IRVINE – The house of the future is taking shape today at the Orange County Great Park.

On a dusty lot not far from the big, orange Great Park Balloon, the walls are up and the roof is being installed. Windows are in place, and futuristic, multi-layered walls are double insulated with foam.

Still to come: Installation of siding, Sheetrock, cabinets, flooring and appliances.

And when it’s finished in the next month or so, backers are hoping this one-story, three-bedroom home will be a blueprint for builders everywhere on how to mass produce environmentally friendly houses that generate as much energy as they consume.

Called the ABC Green Home, the project is being spearheaded by Southern California Edison and Green Home Builder magazine.

Its name is derived from the goal to make the home affordable, buildable and certified by the green building certification groups like Build It Green and LEED.

Backers say it will demonstrate that builders today can build an affordable, energy-efficient and sustainable home using materials and products that are readily available.

“We wanted to show people that you can, in fact, build a very simple and straightforward and elegant home, a very high-performance home, and wrap it up in a very traditional feel,” said Nick Slevin, publisher of Green Home Builder magazine and a project organizer.

When completed, the Craftsman-style, 1,700-square-foot house will be a net-zero home, generating as much energy from roof-top solar panels as it consumes.

It also will conserve water, use recycled building materials, will have good indoor air quality and will be handicapped accessible.

And, backers hope, it will be built at a cost that tract-home (or “production home”) builders can afford while still making a profit.

The goal is to keep construction costs to about $60 to $65 per square foot – only slightly higher than today’s conventional building costs, said Edison’s John Morton, project construction manager.

The project is important, backers said, because it’s pioneering techniques to help builders meet the California Energy Commission’s goal of building “net-zero” homes by 2020.

When the home is completed, it will be on display at the Great Park through January or February of 2014. It likely will be a focal point when the Great Park hosts the Solar Decathlon in October 2013.

After that, the home will be dismantled, reassembled on a permanent home site – most likely in Santa Ana – and donated to a needy family designated by Habitat for Humanity.

Edison will continue to monitor the home’s energy use long after a family moves in, backers say.

The ABC Green Home is just one example of why Orange County is on the cutting edge of green homebuilding, said Don Neff, president of LJP Construction Services of Irvine and the project inspector for the green certification process.

Orange County was home to the Terramor development in Ladera Ranch almost a decade ago, and today has numerous solar and energy-efficient housing projects from Brea and Anaheim to KB Home’s net-zero homes in Lake Forest.

Other builders that have adopted sustainable and energy-efficient homebuilding include Irvine Pacific, City Ventures, the Olson Co., the New Home Company and Brookfield Homes, he said.

“I think a lot of the builders in Orange County are ahead of the curve,” Neff said.

Bryan Starr, CEO of the Building Industry Association of Orange County, said his group is promoting the project to show builders what’s available and how they can incorporate energy efficient design and products into production homes.

“We really want to see if this can be done in a way that’s respectful of the market,” Starr said. “As an industry, we’re always trying to evolve technology.”

Among the home’s features:

•Walls of the Future: The exterior walls of the home are made from 2-by-6-inch lumber set 24 inches apart, instead of the traditional 2-by-4’s spaced 16 inches apart. Wider lumber allows for wall “studs” to be further apart, reducing the amount of wood used by about 40 percent.

In addition, the walls are multi-layered, with two-inch rigid “ThermalStar” foam and “BlueSkin” water barriers on the outside and spray-on foam on the inside. The six-inch-thick walls allow for more foam insulation to be applied to the walls.

Holes in the walls made for vent, water and sewer pipes are sealed to prevent energy loss.

“These guys built a tight envelope first,” Neff said, referring to the walls. “You don’t see this in production homes. You should, but you don’t.”

•Radiant-barrier roof, which uses a foil lining to keep heat out of the attic in the summer.

•Solar panels will generate electricity for the home.

•Heat Pump: An energy-efficient heat pump will be used instead of a gas furnace. A Daikin water heating system will have a heat pump that uses heat from the house to heat water.

•Gray Water: A tank will be installed in the bathrooms to capture used water from the sink and reuse it to flush toilets.

•On Demand Recirculating Pump: Water left on while waiting for hot water to reach a faucet is re-circulated and reused rather than wasted. The pump is produced by ACT D’MAND Systems in Costa Mesa.

•A programmable system that will reduce power, adjust blinds and dim or turn off lights when energy demands are high on the power grid. The home will have energy-efficient LED lighting.

•Roof tiles made from recycled rubber.

•Rain water will be captured and stored for watering plants. The home will have drought-tolerant landscaping to reduce water consumption.

•Halls and doorways will be wider, and kitchen cutting boards and the microwave will be beneath the countertops to make the home wheelchair accessible.

Project managers said some of the materials and appliances were purchased from dealers or outlets in Orange County, while others are ordered directly from the manufacturers.

“These are materials that any builder anywhere can pick up the phone and (order), whether it’s for one home or 1,000,” said Morton, the project manager from Edison. “We didn’t use any technology that’s new or out of the way.”

Contact the writer: 714-796-7734 or jcollins@ocregister.com