Seeking your advice on building a low cost house that is off grid and sustainable. Solar, passive heating, cellar etc.

I’d love to get this pinned for an extra assistance boost. Thanks heaps!

I pinned it for more answers

Thank you for building it, please share the location for when need arises, you could stay or leave upon arrival if it arises that moment, probably leaving would be the best in the rise of such need.

lol

beware of Greeks bearing gifts.

lol

pinned....mmmm, intersting gift.

Get an RV with solar. Not only off grid, but mobile.

Thread: TRUE FREEDOM = The "Camper Cabin Way" - Be FREE for $1000 - Leave The Rent Trap

The "Camper Cabin Way"

Which latitude and yearly temps?

I was gonna get a deep cycle battery for my solar panels, I'm in cold climate, till someone said another kind will last longer..

Which battery is better for a small conversion. Nothing big.

Mr. Zipface,

We built our small cabin in 08', and built it ourselves, tooth and nail.
It was offgrid, composter, 2 grill bottles, 12pump with rain collection.... blah blah blah....

I can tell you after 8years we started reverting to split-grid, it does get tiring...

I'm also an Electromechanical Eng, and have even taught college part time, so I know a thing or two.

Questions,
What part of which state does this property rest?

This creek on your property; how far of an elevation drop does it have from where it leaves your land, back up to where you can see it standing from where it enters your land?

How many kids & adults will be living in this the first 24months?

What skilled trades do you have?

convert a sprinter or old ambulance.

even if you dont relocate it often it seems mmore awesome to me than a cabin

Go LifePO4 -IF- they will be kept indoors, they are useless below 32f without wasteful heaters.

I'm stacking mine in the outhouse, as I don't trust them in my home.
My solar panels our on the chicken coop, as I don't trust them either.
Shit happens, batteries explode, panels set fire, it happens.

I rented a house in the country on 15 acres that was built by an old man. It was very well designed for thermal regulation of the house.

It had a stream and he built a 3 acre pond South of the house. The shore of the pond ended about 25 feet from the house. He build walls for the edges of the pond from the same flatrock that he built half the house with.

In the winter, the Sun angle would drop in the sky and the sunlight would bounce up and hit the house, effectively doubling the radiation heating on the house.

In the summer, the sun angle would be overhead, so no solar bounce from the pond would happen.

The house had large windows on the Southern exposure to collect that sunlight into the house and there was a massive amount of rock to retain the heat. (The walls were flat rock along the front and the windows looked like the windows you see on the old British sailing ships. This also made the house strikingly beautiful). One day I came home and there was a group of artists in front making paintings of the house.)

Inside the windows on the ground floor was the big Wood stove, surrounded by a massive rock hearth.

Lived there 3 years and heated with the wood stove only. They got a real winter there. This was on the West part of NJ in farm country. Nothing but 640 acre farms surrounding this place. He had enough trees to easily heat the house with the trees that needed to be removed anyway (elm trees dying and just general overgrowth).

Part of the rental deal was I had to raise a couple cattle so the property would be taxed as farm land otherwise the NJ taxes would have made the place impossibly expensive to own.

The house also had a huge tree on the Western end that would shade the house in summer when it had leaves, and in the winter, it would drop all the leaves and the Sun would once again hit the house in the evenings.

There was a huge purple martin house on a tall pole by the lake. The martins would eat the bugs from the lake and were fun while I would do a little fishing in the pond. He had stocked it with bass and bluegills. The martins would cartwheel right in front of me only a couple feet away, catching insects. Such beautiful birds.

I raised a dozen or so ducks in the pond, thinking they might chase away the noisy Canadian Geese, but they didn't chase anything. They did however lay their eggs on my front porch most of the time, so I always had more fresh eggs than I could eat.

In the winter when the pond would freeze over, I had to catch the ducks and keep them in a wire pen to protect them from the foxes and coyotes. Otherwise, they could stay away from the foxes when the pond was free of ice.

The amount of wildlife that visited that pond was amazing. So many different kinds of beautiful wild ducks. Tiny little Harlequin ducks, and larger, very ornate wood ducks.

Large hawks would dive into the pond to catch fish, which they would carry to the nearest telephone pole and pick apart up there.

