Lamar Alexander, the fellow behind Simple Solar Homesteading, has been busy publishing videos of his tiny home and homestead on his Solar Cabin YouTube Channel. Below are three examples of the kind of videos you’ll find there.
- The first shows the construction of his 14′ by 14′ cabin
- The second provides details on his low cost solar electric system
- The third that shows the final installation of a new wind turbine he recently installed.
Lamar also sells a printed book and an ebook that shows how to setup your own homestead. To learn more visit Simple Solar Homesteading.
In areas with frost I think you need more of a foundation.
Here’s a simple one:
http://coyotecottage.com/cabin/cabinconstruction/foundation.htm
A motivated individual (possibly even a couple),as Thoreau pointed out, could live in a large box with a lid to keep the rain out, but anyone who wants a family would be well advised not to try it. Kids have to live in the real world, even more than their parents.
Well over half the children on this planet are raised in houses less than 400 sq ft…
Excellent videos … Thanks for sharing the information.
In most ways this guy has done a nice job with setting up his solar cabin, I don’t know if he is living here full time or if it’s a holiday cabin.
I am really disappointed to see that he went with a rooftop installation of the wind turbine which really means it will not be nearly so efficient as it should. Also, unless the wind blows from the direction shown in the video (presumably southerly as that’s the direction that the pv faces) it will suffer greatly from turbulence which will increase the maintenance required on the turbine quite a bit.
It appears that he had some ground to select from so it’s a great shame that he did not choose to mount on a mast.
We live off-grid full time (10yrs now) and have built our own wind turbine so we have done a lot of homework. If you are really interested in learning about domestic wind turbines then google Hugh Piggott and Paul Gipe.