From the Southern Living Idea House to Your Home

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Every year, the Southern Living Idea House showcases more than just beautiful design – it’s a model for how a home can function as well as it looks. For 2025’s Idea House, that meant building a home near Charlottesville, Virginia, that could deliver year-round comfort, reliable performance, and cost-effective efficiency. And the best way to bring that dream home to life was by choosing the right energy source: propane. Throughout the home, propane powers essential appliances like the kitchen range, two tankless water heaters, a hydronic heating system, an indoor fireplace, an outdoor grill, and a standby generator.

Build Anywhere Without Compromise

The 2025 Southern Living Idea House offers stunning views, with towering trees surrounding the home and a peaceful stream and pond in the backyard. The house is set back from the main road at the end of a long, stately driveway, which further contributes to the sense of serenity. However, because of the property’s secluded location, the home is several hundred feet away from the end of the neighborhood’s natural gas line, and extending the line would have been costly and time-consuming.

Instead, the builder chose to power the home with propane, a clean and efficient energy source that can be stored on-site without the need for pipelines or other utility infrastructure. Working with a local propane company, they installed two 500-gallon propane tanks: one for daily use of the home’s appliances and another dedicated to the standby generator.

“One notable difference between propane and natural gas is that once the product has been delivered, you own and control it,” said Allan Pettit, builder and 2025 Southern Living Idea House project manager. “Also, I’m not sure everyone knows this, but additional comfort comes from the fact that propane doesn’t go bad or expire. Most, if not all, other fuels that can be stored on site have a shelf life and will go bad if not used. That is not the case with propane.”

Comfort Meets Efficiency

One of the most important aspects of a home is how comfortable it is. That extends beyond just beds and sofas to hot showers, cozy fireplaces, and warm winter nights. Propane powers all the modern-day comforts homeowners crave with the efficiency they need.

The 2025 Idea House features two propane-powered tankless water heaters that supply more than double the hot water per minute compared to electric models. That means no cold showers, even on busy mornings or when laundry, dishes, and bathing all compete for hot water.

In the great room, a propane fireplace serves as both a centerpiece and a high-performing heat source. While traditional wood-burning fireplaces average about 15 percent efficiency, propane fireplaces reach up to 90 percent, keeping more warmth in the room and reducing wasted energy.

The home’s heating system also boosts performance. While standard electric heat pumps often struggle in colder weather and rely on costly electric resistance strips, a propane-powered hydronic heating system doesn’t have that issue. When temperatures dip below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, the system circulates hot water from the tankless heaters through a coil in the air handler, cutting heating costs by up to 35 percent compared to all-electric systems and producing more comfortable and consistent heat. The result is a home that stays warm without overtaxing the electrical system, even during the chilliest winter days.

Reliability When It Counts

When a storm hits or the electric grid goes down, comfort and efficiency mean little without power to keep a home running. With the Department of Energy warning that outages could become 100 times more frequent by 2030, backup power is no longer a luxury — it’s a necessity. That’s why the Southern Living Idea House includes a propane-powered generator with its own dedicated fuel tank.

When activated, the generator can power the entire home for several days to keep homeowners comfortable. The system activates within 10 seconds of a power outage to keep the lights on without missing a beat. When combined with other propane appliances, homeowners can experience additional efficiencies.

“Because propane is able to be used in hot water production and emergency or backup heating, it reduced the electrical demands of the house, and we were able to reduce the size of the generator by 50 percent,” Pettit said.

Sustainability That Fits the Setting

The 2025 Idea House is a modern homestead designed by Virginia-rooted visionaries that understand the local culture, history, and landscape. The designers brought that natural beauty to life by highlighting the surrounding trees and bodies of water with gorgeous working gardens and plant life. To match the sustainability aspect of the home, the 2025 Idea House called for an energy source that supported the environment. Propane proved to be the perfect match to deliver reliable performance while reducing the home’s carbon footprint.

Compared to the U.S. electric grid, propane produces up to 35 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions. In the kitchen, propane-powered cooking ranges generate up to 15 percent fewer full-fuel-cycle emissions than their electric counterparts, all while offering the precision and responsiveness chefs love. The home’s propane tankless water heaters also make a difference, reducing greenhouse gases by up to 56 percent compared with electric models. Even the indoor fireplace plays a role: propane fireplaces produce fewer particulates and less carbon monoxide than wood-burning fireplaces, making them a cleaner choice for both the home and the surrounding air. In addition to reducing emissions, propane is nontoxic and won’t pollute soil or groundwater.

In a home where beauty and performance go hand in hand, propane’s sustainability benefits help ensure the Southern Living Idea House is as environmentally responsible as it is comfortable.

“Propane aligns well with our sustainability goals: it’s a clean fuel with a lower carbon footprint than many traditional energy sources, and it’s easy to store safely on site,” said Julie Kline Dixon, 2025 Southern Living Idea House architect. “For a home designed to balance luxury, comfort, and resilience, propane helped us bring that vision to life.”