Small home's and the cost of heating them in the future

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by hank2222, Dec 31, 2011.


  1. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    The question i bring up to people are in the following areas when they talking about home building and the cost of heating them in the future

    1-How much space do you really need

    2-How many people are there in the house

    3- Are you willing to spend the money now buiding it right it will pay off down the road .

    4-Have you looked at earthberm or underground housing for single or couples without small childern in the group or small family with two childern or less in the group .

    5-In the future how much do you want to spend on heating the place when you are living on a fixed income when you get older

    6-Are you willing to put in solar power & heating & water heater & wind power system in a off grind system along with wood stove for heating now to help keep the future cost of powering or heating the place when you are older

    My place is about the size of a 550.ft studio apt but in a saight front to back set up with a open floor living space that make's sense to me but to someone else it would not .I put the bed area right across from the bathroom because now as i get older i do not want to make a long run to the bathroom in the middle of the night .[peep]

    The basement area is design to hold the supplies in a storage rack set up for the long term and short term supplies .

    So what you thought's are the socalled ideas i have put forth here .
     
  2. STANGF150

    STANGF150 Knowledge Seeker

    Sounds like a Secure & Happy Home to me :)
     
    Alpha Dog and hank2222 like this.
  3. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Have to add, that if you want to see the effects of cold on cost to heat, compare the size of houses in sunny SoCal to the size of houses in (say) Nome. There's a reason for the difference.
     
    VisuTrac, BTPost and hank2222 like this.
  4. STANGF150

    STANGF150 Knowledge Seeker

    Ghrit I'd have thought the reason for the homesize difference was because Californians tend to be.................... nevermind, can't say it without sum very foul language. Nicest way to say it would be "Kardasians" =X
     
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  5. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    That where i got the idea for this post was reading about the socalled cost of heating one home in the socalled northern areas of our country and how much they have to budget there income towards that each winter.

    Me i rather build it right the first time around and pay for it once instead of paying for it over and over again with the socalled cost of heating the place every winter .

    That why i push hard for people to look at earthberming or underground homes to let mother earth help with keeping the place the same temp year round no matter how hot or cold it is outside the place
     
  6. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    The psychologists will tell you that living where the sun doesn't shine for long periods (underground, or submarines, or some such deal) can do bad things to a personality over a long haul. Underground is good for economy, not so good for mental health unless your brain is wired for it. As I see it, there are several problems with berms or "caves", not the least of which is restricted vision that will impact detection of approaching threats. There is more than one way to skin that cat, remote detectors and so on, then you hit the wall of access points. No (or not many) windows to slither thru if escape becomes necessary, for example ---
    Underground is not a bad choice from several angles. Balancing the pros and cons is the tricky part; as always, YMMV, and no doubt will.
     
    hank2222 likes this.
  7. tacmotusn

    tacmotusn RIP 1/13/21

    Actually, I have considered most all of what you say or ask. Here in N. Central Florida I have little problem with heat. I suppose I could dress accordingly, use extra blankets at night and ignore the fact that on occasion the temperature dips below freezing. The thing is, hard freezes are rare here, even though I have seen temps as low as 14 degrees. These temperatures seldom last more than a few short hours, and the swing to simply cool or warm tempertures is often a 35 to 45 degree swing.
    .
    I am building my house to be mostly passively heated and cooled. High efficiency windows and doors. All four main exterior walls are shaded by porch roof over hangs. Inside the ceiling is 10 feet vice the normal 8 to 9. The reason for that is, it is said the heat in a room hangs at ceiling down 3 feet. I am not 7 foot tall. Ceiling fans are everywhere. I have used doublehung windows throughout. They come within 2 foot of the ceiling. I can crack the upper portion open 6 inches or so, and the bottoms up to 2 feet and allow cool air to flow in and hot air out.
    .
    I have used exterior doors with seals and threshholds to isolate sections of the house, and heat or cool only certain areas as needed. Duct work and dampers help with the control of that.
    .
    There is much much more, but yes some of us have thought of these things. Solar heating of water and electric collection is in future plans.
     
    hank2222 likes this.
  8. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    You bring up some vaid points to think about but it also deals with some the basic fact's people tend to overlook when living in a underground home .

