The Sunday Read
Recent news about off-grid life from around the interwebs
A Japanese-inspired off-grid house. Scroll down for the story.
That hut? It’s a tiny home in disguise
Hutting much?
You say, say what?
I say, I know!
But it turns out “hutting,” in Scotland - a decades-old tradition - sounds a lot like North America’s tiny home revolution.
“Hutters usually rent a plot of land on an annual lease, but must buy or build their own hut,” according to a story in The Scotsman.
“The tiny dwellings are not connected to utilities, with no electricity, running water or traditional toilet facilities. Many rely on solar power or batteries for lighting and wood stoves for heating and cooking, while water must be carried in,” The Scotsman reports.
However, unlike full-time, off-grid residences, the paper notes that “Huts are not intended as full-time residences. They do not have foundations, and the internal floor area can span no more than 30 square metres.”
Nonetheless, it sounds like Scots hut for the same reason many leave the grid: “to get closer to nature and throw off the pressures of modern life.”
A really green, greenhouse
This is about as green as you can ever get: an off-grid greenhouse.
I mean, seriously.
“Three engineering students at l'Université de Sherbrooke spent three years designing and building their perfect greenhouse,” according to CBC News
The broadcaster reports that the students “set out to build a smart green building, which would be entirely off-grid, and a model for future construction projects, while also promoting food autonomy.”
Their three-by-six-metre greenhouse is constructed from cedar, with a south-facing window wall, solar panels, and a metal roof, CBC reports.
Would you like one?
Good news.
“The group intends to release the plans for the greenhouse, including the structure itself and the technology, via open source, so anyone can have access to one. The prototype cost roughly $25,000 to develop.
Here’s your tiny home…and the key to assemble it
Congratulations! You just bought your first tiny home…from Ikea.
The bad news? It’s in a thousand pieces with an Allen key to put it together.
Joke!
No joke.
The Swedish furniture firm is marketing a $47,550 tiny home, which can be customized to go off-grid with such features as solar panels, composting toilets, and an on-demand heated water supply.
Food and Wine says: “The whitewashed panels of the tiny home are made from sustainably grown pine, while the kitchen cupboards are fashioned with recycled bottle tops. The entire home is also decorated with neutral tones and includes practical features such as built-in storage and a collapsible desk.”
Do you have to assemble it yourself? You may be off the hook this time. But you will have to live with the typical Ikea product name, in this case the Boho XL.
At least it’s not called an Ingmar (although we loved the Netflix series Swedish Dicks with Peter Stormare as the cheesy, hardboiled detective, Ingmar).
Finally, I cannot leave you without a bit of off-grid porn.
Thank Dwell Magazine for this house that offers “a self-contained, solar-electric system with a 10 Kw generator backup, as well as water storage with a productive well equipped to service the home and garden.”
Dwell positions this as a “Japanese Influences Grace This Bay Area Home Offered at $1.6M.” Which for some reason recalls this classic song by The Vapors
I know this is what you all envisage when you decide to move off-grid, so I’m here to enable that dream.
For that, you need not thank me. Really. Okay, if you insist. Send cash.