to homeowners during power outages.
When plugged in, a fully charged F-150 Lightning can provide the home with power for up to three days during an outage, or as long as 10 days when used in conjunction with rationing or solar power, report the companies.
“In very simple terms, it’s where the home charges the truck, and then the truck can charge the home during a power outage,” explains Calamela.
Crawford says the charger itself looks very similar to a typical electric vehicle charger, but the interior components allow it to have the ability to pass electricity to the truck and then flip it around and pass it back to the load center of the house.
“The onboard computer of the Ford truck is able to identify when it’s plugged in. It’s also able to identify when it’s receiving power while plugged in,” says Crawford. “It kind of acts like an automatic transfer switch, so when the truck recognizes that it’s plugged in and no power is being delivered, it will start the process of reversing the flow of electricity from the truck back to the house.”
The company has continually simulated the process at Oakview, and it takes anywhere from about 45 seconds to a minute to switch.
“The house will just light back up like it’s running off of power provided by the grid,” he continues.
Additionally, the truck has a setting where it’ll only deplete the battery to a certain number of miles. Users can set the truck to stop discharging at a particular number of miles, or specifically however long it would take to get to somewhere where it could charge again.
Being in Babcock, a solar-powered town, Crawford says this feature almost makes the home grid independent, as the truck is charged with power generated via solar, and, if an outage occurs, the battery is discharging that solar generation back to the home.
Extra Enhancements
Beyond its partnership with Ford, PulteGroup also teamed with several industry manufacturers on smart-home products within the Oakview.
“A lot of these components were based on partnerships with national manufacturers—products that weren’t even available on retail markets yet,” says Crawford. “We’ve kind of used this not only for our own testing laboratory, but for manufacturers testing these products in a real-life environment as well.”
While just a sampling, the following items were included in Oakview’s design:
- Wi-Fi-enabled lighting, load centers, and thermostats;
- Smart kitchen faucets and bathroom shower controls that are voice-controlled and hands-free;
- Kitchen appliances that connect to Wi-Fi for personalized options and real-time notifications;
- Whole-home indoor air quality monitoring and ventilation system;
- Recirculating tankless water heater;
- Smart electrical panel with remote on/off capability that monitors energy usage by circuit;
- Energy-efficient HVAC system;
- High-efficiency, low-E impact windows and spray foam ceiling insulation;
- Foam block with 6-inch poured solid concrete exterior wall system;
- Backup battery system provided by FPL to increase energy resiliency and monitor usage; and
- Artificial turf in backyards and permeable drive and walkway pavers that allow water to percolate back into the ground.