And Blue Herons would wade around the pond and stand still, waiting for a fish to come by. They would catch and swallow some very large bass in one gulp.

A herd of deer would hide from the hunters on the property in the fall, and they would come by twice a day to drink water from the pond and eat the corn that the ducks left for them. The fawns were so nice to watch in the spring, standing on their back hooves and reaching up to eat leaves from the trees.

The cicadas would hatch out in the fall and I tossed a few in the pond to watch the bass hit them. The bass loved those fat cicadas. Then I tossed one to the ducks and they went crazy for the cicadas. The one thing that got them out of the pond. They would organize cicada hunts and pick them off the trees and the 100 year old locust fenceposts.

The driveway was gravel and about 500 feet long, so I did have to buy a big snowblower to clear the driveway snow.

Wonderful place. Like living in Eden.

Last Edited by JustmeTX on 01/17/2023 06:50 AM

Batteries...yes....this is key.

For a simple van setup and cheap, purchase the Blue Optima and run one solar panel for support of a simple 12V miniature refrigerator or two to support 2 refrigerators or a freezer. These batteries are light, deep cycle, work for both vehicle start up / marine and 12V and will not break down and they run about $300 or so, so purchase in a non tax state and avoid the tax.

Now, if you are doing something stationary like a house, you are going to get multiple extremely heavy, large, lithium batteries for about $500 a piece. These have a rope handle on either side and you will need a cart or something on wheels just to haul them in from the vehicle you pick them up with.

The number of batteries determines the amount of juice that you will have on tap. This is for keeping up with 110V and you will need 4 to start out just to keep up with a fridge, freezer and a few other odds and ends. This will not keep up with 24/7 A/C.

The number of panels is basically what you can fit on your roof and how much extra dough you have.

I believe they are now coming out with the roll out sheets of solar that aren't in big heavy aluminum and glass containers...Might want to look into it. However, if going with the standard, they are way the fuck cheaper if you go to someone like CED greentech and buy out the back of their warehouse. You can get a reel of cable from them and buy ends for the cable in bulk and then watch some youtube videos about making the ends -- bit of a learning curve on making the ends -- but once you get it down, you'll be able to knock it out.

If you want to support 220V like for running a dryer or something else that needs more juice or for running A/C for longer amounts of time, you are going to need a complete setup, which is like 10 or 20 panels depending on how long you want to run the appliance for and your battery bank is going to have to have 10 24V batteries minimum I think, but the guys at CED greentech have an engineer who will run the exact specs for you; he might recommend twice that depending on the load, like if you are doing some serious A/C.

You get more juice on your panels when they are clean, so leave enough room to get up there and clean them so you don't fall off and if they are facing the sun, that helps a lot too. Don't stick them where birds are going to shit on them or where it is hard to get snow off of them. Maybe don't mount them on the house and put them near the ground on a detached mounting system that can change orientation.

Cool!
What climate?

Thanks. That was the one he said. Lithium

Those who survived every Great War had one thing in common

They were mobile and kept moving to stay away from the conflict, that is so critical to survival

If you can do both, small cabin/tent and a RV of some kind it would be best

I think the number or residents (and ages too) would be also helpful.

[link to www.simondale.net]

Check out YT for videos on tiny homes in AUSTRALIA

Some cool places

[link to www.boxabl.com (secure)]

I have one reserved.

