Solar

Michael’s School Bus Conversion

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Michael Vaughan and his friend John live in school buses that run on veggie oil that they’ve converted into RVs. Both buses run on used vegetable oil and have a refinery on board the bus so that they can put any oil in their “bulk tanks” and filter it into their “day tanks” while on the road.

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.

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Maintaining Solar And Other Storage Batteries

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Guest Post by Walt Barrett A few weeks ago I was visiting a US Coast Guard Station where I looked at small solar battery charging installation. It was built to government specifications, and was an excellent example of a perfect solar installation. One of the companies that I have owned … Read more

False Bay Cabin

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This little, modern cabin – located in the San Juan Islands in Washington – is  a private retreat for the owners and their guests. I think it would make a great tiny house that can be battened down from the elements and when you are gone for a few days.

The cabin was designed and built by Olson Kundig Architects, the designers of the Rolling Huts. Three sides of the cabin have custom-designed Shutter-Decks, designed in collaboration with Turner Exhibits. The Shutter-Decks lower to become an outdoor living space and rise to provide privacy for the occupants and to secure the cabin when it is unoccupied. The south Shutter-Deck can be opened independently of the other two, while an interior fireplace can be rotated 180 degrees to be enjoyed from the exterior.

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Kevin’s Mini Homestead

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Kevin a friend of mine on facebook has been designing and building a prototype of a micro homestead with a barn and garden area, solar powered, with saw dust toilet and propane heat and a micro kitchen area. Portable and able to knock down and setup in 30 minutes using off the shelf materials skill level …easy.

I have borrowed a couple of pictures from his facebook page to share with you and he just put up a cool little video tour on Youtube that I thought you would enjoy. Kevin shows what can be done with low cost and easy to get materials.

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Shelter House

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While this eco-friendly and beautiful home is not really tiny, elements of the interesting “wing” design can be taken into consideration for a tiny house design. The Shelter House by Franklin Azzi Architecture is located in Yport, near Normandy, France. The two expansions which protrude on opposite sides of the house, resemble wings with covered patios and rooftop terraces.

This modern, sustainable home is constructed mainly of wood with a rustic masonry face, and features a rainwater-recycling system, geothermal energy, and solar panels that keep this house off the grid. The building materials are recyclable and locally sourced from within 100 km of the home’s location, and then assembled on-site. Vegetable fibers are used for walls and insulation, heating comes via wood-burning stove, and cooling and ventilation are passive. In addition, all the equipment providing hot water facilities have been placed outside the home, in a gallery 30 meters long, which is dug into the hillside. A final system supplies the toilets from the recovery of rainwater, stored in a 200 liter underground tank.

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Mobile Solar SolMan

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This is a post I wrote for the Tumbleweed blog back a year or so, but I felt the information would be good to have here on the Tiny House Blog too.

Adding Solar to your tiny house can be a daunting task if you are not up to date on all the latest technology and how it works together.

A couple of weeks ago we had a “Meeting of the Tiny Minds” and Bill Kastrinos of Tortoise Shell Homes told Jay, Stephen, Michael and I about this great solar solution that was out there.

What if there was a simple solution to this and all you had to do was plug and play? SoleMan a company based in Willits, California has come up with just that kind of solution.

They call their system the “one small, easy to move, all in one integrated unit, ready to point towards the sun at your best location, and deliver up to 1200 watts of AC power, and 12 volts DC power, and even charge all your Ni-Mh smaller batteries.”

This little unit is on heavy duty bicycle wheels so you can have your Tumbleweed home in the shade and easily roll your solar unit where it gets the most sun.

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The E.D.G.E

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This tiny prefab home is an experiment in all things efficient. The E.D.G.E., designed and built by by Bill Yudchitz and Revelations Architects/Builders Corp. in Wisconsin, stands for an Experimental Dwelling for a Greener Environment, and recently won  a design award from the American Institute of Architects-Wisconsin.

Several details of this design make it unique to other prefab designs. The “kinetic facade” rain screen, which consists of tall louvered panels, can be closed over the passive solar windows to insulate the interior and protect the E.D.G.E. when unoccupied. It contains two lofts with full staircases, and the furniture is custom made for the house and is multi-functional. In fact, the dining room furniture transforms into a bed.

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A Comment About Tiny Homes

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Walt Barrett sent me an article sharing his thoughts about tiny houses and I thought you would enjoy reading it so let me turn it over to Walt.

Lately, in the light of two very recent earthquake disasters, I have been giving a great deal of thought to the advantages of living in a small self contained, or autonomous home. The benefits are quite obvious, and huge. First of all, you will probably be located in a rural area far from the looting and other crimes commonly found in cities after a disastrous earthquake, or other natural disaster.

Photo Credit: Jay Shafer

There is also the advantage of not running out of power because you will be making your own. If you are using a composing toilet you do not have the problems associated with sewerage disposal. You most likely will have your own water supply which would be pumped from the ground by a solar powered water pump.

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Blu Homes Origin

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There has been some recent news for fans of Michelle Kaufmann and her beautiful prefab homes. Michelle’s company, MKDesigns, has been acquired by Blu Homes, a privately owned business that builds homes with quality design, sustainable materials and leading technology. Michelle will be serving as a design consultant to Blu and they will continue to work with her designs including the Glidehouse, the Lotus and the Breezehouse.

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The new MK designs will use the Blu folding technology in their building construction, and will be available nationally. Blu is unique in that they ship and set their own homes with teams directly from their factory.

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Tiny Observatory

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This tiny house is just a few blocks away from me in Washoe Valley, Nev. Each time I drove by, I was intrigued by its strange shape and perfect size.

It turns out it’s a tiny observatory built by a local man named Michael. His neighbors affectionately call it the “Milk Carton.”

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He built it about 3 years ago and it took him several months. It is 2×4 construction built on concrete piers, but does not have heat, plumbing or insulation. It is two stories tall and an internal ladder goes up to the second story. Michael owns several telescopes and uses the house for digital imaging. The telescope sits on the second floor scanning the sky, and Michael sits on the bottom floor with a computer capturing the images. He is mostly interested in planetary nebula.

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Denny’s Cabin in Missouri

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Denny Henke wrote me and told me about his cabin/eco village in Missouri. I have posted a few of his photographs but you can view the rest on flickr and visit his ongoing blog called Our Tomorrow. I’ll let Denny tell his story.

I’ve been living full time in my 12×16 cabin since May of 2008. The cabin was built by myself and my brother-in-law, Greg. He’s the carpenter and I the assistant though after building 4 structures I’ve accumulated a good bit of knowledge and skill. I’m on land left to our family by my grandfather.

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The property had been a campground of sorts from the 1970’s to the early 90’s so has the somewhat functional remains of an electrical infrastructure and several wells. The area we are using had a well and an old but structurally sound pole-barn style shed. It’s a mix of woodland and meadow with an 18 acre lake on the west side. We’d often talked of building a couple cabins but we never seemed to get started which proved lucky as a tornado hit the far side of the property in 2006.

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