A Sleek Pre-Fab Design for the Modern Homesteader
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By Zak Stone
The Solar Homestead is a fully function house that produces more energy than it uses and can be set up virtually anywhere you want to make your new home.
Many high-design concepts for sustainable housing remain just that: concepts. We see them on blogs, but their either too expensive or impractical to make it to our neighborhoods. A new wave of pre-fab home manufacturing is bringing inexpensive, sustainable homes to the eco-friendly masses. The latest design is a $52,000 home that can be shipped anywhere in the country and assembled for a just a few thousand dollars.
Named the Solar Homestead, it's a solar-powered, two-bedroom, one-bath unit with a porch. The manufacturer Deltec Homes says it's net-zero--the home will produce as much energy as it consumes--thanks to a strategic design relying on solar panels, superior insulation, including triple-glazed windows and double-stud walls, and high efficiency heating and appliances. An added bonus: the factory that makes the Homestead runs entirely on renewable energy.
Order the kit, and it'll arrive ready to be assembled by local laborers at an estimated cost of $5,000 to $7,000. "The target market is really anyone who wants to build a net-zero home who previously ruled out those type homes due to high costs," says Lydia Carrington, a spokesperson for Solar Homestead. "We expect most of these homes to be used for the primary residence."
The "homestead" branding is inspired by the location of its creators in the Appalachian mountains, where thousands of European immigrants settled to live off the land in the 18th and 19th centuries (and many of their descendants continue the lifestyle to this day). The design is a collaboration of students and professors at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, who originally submitted the project as an entry in the 2011 U.S. Solar Decathlon, hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy. Deltec itself is based in nearby Asheville.
While today's homesteader might seek out something a bit sleeker than the original pioneers, the principles of ruggedness and independence remain the same, and the Homestead adapts to any type of foundation or terrain, from mountain to desert.
Copyright 2012 by Fast Company. Reprinted with permission.
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4 Comments
Add CommentA plan would be nice because the picture shown is clearly not a two bedroom residence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI clicked on the link and found the plan, I should have done that earlier. For the size it's not a bad plan at all.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI hate to be picky, but when an article's opening sentence states "is a fully function house" I cringe and turn to something more compelling, like a TV commercial.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat $52,000 is for the most basic home - not including Solar Panels and NOT "Net-Zero Energy". The website is not very good at releasing prices.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Net-Zero Energy Home" is an idiotic concept. Virtually ZERO meaning and ZERO relevance. Yeah, so you take an Energy Efficient home - very nice - add a bunch of Solar Panels and subtract Energy Usage of the Home from the Energy supplied to the Grid. Brilliant. How about a building with a Wind Turbine? How about a building with a Wind Turbine 100 yds away? Or one with a big mother Wind Turbine on the property producing 100x the total energy consumed by the home & barn & outhouse all constructed with 2x4 walls and zero insulation - are they now "net energy zero" homes. A net energy zero outhouse? How about someone who owns a small hydro plant supplying 10X the energy of their home(s) consume - do they get to declare my home is "net-zero energy"? Why can't I get to declare my home "net-zero energy" because I supply clean, green energy to the Grid, working at a Hydro plant?
And is that Net-zero Energy on a cold year with little sunshine? Or just on a good warm year with lot's of sun? And if I buy shares in a Nuclear Power plant that produces clean, green energy year round, more than my home consumes do I get to declare my home is "net-energy zero".
"Net-energy zero" - another NUTTY Greenie catchphrase that in reality is just an embellishment to hide the INCREDIBLY bad economics of Solar Power. These cretins who invent these Greenie religious slogans don't have the remotest idea how the power grid operates.
Other than that, improved building insulation & envelope, greater use of passive Solar heat i.e. South Facing Windows, use of Heat pumps and maybe Solar Hot water makes good sense. Much better to do modest, economical, simple & obvious improvements in a dozen homes rather than RIDICULOUS Excess in one home.