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

Great replies so far! I hope you get more.


Other YouTube channels for off-grid living:

- OFF GRID with DOUG & STACY

- Simple Living Alaska

Based on where you are do you issues with codes or can you do whatever you want? This will set the stage for what you can and can’t do without being caught. How big will you make this home?

While solar and batteries are great won’t last indefinitely. If you have wood at your disposal I would invest in a wood stove you can heat and cook in/on.

Get a few oil lamps for the place. I am building now and will have some on walls and I started a collection of them from antique stores. Wicks are cheap.

Read above comments and know how the sun will hit the home in both summer and winter. Plan with that in mind. If codes not a concern build a solar batch water heater. Here is an example of one idea [link to www.instructables.com (secure)]

Get a root cellar built for food storage. Design based on what you have to work with. Start planting food sources on your property now.

I would design and plan for thinking of survival like you live in the early 1800’s.

Read mother earth news back issues.

Build in the side of a mountain, use any uphill storage. water source for gravity fed high speed turbine power. Take in larger pipe at the top and reducing size all the way to the turbine. Install 5 stage whole house water filtration including UV.

Save your money on solar. Some solar ok, but no need for massive solar. Water turbine is more economical.

Water storage is cool thousandd of gallons is a bit much unless you live in the desert. Also capture any runoff from buildings

Utilize mass like rocks in your buildings for retention of thermal mass. Look into running under floor water circulation and thermal exchange with underground pipes for heating and cooling.

Use solar room greenhouse and wood stove in the house for heating.

If you have wind use it with wind turbine with your solar setup.

Don't rebuild your on grid inefficient house off grid. Use energy efficient everything.

Separate gray and black water plumbing so you have options for what to do with the gray water. You can decide to put it all in septic or use it.

Not a shipping container, you end up paying the same per square foot as traditional builds but with fixed footprint limitations.

Yep I live in a Class A RV. All the comforts of a House and I am mobile when needed.

4 years after beginning, I still use a wash tup for a shower pan, and use the water to flush the toilet.
With this system I can take a one gallon shower. Ladies might need 2 to wash their hair.
Get 2 shower curtains. 5-6 lags crew hooks ( the kind that are sold to hang a bike on a wall.
Make a square frame 40"x40" out of 2x4 or similar.
Screw the hooks in the frame in a circular pattern. Get a 1 inch, plastic pex pipe and make it into a circle. Join with a dowel.
Size it up against the hooks and drill holes in the pipe, so it drops onto the hooks.
Get the newer type of curtain rings with rollers, and hang the curtains.
Place a 36 " wash tub and tuck the curtain in.
Keep a small bucket to place the bath water in, ready for use later.
For the shower, you can get the weed sprayer system you'll see on Yt.
Or, put a nozzle system on a bucket and place on a shelf.

There is a man in Nebraska (search grow oranges in Nebraska on youtube) that uses geothermal energy to heat his greenhouses. He only digs about 8 feet deep.

I mention this because he did this first with his home in the 70's. There are many videos on YT and they have a website under Greenhouses in the Snow. Research him, he has done a great job utilizing geothermal.

Location? Any possibility you can edit your original post to include your location?

We have built two off-grid cabins that are self-contained. One first needs to decide what size and where to put it. Land with water (a year round creek is ideal), a well is good. Also what type of climate and how near to someplace where supplies can be purchased. Growing your own food... long-term storage.

We built a 10' x 12' on a mountain top in the Yosemite area (well water) and our recent cabin is a 12'x 18' (year round creek spring water) - both cabins with lofts. Neither with bathroom. However we did make an outhouse on the deck with a composting toilet for winter for our recent cabin and will add a kitchenette and bathroom (with composting toilet) this coming spring.

However, since we get a lot of snow and winters are almost 6 months long a steep metal roof is essential for winder along with good rockwall insulation (floor, walls, ceiling). Living where you have free firewood is also essential for off grid.

We could easily live in the 12'x 18' x 18' high cabin with a large 12x12 front covered deck. Also had planned on building an outdoor kitchen on one side of the deck.

You can also bury a shipping container for storage or double deck it with a second storage container to live on/in the upper exposed area with the lower one for storage. There are a number of youtube videos on how to do this.

Bush Radical has built a number of cabins and has all types of tips and ideas for whats needed.

Here are a couple of threads with ideas.

Thread: Bushradical - Off Grid Cabin start to finish

Thread: Off Grid Log Cabin: Alone with my Dog in an Ice Storm

Architect here. There is a lot of info on line about active systems, but start off with a passive solar building design. When I was in college, one of my professors built a house that was so efficient for passive cooling and heating that he only ran the heater and or AC a few times a year.

Someone mentioned back issues of Mother Earth News magazine. That reminded me that they also have a series of books you can find on Amazon. I'm looking at one now discussing Chinese greenhouses (pretty cool).

I wonder if the books are compilations of the magazines or separate material. If anyone knows, please share.

Check out cob homes. This channel also has a bunch of videos on growing veggies indoors. The cob Homes are super cool for a number of reasons.

It’s the best option ^ - or freight train containers converted.

Check city zoning and what’s allowed.

In a hole in the ground like a hobbit

Google “shipping container house”

Steel I-beam structure and 18-inch hemp-create walls. Insulation value is amazing, no worries about fire or catching fire, it breaths well, and lasts for 100s of years, no worries about rodents or bugs destroying it. The hemp-create itself is extremely strong, however, isn't load-bearing hence the I-beam structure. If you do it yourself the cost of the build is less than a typical home build but 10 times more efficient.


