Tiny House Blog

Here is a new invention that may help Tiny Home owners achieve independence from propane or electricity for cooking their meals, The Natura Lite stove by Lodge-tech, it uses 100% vegetable oil.

It operates similar to a water cooler by keeping the fluid level the same, the yellow flame of the stove burns at a much slower rate and lower temperature than the blue flame of propane or other gases, so the saving are as much as 30-50% or more, even if it seems a gallon gas or pound of propane is less expensive.

It does not boil large amounts of water very quickly, but it is wonderful for cast iron skillets or small dutch ovens and fantastic for steaming any meal piping hot in 30-45 min.

It is very safe to operate and will usually will self extinguish if knocked over, the oil bottle has strong magnets at the base to keep it firmly in place, and storing the oil is vastly safer than propane or other fuels.

The stove is available at www.lodge-tech.net.  Lodge-tech also makes yurts, domes, greenhouses and a low cost earth toilet.

Matt came across this on youtube the other day. A type of rocket stove I think. It would be very cheap to make and operate.

A sawdust burning stove which burns smokeless, unattended for over 8 hours per charge. Perfect for a woodworking shop or other small space.

I did a little more research and found a great article on Mother Earth News on building sawdust stoves. Here is the link to the article.

Alice found this one. These are designed and made by Kisangani Smith Group in Tanzania. They have a sustainable forestry and teach youth blacksmithing skills.

Here is another craigslist ad for a marine stove. One of my goals with the Tiny House Meets conversation is to figure out the best place to put all the great craigslist ads without them being posts. Right now I am leaning towards either creating a specific page or only highlighting them on the Tiny House Facebook page. I feel they are important as they let you know what is out there but I don’t have time to make posts out of each and every one of them.

This one is important though, as Olivia is trying to raise funds as quickly as possible so that they can do a medical treatment for her grandfather. Plus it is a real bargain at $875 and I think someone in the Tiny House community may find good use for it. Here it is in Olivia’s words and you can view the craigslist ad here.

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Guest Post by Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell

The temperatures are dipping and the weather forecasters are predicting frosts – if you haven’t see them already – and it’s time to start cranking up the heat again.

For those of us who live in smaller sized homes and have access to wood to feed the wood burning stoves, though, it’s time to breathe a sigh of relief, as we won’t be paying the high electricity bills for the air conditioning of summer.

When we built our Little House, we intended on using it primarily in the summer, so we didn’t go to the expense of installing a central air system, as we figured we could use a window air unit and a wood-burning stove in the winter – along with space heaters. I did want a beautiful rock fireplace, but given we ended up living in The Little House full time, I’m glad we went for efficiency, rather than beauty.

For four years of using The Little House as a weekend retreat and mainly over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, we never used the wood-burning stove. Even during the first year we lived here full time, we only used a space heater, as the place is so well insulated, it used relatively little energy. As well, having just moved and the transferring of jobs didn’t allow my husband the time to cut wood.
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Kim alerted me to a great deal if you are in the Minneapolis, MN area. If you are looking for a tiny kitchenette unit for your home these are a bargain at $100.

Go to the craigslist listing here to get more information and purchase one.