Anyone Live in an RV/Tiny House?

[IamIan]

Another Option for the trailer / tiny house ... combined hybrid PV and Solar Thermal.

PV generates 15-20% of the light energy into electricity.
Combined as a hybrid Solar Thermal that than collects ~80% of the remaining 75-80% .. plus other solar heat gain surfaces like windows and such ... around ~4x more heat watts than the PV electrical watts are available to collect.

A tiny house can be very well insulated .. thus needing very little heat watts.

Even ~200 Sq Foot tiny house will the PV potential of about ~2MWH of electricity per year .. and about ~8 MWH per year of solar heat.

No need to even go out looking for propane .. the whole thing can be off grid and and energy independent 100% from solar energy.

[freebeard]

Alternatively, a tiny house can be poorly insulated because it has minimal surface area.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...94455598,d.cGU

Here is a PDF about solid wood walls. The comparison is to a 2x4 cavity wall with R16 insulation (which BTW is 5 1/2" thick). A 6" log wall is better, and 8" wall is more betterer. It stands to reason that a solid 3" White Southern Pine wall would beat a 2x2 wall (really 1 7/8").

Less finish work on the interior too. Use 1 1/2" tongue and groove in box construction, planks run vertically inside and horizontally outside, or vice versa.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Alternatively, a tiny house can be poorly insulated because it has minimal surface area.

More external surface proportionally to the volume. It also explains why fat people tend to sweat more

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by IamIan

Another Option for the trailer / tiny house ... combined hybrid PV and Solar Thermal.

I was actually just reading about those panels a while back. Some issues with a trailer/tiny house that is to remain mobile are weight and what to do with all that heat. I would definitely consider them for a stationary setup, though.

The summer heat got into full swing last week. The AC ran all day and was still slowly losing ground. I added Reflectix to a couple more windows and redid the cover for the skylight in the shower and it seems to have helped a bit. The only two windows that aren't covered are the ones on either side of the bedroom. Hoping I can do without covering them, I want at least a little natural light. Haven't gotten to anything else as I was on vacation for a couple weeks.

[freebeard]

I live in a 35' R-license park model trailer. Electricity swings between ~30-60 dollars a month through the year, at 5¢/kWhr. My South-facing window has what must be Reflectix, most of the others have [removable] 1/4" paper-backed foam, so I don't have to look at/be looked at by my neighbors.

I need to redo the roof as it black tar. What I'd like to do is put foam insulation down inside a curb with a shiny skin up, fill the curb level with black metal (for thermal mass), PV cells or old refrigerator radiators plumbed together. Then skin it with greenhouse glazing. Two or four feet wide. with Sno-Seal on the outside of the curb and the curved part of the roof. It would span 2ea 14" roof vents or 3 with a fan in the middle one.

Run it in the day for heat and at night for cooling. It could be as little as a 2" curb, with 2-3" of arch in the glazing. I think that between the additional insulation, the hot air, and the secondary heat capture, it would have a good ROI.

[Fat Charlie]

Physical separation is important. Think something like an awning where the heat it picks up isn't directly transferred to the structure. Panels above the roof would work the same way.

I've been toying with an idea of coroplast panels mounted with angle iron to a southwestern facing window mounted AC unit. The panels will protect the unit from a lot of direct sunlight while still allowing free airflow. But it needs to be sturdy enough to face strong winds and I'm not doing anything about it until I own an extension ladder.

[freebeard]

A layer of coroplast under the insulation sounds like a good idea. There are tree branches almost laying on the roof that have to go as a first step. The trailer park has to do that.

I have a slatted aluminum awning in pieces that could be on the South-facing rear window.

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by vskid3

I was actually just reading about those panels a while back. Some issues with a trailer/tiny house that is to remain mobile are weight and what to do with all that heat. I would definitely consider them for a stationary setup, though.

Use it to do useful work

[ME_Andy]

I like the idea that you guys have brought up of living in a small, efficient RV. But I was wondering if anybody has crunched the numbers about whether it's more cost-efficient than a house? Or maybe, a better investment?

It seems to me that an RV or trailer+truck wouldn't be worthwhile vs. a small house.

Truck+trailer: ~$50 k
Monthly rent in RV park: ~$500

So basically you halve your payment and your $ down, but you own a depriecating asset instead of an appreciating asset and you'll be paying rent forever?

I can totally understand how a tiny house makes financial sense, though.

[vskid3]

Originally Posted by ME_Andy

I like the idea that you guys have brought up of living in a small, efficient RV. But I was wondering if anybody has crunched the numbers about whether it's more cost-efficient than a house? Or maybe, a better investment?

It seems to me that an RV or trailer+truck wouldn't be worthwhile vs. a small house.

Truck+trailer: ~$50 k
Monthly rent in RV park: ~$500

So basically you halve your payment and your $ down, but you own a depriecating asset instead of an appreciating asset and you'll be paying rent forever?

I can totally understand how a tiny house makes financial sense, though.

This is a good point. In the long term, I think a house would end up being cheaper for most people. In my situation, though, I believe it was a good choice.

I'm currently in the military and married, so I receive a housing allowance every month (about $1200 in my area). Before we got the trailer, we were living in the on-post housing, which charges the full housing allowance but covers utilities. Most of my coworkers live off post and pay about $700-900 plus utilities for 2 bedroom apartments. My options for buying were buy a house, or buy an RV and rent a site at an RV park.

Buying a house probably would have been the best option if we had done it when we first moved here the beginning of 2013, but with a year and a half remaining here, we'd likely have lost money selling it and I don't want to stay here or deal with renting. An RV is the best of both worlds, lets me keep some of my housing allowance and we can just pack up and leave when its time to move.

Something to note is that the price of the RV can be just about whatever you want. Our truck, trailer, and some more-or-less necessary other things came out to about $25k. Truck and trailer are both 2003s, so depreciation has already done most of its work.