One Piece Collapsible Reflectors

The GLOBAL SUN OVEN® can be set up for use or taken down for storage in a matter of seconds. The reflectors literally fall into place at an angle that allows you to maximize the power of the sun.

The reflectors are made of highly polished, mirror-like anodized aluminum that can be cleaned quickly and easily with glass cleaner, and they will never oxidize or rust.

Spill-Proof Levelator

There is never any need to worry about your food spilling in a GLOBAL SUN OVEN®. While cooking, your food rests on a shelf that self adjusts to always stay level as you refocus.

Easy Temperature Monitoring

A built in thermometer allows you know the temperature at a glance.

Self-Contained Leveling Leg

As the sun is at different points on the horizon the GLOBAL SUN OVEN® can readily be adjusted to follow it. A simple adjusting leg allows you to choose from 9 angled positions.

Extremely Well Insulated

A thick batt of non-toxic insulation retains heat. Food cooked in the sun and left in the oven will remain hot for hours. Cold air is held out allowing the GLOBAL SUN OVEN® to be used on sunny days year around regardless of the ambient temperature.

Light Weight, Easy to Carry

The GLOBAL SUN OVEN® weighs only 21 pounds (9.5 kg), folds up like a suitcase, and is equipped with a handle for easy transport.

To learn more visit http://www.sunoven.com

I have also seen a couple of videos on Youtube for building your own sun oven so this could also be an option.

Watch how it works in the videos below.

(Before conversion) So a little about the Birdhouse. We bought a garden shed from kijiji and started converting it to a house in 2009. It sits on a beautiful 12 acre piece of land in Eastern Canada. I started this project with my son (now 10) in an effort to spend more time in nature, be more aware of our consumption, save some money, and most importantly, spend time together outside the trappings of the “connected” life. It has really worked, as the one thing I’ve noticed about living in a tiny house, is that the yard is really big, and the indoor space becomes secondary to the landscape around us.

The main room is about 12 ft x 9 ft including the kitchen and living space. The sofa is a futon that acts as a guest bed on sleepover nights. There is a pocket door that separates the main room from my son’s room, a 6 ft x 6 ft bedroom that somehow stores his clothes, toys and bed. The bed is on hinges so you can clear the floor space to play. Children absolutely love this house, I think there is something in the scale of it that makes it very comfortable for them.

I sleep in a bunk above the kitchen. My clothes are in baskets off to the side. It can get a little warm up there and so I needed a window where there was no room for one; and so take note of the little 4 inch ABS drain pipe that was installed to serve the cause. Instead of opening a window I just unscrew the cap.

There is a stand up shower between the two rooms, hidden by the pocket door for privacy. The toilet is outdoors, a luggable loo that gets moved progressively closer to the house as the weather gets colder.

There is no power, we use a propane stove and fridge, and the lights are solar. We don’t have a solar system, just a few simple lights from the local hardware store. We collect rain water for washing dishes and bathing, it comes directly into the house with a faucet at the sink. Our drinking water we bring from the city, and use about 30-50 liters a week at most.

As you can see, it is still a work in progress. I’ve made the upper kitchen cabinets (hence the bad carpentry), insulted, wired (just in case), put up dry wall and installed the doors an three windows. This year, we stayed in it for 6 months, and will do the same in 2012. It is about a 25 minute drive from the city where we work and go to school, and so with shorter days and lots of snow it would be a bit challenge to winter there, although I’m quite ambitious to attempt it.

Dawson-Witt, a freelance editor and government contractor, has avoided television and fashion and wanted to live her life like that of Henry David Thoreau.

“I wanted to live deliberately and to not be on automatic pilot,” she said. “I wanted to be connected to the elements.”

However, she is not able to live in her tiny house full-time. The county in which the home is located does not allow full-time living in a home without indoor plumbing. She keeps another house close to her work.

Inside the tiny house, there are three chairs, one table, one desk, a kitchen cabinet from the 1920s, one bookcase, a loft with one bed and one small chest that contains an extra blanket. About 75 percent of all she owns fits in the tiny house. (Ironically, she has a whole shelf of books on voluntary simplicity, she said.) She has her clothes and a file drawer in her other house and her tools and camping gear in a nearby shed.

Dawson-Witt will be leading a seven-week discussion on sustainability at her tiny house. The sessions started on October 4, 2011. Her talks will cover simplicity, ecology, food, money and more for those who want to live more lightly on the earth.

Photos courtesy of YSNews.com

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

In a time where everyone is striving to ‘go green,’ even people in developed countries can use this innovative solution wherever applicable. Using recycled plastic soda bottles, water, and chlorine and inserting it through a roof you can make a simple 55 watt bulb to light up any area. Think how much electricity could be saved if this was applied across our own country!

The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. The winner of the competition is the team that best blends affordability, consumer appeal, and design excellence with optimal energy production and maximum efficiency. For complete information  visit the Solar Decathlon website.

