Construction Articles

It Has to go Somewhere!

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Water and Waste Management Systems Part II By Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell Last week, I posted about water sources. This week, we’ll discuss what to do with the wastewater. We put in a standard septic system with lateral lines that seep into the ground. We really didn’t have a choice, but for … Read more

Water and Septic Systems Can Be Tricky in a Little House

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Part I – Deciding on a Water System that Best Suits Your Needs

By Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell

Water systems and sewage disposal can be a tricky thing when you are building a tiny house in the country.

This has been an issue for us since we built our Little House over six years ago. First, we had to decide on the water system. During construction, we were running out of funds, so we first had a huge tank system and water was trucked in. That was expensive at $140 a load, (I’m not sure of the tank size, but it was huge). However, when we didn’t live here full time, it worked. I think we typically had to buy 2-4 tanks per year.

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Photo Credit Kevin Pieper (Mother Earth News)

After we moved here full time, it just wasn’t economical. Even with trying to conserve water, we went through 1 tank every 2-4 weeks.

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Portable Lifesaver Water Filter

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Dave one of the Tiny House Blog readers has consistently sent me some great articles and I don’t always manage to fit them in. Here is one he sent recently that not only could help the world but I think could be used in a tiny house situation or help the homeless as well.

“On the outside, it looks like an ordinary sports bottle. On the inside, there’s a miracle: an extremely advanced filtration system that makes murky water filled with deadly viruses and bacteria completely clean in just seconds.”
Allison Barrie, FoxNews.com

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Too much of the world lacks access to clean drinking water. Engineer Michael Pritchard did something about it — inventing the portable Lifesaver filter, which can make the most revolting water drinkable in seconds.

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Walt Barrett’s Solar Pump

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Walt Barrett who developed the Micro Home has a new invention called the Barrett Solar Pump that will be developed to help bring water to Cambodians and others around the world. The unique design allows solar-power to harness the stiffling midday heat and generate kinetic energy and draw water from … Read more

Solar Decathlon 2009

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Craig one of our readers had the opportunity to go to the Solar Decathlon in Washington DC. and wanted to fill us in on this exciting event. Here is what Craig has to say about it.

Sorry to take so long to get back to you on the Solar Decathlon houses on the mall in DC.

I’d taken pictures, but they didn’t turn out so great what with all the crowds. As it happens, the solar decathlon webpage has some great videos for each house on the front page that do a far better job of showing off the houses than I could.

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Team Germany was just announced the winner, though my favorite was Team Louisiana’s Beausoleil house. They plan on marketing the houses as modular homes in the next couple of years with a price around $120,000 including the solar panels.

The maximum size limit for the houses was 800 square feet and they all had to be off the grid/independent.

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The Simple Life Bungalow

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Today is a milestone for the Tiny House Blog. This is the 500th post for the blog. I want to thank everyone for your support and loyalty to the Tiny House Blog. As the Tiny House blog grows and matures, I am looking for more ways to make your visit … Read more