    As it was pointed out to me by one person who i work with how much time do we really spend in the socalled home of our's .As one study put's it it less than 10 hours a day for most of us working stiff's out there and it broken down into the following areas

    Drive to work

    Work

    Drive home from work

    Doing chore's or upkeep around the place .For me that means cleaning the solar panels or cutting the grass or making sure the cable fence is tight and it does not need to be tighten at diff spot's or millon other thing's that needs to be done around the place .

    Weekly trips into town for movies or visting with friends or shopping .

    My main choice of living in a underground house was in the begining was these one basic fact of survival .

    1-full scale NBC protection for if we are going to be attacked by a nation that has a full scaled NBC weapon system most of the time it going to be in the dead of night when our socalled repsonse time was low .

    But now it more for socalled future plans of living on a fixed income & having major sleep problems and finding out the best sleep i have ever have gotten was in a undergound home .

    Plus i have the place totaly underground and people not knowing how to get into the place does bring a socalled peace of mind when i'm at work and knowing that if someone does try to rob my place they are going to have hard time figuring how to get into the place
     
    STANGF150 likes this.
  9. STANGF150

    STANGF150 Knowledge Seeker

    Hank, ya forgot to mention that anyone worth a hoot that builds/has an underground Home, also adds an Escape Hole/Hatch as well LoL

    Ghrit, odd double post there, same post but 23 minutes apart? o_O
     
    hank2222 likes this.
  10. STANGF150

    STANGF150 Knowledge Seeker

    Hank, how are you set for a garage or workshop? Gotta have one ya know, is it another underground or above ground?
     
    hank2222 likes this.
  11. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    Hm. Pooter problems contributed to that. Fixed.
     
    hank2222 likes this.
  12. larryinalabama

    larryinalabama Monkey++

    Im building my house so half the house can be sealed off while heating the other house. It will have 2 seperate heat pumps.

    When I retire I plan to build a 700-800 sq foot home, or possibly even smaller.

    I prefer to live above ground as long as possible.
     
    jungatheart and hank2222 like this.
  13. hank2222

    hank2222 Monkey+++

    One of the thing's i'm plannig on doing when i have enough money saved is to get a small workshop from the local home depot .The one that you see outside of there places for storage of my honda generator with it diff items i'm going to need up there & diff type of handtools for the place on a wall rack set up along with a Engel 80.qt sized chest freezer for the cold foods i buy over the month that can be powered off a solar battery bank set up .


    As part of the design i'm going to extend it out to cover a area about 10.ft-x-10.ft sized place to make a area to sit under relax in the evening or in the morning when i get off work or do not have to work that night .I have a old plastic round table and some chair's my friend gave me that i'm going to use in the sitting area

    As part of the plan i have worked out so far is have found a metal 10.gallon drum that been cut in half and made as a firepit with 24.inch tall legs for keeping me warm on those chilly nights with a small 1/2.cord sized storage rack for the wood for the drum firebarrel on side and on the other side going out to the carport area is going to my small sailboat propane powered grill to cook on .

    then extend the front part out about 8.ft long-x-6.ft wide to make a small carport for my smart.I have plan come spring to haul in gravel as part of the driveway to park the car in and making the covered sitting area are in gravel also ...

    I have been building stands for the generator & freezer units at my friends house for use in the place .I made them out of plywood & pieces of 2-x-4. to make my life a little easyer when it comes to dealing with them .I made them my waist hieght to make doing dealing with them alot easlyer on me in the long run
     
  14. jungatheart

    jungatheart Beginner's Mind

    Don't like underground, just creeps me out but I heat a 500 square foot cabin, 6,000 feet elevation, with 1/2 cord of wood every year. All I have is a couple of south facing windows and an overhang that keeps the sun from coming in the house in the summer.

    South facing windows with an overhang add no cost to the house, is free heat, is consistent, clean, comfortable and on and on.........

    It would take about 15 minutes to figure out the overhang so the sun come in when you want it to. So I really don't understand why more people don't do it.
     
    hank2222 likes this.
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