The house was designed to act like a tree that captures energy with its solar “leaves” and sends it down to its roots, where is stored, shared, or returned to the house to produce the fruit of electricity. The house contains a “domestic metabolism” that provides a detailed real-time monitoring of its behavior and its interaction with the environment, creating historical profiles and sharing them socially.

The design of the Fab Lab house has been compared to both a boat and a peanut and has been called a “cinnamon submarine,” “forest zeppelin” and a “whale belly”. The house has also introduced significant technological innovations such as the world’s most efficient flexible solar panels, made with both Spanish and American technology. The project involved architects and experts from 20 countries as well as experts from MIT.

The house has been put up for sale for €45,000 plus VAT ($64,000). Fab Labs is offering the house for sale in several different styles including the Cottage which is 12 square meters (129 square feet), the Shelter which is 24 square meters (258 square feet), the House which is 60 square meters (646 square feet) and the Villa which is 96 square meters (1,033 square feet).

The interior is composed of an integrated social space with a bedroom, kitchen, a small Fab Lab, a bathroom and a small elevated room for guests.

Photos courtesy of Fab Lab

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

The couple built the house on wheels on an acre of land in Florida that also houses several chickens and their vegetable and fruit garden. The house contains a small kitchen with a sink, microwave and fold down table, a bathroom with a shower and toilet, a small TV room with a couch, and a sleeping loft. The baby’s crib will be placed in the kitchen next to the dining table. They also have a workshop for tools and a prefabricated shed for some boxes of clothes and books. The TV, refrigerator, water pumps, air-conditioner and LED lights are powered by solar panels.

Marc, a university professor and videographer, and Trudi, a graphic designer, have been living an eco-conscious lifestyle for several years. They’ve documented their conservation and tiny life in their blog, A Greener Boese. The house was modeled after some homes the couple saw in Oregon and cost $12,000 to build over the course of a month. The solar panels cost an extra $8,000. Trudi mentions in the video that the transition to a smaller house was easier than she thought, and that getting rid of most of their possessions was liberating.

Photos Courtesy of Bob Self/Times-Union

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

The shipping container was chosen specifically for its bright color. Shipping containers are a readily available resource for building because they are usually abandoned by shipping companies. The architects mounted the container on recycled telephone poles, and the floor and walls were covered with bamboo. Sliding doors, windows, heating, air conditioning and an 8 foot by 4 foot bathroom with a composting toilet and red sheet metal walls were also added. A garden storage room was also added at the end of the container, which retains its original access doors. A patio with a cantilevered overhang was added to the front of the house and a rooftop garden with a drip system was installed by Madrone Landscape Architecture.

Poteet Architects is a 12-year-old firm based in San Antonio, Texas. Jim Poteet opened the office with the hope that the firm could further the sustainable revitalization of downtown San Antonio. The firm’s portfolio of completed work includes residential, commercial and institutional projects, but is perhaps best known for the sensitive adaptive reuse of existing buildings and a fresh, rigorous approach to modern interior design. The Container Guest House won a 2010 Design Award from AIA San Antonio.

Photos courtesy of Poteet Architects, LP

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]

Michael’s has a refrigerator, sink, bed, and two couches.  There is a solar panel on the top that he can use all the electricals on board the bus (fridge, lamps, laptop, etc.).  Michael lived in his bus full time last summer and both he and John are planning on living in their bus full time this summer and tour the festival circuit (they would do it full-full-time if we weren’t currently in school).

Both conversions were done by Joseph Hollay of Cheney Technical High School in Manchester, CT for around $1,000.

Michael explains below how the system works.

Alright, basically the way the veggie systems work is we have a big tank called the bulk tank for putting any kind of vegetable oil in.  Since we mainly use use vegetable oil because its free or incredibly cheap (at most it costs around $0.25/gallon), the bulk tank is used for mass storage.  It then goes through a series of filters, first two wire mesh screens, then a 15-micron fuel filter, then a 10-micron fuel filter to get all of the contaminants, water, chunks, etc. out of the oil.  It is pumped through these filters using a standard fuel pump that are usually used for pumping fuel just like at a gas station.  Once it is through the filters, it is pumped into the second tank called the day tank that is used like a normal fuel tank on any car.

We then run the fuel line along the length of the bus along coolant lines to heat it up enough to be used in the engine.  The way it is pumped along the coolant lines is simply that the engine itself causes enough suction.

The veggie line then is put into the diesel line with a shutoff valve for when we want to run straight veggie or a mix or straight diesel.  Therefore when we have the shutoff valve on, the engine uses veggie and when it is off it uses diesel.  The only thing that makes there a need for conversion for running veggie is the contaminants and the thickness of the oil, which is why we run the veggie line along the coolant lines to heat it up and thereby make it less thick.

You can see more photos and learn more about their buses at Juan Way Tour.

Watch how the Solman, Mobile Solar Generator powers this tiny house. From Refrigerators, to lights to computers, this one panel wonder on wheels takes living consciously to the next level of personal empowerment.