KB Home (NYSE: KBH) is offering home buyers the opportunity to purchase components of the integrated health and wellness and smart home technologies introduced at its concept home of the future, KB Home ProjeKt: Where Tomorrow Lives. ProjeKt was unveiled earlier this year in conjunction with the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Certain features are now available for the first time anywhere at KB Home’s latest community in Irvine, Genoa at Orchard Hills.
The homes at the new community offer optional energy independence and innovative technologies from Delos’ DARWIN™ Home Wellness Intelligence network, high-efficiency SunPower® solar, and the Powerwall energy storage and management system provided by Swell Energy. KB Home plans to construct 110 homes in three two-story floor plans that range in size from 3,550 to 3,950 square feet. The homes include up to five bedrooms and four-and-a-half baths and feature design characteristics including downstairs bedroom suites, gourmet kitchens, elegant master suites, lofts and a private yard, ideal for entertaining. Pricing begins at $1.7 million.
In addition, all KB homes at Genoa at Orchard Hills offer the proprietary KB Smart Home System featuring Google Assistant™ which allows KB homeowners to control the functionality of their smart-home features, automate routines to their individual preferences and live more comfortably and efficiently in their new homes.
“The KB homes available at Genoa at Orchard Hills offer our customers smart solutions for energy independence while supporting personal wellness for homeowners and their families,” said Steve Ruffner, regional general manager for KB Home. “Buyers are seeking homes that deliver on energy efficiency and promote healthier home environments. This new smart home delivers on that.”
Every KB home at Genoa is designed to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Indoor airPLUS qualification standards to provide a home environment that is cleaner, quieter, healthier, more efficient and better performing compared to typical new and resale homes in the area. In addition, Genoa offers home buyers the option to integrate Delos’ state-of-the-art DARWIN Home Wellness Intelligence network, a responsive platform that passively monitors and calibrates the home environment to help support health, performance and well-being.
KB Home is the first U.S. production home builder to offer DARWIN, which can be controlled from a smartphone app, stand-alone tablet or Google Assistant, offering the freedom to control and access wellness intelligence throughout the home. The system uses a proprietary sensor-monitoring platform to control air filtration, water purification and restorative lighting.
All homes at Genoa at Orchard Hills will be built to ENERGY STAR® certification guidelines and include WaterSense® labeled faucets and fixtures, as well as fully integrated 2kW SunPower Equinox™ solar photovoltaic systems as standard features. These energy- and water-saving features are estimated to help save home buyers up to $2,000 a year in utility costs, depending upon the floor plan, which adds up to potential savings of over $60,000 over the life of a 30-year mortgage.
These KB homes also offer the option to expand to an electricity-independent home with a larger solar power system and energy storage unit that has built-in intelligence to provide the home with its energy needs at night or when demand is more than what the solar system can provide. These options can potentially keep a home’s electricity bills and carbon footprint near zero.
