THE NEW AMERICAN HOME 2026: AN ENVELOPE FIT FOR AN ENERGY KING
The 43rd edition of The New American Home sits on a rare lakeside lot in Winter Park, FL. Its sleek exterior — including flat-roof design and floor-to-ceiling glazing — conceals high-performance materials that resist whatever the Florida climate can throw at it.
The New American Home lives up to its pioneering name. An annual feature of the International Builders’ Show in Orlando, this much-anticipated showcase is where fresh ideas in design, technology, and building science come to physical life.
The 2026 edition, a 7,889-square-foot luxury abode in Winter Park, Florida, came with an audacious energy goal: a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index score of -40. For context, a standard new home scores around 100. A net-zero home, zero. Negative 40 means the home produces significantly more energy than it consumes over the course of a year.
To achieve this in Florida’s climate, builder Alair Homes needed a flawless building envelope — one that would keep the intense heat, relentless UV exposure, and high humidity out and energy efficiency in. Amrize’s high-performance roofing and insulation answered the call.
Here’s how, in collaboration with the National Association of Home Builders, Amrize helped this year’s property reach new heights by achieving new index lows.
Airtight insulation: The best-sealed house on the block
Spray foam insulation isn't an upgrade at Alair Homes — it's the standard. Builder Daniel Kennerly's team has used it exclusively for over seven years. The New American Home 2026 is, in his words, "the best example yet of what's possible because of it."
Daniel Kennerly, a partner at Alair Homes, has been building high-performance homes for over a decade. For the last seven years, his team has used spray foam insulation exclusively — not as a premium option, but as their baseline standard. For the New American Home, they turned to the #1 selling open-cell spray foam from Enverge — part of the Amrize Building Envelope family of products.
“The Enverge EasySeal .5® Open Cell spray foam basically finds and seals every tiny opening,” Kennerly said. “It’s amazing to watch, and it gets us incredibly close to the airtightness we’re targeting. This home is the best example yet of what’s possible because of it.”
Installed by Synergy Foam — Alair’s exclusive spray foam contractor — the insulation was applied beneath the roof deck and throughout the 2x6 exterior wall framing, expanding in place to seal air gaps that other materials miss. Combined with radiant barriers, the wall assemblies were designed to achieve approximately R-24 thermal resistance performance. The sealed, unvented attic above helps maintain thermal stability throughout the home, even during peak Florida heat.
A low-slope roof with high drainage, reflection, and endurance capabilities
Despite its flat appearance, the roof is engineered to drain. Tapered ISOGARD polyiso boards and precisely placed crickets create a quarter-inch-per-foot slope — quietly doing their job beneath a reflective white TPO surface rated by the Cool Roof Rating Council for solar performance.
The showcase home has an architecturally clean aesthetic, with what appears to be a flat roof. In fact, it has a quarter-inch-per-foot slope. Created by tapered Elevate ISOGARD™ polyiso insulation boards and strategically placed crickets, this gentle decline channels water towards designated drainage points to prevent flooding.
Still, such a low slope puts steep demands on the membrane. It must be able to handle the risk of standing water, as well as UV degradation and solar heat gain. Elevate, another Amrize brand, supplied a complete system built around its 60-mil white UltraPly™ TPO membrane. This scrim-reinforced material meets Cool Roof Rating Council requirements for solar reflectivity.
Alair selected Alpha Roofing & Sheet Metal, a licensed Elevate applicator, to do the installation. Reflecting on the experience, Josh Turley, Technical Manager at manufacturers’ representative firm FG Building Products, said the experience reinforced what integrated systems can deliver.
“From start to finish, the installation process was seamless,” Turley said. “The Elevate components worked together cohesively, making the execution straightforward. The system delivered exceptional performance.”
The results: The negative number that’s proof positive of what’s possible in energy efficiency
Designed by Orlando architect Michael Wenrich, The New American Home 2026 was built to entertain — and endure. It will be the last New American Home built in Orlando, as future homes will be constructed in Las Vegas as the International Builders’ Show moves there permanently.
When the HERS goal was set, it seemed ambitious. By the end, it was surprisingly attainable. The completed home had a final HERS score of below -40 — making it one of the most energy-efficient homes in the program’s history.
With energy production outpacing consumption by such a wide margin, the home earned a suite of leading sustainability certifications: ENERGY STAR, National Green Building Standard (NGBS) Emerald, DOE Zero Energy Ready Home, and Indoor airPLUS.
Each is a validation not just of the end product, but of every decision made along the way — including the ones hidden in the walls and roof. From the spray foam sealing to the polyiso insulation to the membrane deflecting the Florida sun, the right materials applied in the right way with the right partner realize the New American Home’s vision. They show builders what’s possible — even when the heat is on.