It's extremely easy to regulate temperatures all year long, even when it's very cold or hot outside. I heat and cool my house for less than $500. I have a small solar system and wind generator, and geothermal pump which uses a pond for temperature regulation.


My build cost was less than 70 dollars a sq.foot, but I'm extremely resourceful and have been in trades for decades, so I looked for people or businesses that were liquidating because they were upgrading, had excess, or even doing demolition work and strapping out their structures. I have 1800 sq ft on the main floor with a full basement and a master loft bedroom which is around 900 sq ft.


Even the windows I have for my house were 2nd hand, but people would never know it. All my granite counters were from jobs that people canceled or had minor defects. My floor is polish ed and colored concrete with hydronic heat, so there is never a cold spot anywhere, In my loft, I have 1-inch exterior grade plywood with solid oak floors that were from a 4000-foot tear out, so I have tons extra. I ran every piece through a planner so after installation it was a quick job to do a light sand, then 3 coats of poly. I have a full finished basement with cold food storage area all-natural and the rest is a comfortable great area with one full bathroom. I left all my floor joists exposed, in the basement but painted them so I always have access to electrical and plumbing.


I also have a 60 x 60 barn that Amish neighbors help me build and I traded them extra supplies, apples from my orchard, and the use of my lift once in a while.


I have wood heat, oil heat and propane so no matter what happens I'm covered. I have an old wood stove too. The outside of my house looks rustic but I did that on purpose so not to draw attention. My inside is a palace, but the build-out took me 10 years +, no matter I wasn't in a hurry. I'd suggested building out slowly, well that's if you don't have a high-maintenance Karen for a partner.

Good luck!

Location? Any possibility you can edit your original post to include your location?

It's a wide open question dependent on where you are. When it comes to Prepping, weather is everything. The way you live off grid in Florida is totally different than Idaho.
And no matter where it is, if you build a home on land you own, you are not off grid. You must pay tax on that land.

The closest to true off grid would be a registered address in one of the tax free states, and living in an RV. You'd STILL have to file a tax return if you live above the poverty line or have assets.
There is no total off grid in America.

I have been thinking of building a "dirt bag" or "earth bag" house.
Have you heard of these?

Dirt bag homes:
1. You take a bulldozer and level the area where you want to build.
2. Then, by hand, you fill these long burlap bags with soil.
3. You lay the bags flat on top of each other.
4. They can be built to code, with windows, doors, air conditioners
5. After you lay the layers of bags, you cover them with mud plaster, and they look beautiful inside!

Here is a beginner's guide to a dirt bag house:

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

You can go to YouTube and see people building them. One family built an entire compound of them on their land, so each kid had their own little "house" off the main house.

Go with a Low Head hydroelectric generator. Continuous generation vs waiting on the sun.

[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

Below ground is 55 degrees.
Run large diameter plastic pipe underground with a blower.
Cooling in the summer for your home.
Most of your heat for an all season green house.

I live off the grid. I have 48000 Hectares in Northern Ontario, several hundred acres of mixed fields, grains and normal vegies and fruits (also a greenhouse with stuff that only grows in warmer climates), and a mixed bag of farm animals.... Started working on this in 1995.
Wood gas gennies and water wheel for power.

Learn to barter, especially with Amish and Quakers, they are truly the only ones that can teach you how to be self sufficient off grid.

Many books out there not many on mixed bag of subjects, but for emergency start, Off Grid Living & Encyclopedia of country living.

There are way to many subjects to broach and learn to be self sufficient, best I can describe it is become an Amish farmer.

Sure the off grid stuff can start you up, but in the long term you need to learn a whole new way of living and sustaining yourself.

Power is the least of your worries, but a start. wood gas gennies work well if cleaned and maintained regularly.

Stay away from solar if possible. They can help but they are not sustainable. It takes more power to make a panel than the panel returns from usage over 20 years.

Using starlink for net access, it's great.

2 acres is not enough, that's simply setting up an emergency outpost, not fully sustainable in the long run.

Good Luck in your endeavors.

Here are some resources I've found helpful; hopefully each can inspire your project in some way, good luck. Come spring my project will continue, year five; currently studying video productions, I don't have a definitive book on video production yet, just hands on.

Cordwood Construction
[link to www.amazon.com (secure)]

Water Storage
[link to www.amazon.com (secure)]

Framing Construction
[link to www.amazon.com (secure)]

Aquaponics
[link to www.amazon.com (secure)]

Passive Solar House
[link to www.amazon.com (secure)]

Raising Chickens
[link to www.amazon.com (secure)]



Last Edited by _gagBag on 01/17/2023 09:13 AM

Underground homes have radiation issues. Everyone is an expert on living in ways they never will.

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

opps

" Tiny Houses Built With Recycled Materials '

check it
add to your reading materials. maybe

If you are willing to put some sweat equity into the project.
An earth bermed or earth ship style properly placed with solar gain will Provide Abundance in multiples and be a nice warm/cool place to enjoy watching the Daze go by. For Free.

Lots of Sweat Equity.

G/L with your endeavors.

This is how we did my solar on my off grid cabin, for cheap!!
Been running for 5 years no problem.
Thread: I highly recommend everyone get a back up solar energy system set up ASAP, you can do it for cheap, I show U….

Building a Low-Budget Rustic Passive Solar House

This low-budget rustic passive solar house that costs less than $12 per square foot.

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




.

Building a Low-Budget Rustic Passive Solar House

This low-budget rustic passive solar house that costs less than $12 per square foot.

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




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