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Your property matches mine in size and split by a dry creek, where I put a dam just a couple months ago.
I also live in my 3rd tiny house, which I built on 6x6x16 skids, then created 4 foot overhangs at each end while stepping up 3 steps to bed at one end, and bathroom at the other end. Because I don't want to deal with a loft.
Make your cantilevered floor 21 inches higher than the main floor, then your 7 inch steps treads are hinged so you have storage in them.
I'm about 20 hours into a new one based on this model. If you dislike lofts, I think this is the way to go.
It also provides a utility space at each end if you place it permanently.
And it eliminates a trailer and future concern about trailer tires.
There are plenty of shed movers to move it.
Average moving cost can vary - 500 to 800.
This also gives you a house to move or sell separate from the property if you need to.
You can also build a second one, and join them by a "hallway" later on.
I discovered a neat trick by having an opening just like you would frame for a window, then I placed 2 small refrigerators in there, now they are 3 feet from the floor, and tucked into the wall, with a counter below them.
If you have little experience with stove pipe, put the pipe out of the wall. This will save time, and money for insulated pipe.
Put a larger diameter pipe through the wall to serve as a thimble, then your stove pipe with spaces around it to avoid contact with combustibles.
I've done roof and wall, and I think both can be just as safe as the other.
For the first 2 years, I brought in water, and used a whale foot pump to operate the sink. I still use it as a backup, and it is convenient when I just want a small squirter without turning a knob.
2 years later, I put a 750 cistern in, and have a cistern pump from rainbrothers.com in Ohio.
But one very important thing to consider before placing all this, is septic.
I did the 2, 50 gallon drum outlaw septic system for a couple years, but you have to have neighbors who mind their on business.
I did take the county test, and had a guy help me (actually I was his helper) put in the septic for around $3,000. Which would have been $10,000 from a company.
I did make a dam that works very well. I place all the sediment and dirt in 50 pound plastic bags (corn) and began stacking in a gentle cup shape, and with each layer, placed a sheet of plastic, then a 4 inch drain pipe, then more bags, then sheets, and the whole time , digging backwards, and stacking, then finally stack all the rocks to shape a stone bridge.
So now I have a small pond, but it can keep digging backwards to make it deeper, and stacking the bridge to make it higher, so there's very little ice /water pressure the erode the dam/bridge. (I couldnt do without my harbor freight jack hammer btw)

Youtube search, brother.


[link to youtu.be (secure)]


[link to youtu.be (secure)]

LOL

Keep it fucking simple stupid...

SMALL...house around 600 square feet...if you need more then give up already...

use fox blocks and put a 6 foot crawl space under it..

Over hang and covered deck...

Gravity feed water not tanks that need pumps..

Bio Gas...seriously...

you going to run around and do all that labor and for what...

wood heat and lots of windows on the south side..one on the other...face the house properly...and insulation is everything.

worry about livestock...small or large...a garden and greenhouse above all...

I run solar and it has its draw backs...oil lamps...wood heat is a must...

My wood stove is also a cook stove...with a water jacket on it for hot water...

If you get to complicated you will fail and spend your life as a slave to your complicated gear..

Good luck

Yurt with a solar panel car port, run off a ev battery to save on housing and transportation cost. Yurts cool and heat very efficiently, use infrared heating , air fryers and mini freezers and yeti coolers backed by Mylar foil, purchase too many firearms, get flagged by the ATF, have a ten day standoff were the guest in the guest house opens up on federal agents and a infamous firefight ensues, don’t blame it on king James…. Hahahaha

stay away from lithium...they dont do well inn the cold..stay away from the heated kind as well...lithium cant get wet or they burn...

Live off the Land by Ragnar Benson.

I built that simple A-frame cabin.
20 years ago.

Typing in it right now, warm and cozy.

When you own a postage stamp sized lot,
unless you're in some remote wilderness,
you are asking for trouble.

It's like having an axe hanging over your head.

Look at it from every angle and all the
things that can go wrong with that decision.

If you are in a rural area, just outside the burbs,
before too long, the burbs are going to come
to you.

if your going to build find a design that doesnt require trusses....you'll save right there...

if your in a northern climate with snow use tin roofing and make sure you have a 45 degree slope...so it slides off..off the back of the structure not the front...

Over hang for a covered deck for your firewood right by the door...

lots of south facing windows and dont cheap out on insulation or dont even bother building...

use proper double insulate windows as well...

get hot water on demand for propane and get a wood stove with a water jacket...dont shower everyday...you get a big fucking propane tank and make it last...

Water lines in one wall and double frame that wallso they dont freeze....and forget about bedrooms and bathrooms and living rooms and bullshit...like that.

open concept with a bathroom and thats it...

You cant play off grid and stay with the typical bullshit...and same as house designs...

build a outhouse...

Watch videos on yt where people that went off grid have a video of Q and A, especially a live. There you will get very good answers to questions you never thought of.