5 Tiny Homes with Sustainable Designs
There is a lot of thought that goes into designing a tiny home, and even more to make it as energy efficient and self-sustainable as possible. Perhaps one of the most important factors that must be considered during the design process is location — not only because of regulatory laws, but because of the environmental setting. For example, it might not make sense to harvest energy through solar panels if the area you are settling in is almost always cloudy with thunderstorms. Likewise, it would not make sense to rely on water from your rainwater collection system if everyday is going to be hot and sunny. Temperature must also be considered. If you live in a generally hotter area, try making your walls a lighter color or using materials that reflect and do not store heat. For example, clay absorbs the sun’s heat but does not conduct it. This is why we see more clay-built houses/abodes in places with warmer climates. If you live in a colder area, paint your walls a darker color to absorb as much sunlight as possible, try to use materials that store heat (bricks, cinderblocks), and ensure your house is well insulated (greater the R-Value, the better it is at insulating the home and improving energy efficiency; the R-Value is a measure of how well a layer of insulation resists the conductive flow of heat).
If you’re looking into more environmentally friendly insulation, cellulose insulation seems to be the best at the moment because it’s made of around 85% recycled newsprint. The remaining 15% consists of borax, boric acid or ammonium sulfate to make it more fire resistant. Apparently borate-based flame retardants have the added benefit of helping to repel insects — a huge plus if you’re me and have bug-o-phobia. If your environment’s temperature fluctuates, get creative! What if you designed it so your house has reversible siding panels that are light on one side and dark on the other…or a roof that has solar panels on one side and a heat-storer on another so that the heat goes directly from the panels into that material and acts like a ceiling heater for your loft (I’m not an engineer so I don’t know if this would even work, but you get the point)? What I love about design is that there are so many different, unique and out-of-the-box ways you could do things!
The following are some successful examples of tiny homes whose creators I applaud for thinking outside the box and did it well!:
- The rEvolve House
This project was led by 2 faculty members and 28 engineering and environmental science majors (at the time) and won the nation’s first tiny house competition for college students.
“In order to support an off-grid lifestyle, the house is powered entirely by eight 330 Watt Sunmodule solar panels. The house stores its energy using saltwater batteries, the only batteries in the world to be Cradle to Cradle certified. In order to improve the home’s solar efficiency by 30%, the house’s trailer will be connected to a Colossun solar tracking ring allowing the entire house to revolve as the sun moves across the sky.”
Super cool and super genius. Checkout more about the house here.
2. Sustainable Tiny Home in Colorado!
3. Disappear Retreat
This 8x10x9ft structure is incredibly compact, reducing exterior surface area and, therefore, unwanted heat loss or gain. The air-tight and super-insulated enclosure will never drop below 60°F inside no matter how cold outside and without any sun exposure, so plumbing systems are always safe. Passive solar heating through the glass roof and walls is utilized in the winter, modulated in spring/fall with insulated shades, and blocked in summer by trees and shades. These strategies reduce the peak heating load to just 100 watts (1 light bulb), a 95% reduction. No mechanical heating or cooling is needed.
4. LIFEHAUS
5. Ecocapsule: small, portable, and efficient!
Learn more about the product here.
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As I have noted throughout this project, I will be presenting is a non-functional model of a tiny house with the purpose primarily of highlighting the interior spatial layout but also simply because I figured seeing my design come to life would be super cool and fun! Therefore, my particular design has not taken into consideration any sustainable methods (since I’m not going to be actually living in it, consider this just a large piece of art). Thanks for reading! :)
