zeroHouse – Zero Impact Tiny House

Architect Scott Specht has created a very cool concept for a tiny house. As the project’s name suggests this house is intended to have zero environmental impact. It generates it’s own electricity through a photovoltaic array on the roof and stores it in batteries. The batteries can last a week without sunlight. It collects its own water through rain water collection. The 2700 gallon cistern is elevated providing gravity fed water to all faucets. All waste water is collected and instead of a traditional septic system all waste is composted requiring clean-out only twice a year. The house is also computerized with a central brain automating all systems.

The house has two bedrooms and one bath, living room, and kitchen. It’s designed to use space very efficiently by leveraging many built in storage spaces and furniture. The zeroHouse also uses very little energy and is super insulated. For example the roof, walls, and floors are rated at R-58 and the windows use low-e heat-mirror glass. Lighting is accomplished by using fully dimmable LED built-in fixtures that are rated for 100,000 hours of continuous use.

For anyone looking to build a green house of any size this is an excellent example of how the best technologies combined with thoughtful design results in an incredible living space while using very few resources and costing little in time and money for the home owner to maintain. This design would truly free the home owner to live without constraints. Even for those of looking to build tiny for less money this house still provides an excellent set of ideas worth further research. Also be sure to see this article on how stuff works.

Kudos to Scott Specht! Well done. Photo credit Scott Specht