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That is pretty good, let me guess.... 1000 sq. foot, 6 inch walls and insulated very well. Am I right?
LOL
2400sq ft, R-60.
A steel building [think a warehouse] 12 to 14 foot ceilings, 2 inches of spray-on foam and 9 inches of fiberglass.
Then eleven picture windows [6 foot wide by 3 foot tall] and nine 3X3 opening windows. So we have lots of light and the visual effect from being settled in a dense forest. But the windows are all triple-pane gas-filled blah-blah; so it turns out that we get solar gain from the windows.
Radiant heated floors, heated by our wood stove. We are installing a coal stove this season and looking forward to trying a combination [heating water from both the woodstove and the coal stove].
We lived in Scotland for a few years and did become accustomed to heating with coal and peat. Where we live now we have access to harvesting local peat.
Well I'd have to say that is exceptional for house that size. A typical house of that size needs about 6 to 7 tons of coal for the heating season or about 7.5 cords of wood. By typical I mean 2x4 stud walls and fairly well insulated with decent windows and that's in my area which isn't going to be quite as cold as it is there.
If you're burning that little amount of wood you'd need less than 3 tons of anthracite. Be about $900 to $1000 in your area unless you went bulk delivery of tractor trailer load which could knock off about 1/3. I think my one forum member got a trailer load in Maine for about $6K, with your usage you'd be good for 8 years.
Last year most of what we burned was woodchips. I had collected them for mulch in our orchards and garlic beds, and the excess we stored in drums. Come winter we began burning them and it worked out nicely. So far this year, I got what I needed from a neighbor, then a road crew was trimming trees back from the powerlines and offered us their woodchips. So we were delivered a series of dumptruck loads of woodchips for free. If we continued to burn woodchips, we likely have 2 or 3 years worth of fuel piled up next to our driveway.
I do have 150 acres of woodlot, so I do have the ability to cut wood and provide our fuel from that. But so far burning woodchips is much easier. We have been offering folk to come in and cut their own firewood on our land for free.
Living in a homemade cabin may sound like an awesome idea, but its probably harder than you think.
Its not easy giving up modern day stuff, and thats probably what you're going to have to do. No TV, no electricity, etc.
This is where building could start to get expensive. Electricity means hiring a licensed contractor, it means inspections, it means lots of things. You can't just DIY when it comes to electrical work.
Building a structure to live and sleep in isn't all that hard. Just about anyone, with enough time and drive can do it. But it sounds like the type of life you are looking for, is going to cost more than what you think.
Thats why all those folks you talked about earlier spend so much money. They want to live in one with nature, but they don't want to give up their modern day appliances to do it.
Not necessarily. In most really rural states you don't have all those city rules about licensed contractors. States like MA, CT, etc., which require licensed contractors, are the exception, not the rule. Wiring isn't hard, a good book can teach someone all they need to know, it really simple with modern wire, maybe in the knob and tube wiring days it would of been a bigger challenge. Then the only part I'd have someone else do is the actual hookup to the grid if going on grid. If going off grid I'd do it all myself.
I have been thinking about buying a nice plot of land and building my own house or fixing up a barn.
i need some serious education on the subject.
i have no experience in building at all.
some ideas that appeal to me are tire bale, straw bale, log cabin (using my own trees), maybe packed earth. i am not really obsessed with green, it just turns out that my vision has a lot in common with green philosophy.
actually my main goal would be to be close to nature, and save as much money as possible in the build. i have seen some of these earthships and green communities... when you look at the numbers some of these people have spent fortunes of money just to be in in the green aesthetic. not for me.
i would love to get some rough numbers on how much it costs in labor and cash to build a decent livebable structure. let's say 800- 1500 sf. square footage really appeals to me, not that i would use it all or heat it, but it's nice to have it.
i am also interested in just plopping down an airstream on some nice land and seeing if this would fit the bill. not sure if this would fly in the northern parts though.
are there lax building codes for non living structures? say you just build a very small place for sleeping and cooking, and then a larger place for 'work' where you actually spend most of your indoor time.
i have been reading up on sand point wells, composting toilets, solar cookers.
any and all thoughts very much appreciated.
the first thing i have to do is decide on the region. the northeast is really beuatiful, but the severe cold makes me more than a bit scared.
the next choice would be the mid/south say like eastern tennessee, western va, northern ga. the ideal land would be lots of old hardwood trees with some flat farmland as well.
i am in a position financially where i have enough to live on monthly if i live very modestly so i dont need to be so close to an urban area. but it would be nice to have some access to a small or medium town for supplies and other towny things.
There's a lot of variables. If you buy land with good trees (pine or spruce makes good cabin logs and are the most likely easily found trees in the right size and number), log would be fairly cheap unless you have to hire someone. Use logs with one side squared off for joists, use them for rafters, eliminate most lumber purchases. You probably would want help but if you know someone who would do it you could avoid hiring...
You'd essentially only need to buy windows, doors, lumber for the floor, roofing...and you could possibly find those items cheap second hand (I have a pile of windows for when I build, I didn't pay a penny for them, some glazing, scraping, new paint, some weatherstripping for when I use them, they're ready to go, I probably have $50 invested in about 24 windows), and if you waited a year or so you could even cut your own lumber (with a chainsaw mill) and air dry it. A log cabin is a lot of hard work to build but it's not hard to learn how to do it. There's a lot of resources out there to help you learn. The most complex part is devising a good way to lift the heavy logs if you don't have any heavy equipment. Even that isn't complicated. Notches aren't hard unless you go the dovetail route.
For sandpoint wells you need light soil to drive the point in and water not far down, and no sources of contamination nearby (don't do it next door to a dairy farm where manure is in large quantities and can get into the water, for instance). In the Northeast water isn't an issue, it's all over, so even with our rocky soil that makes sandpoints hard to do, water won't be a big issue. In the South there's bigger issues there with water. The Southeastern U.S. has had major water issues for years and it's only going to get worse.
Composting toilets, outhouses, etc., aren't an issue in most rural states outside of towns. Permitting requirements vary by state though. It's a bigger hassle here in Vermont than, say, rural Maine, to get permits to build things, even though both states are more restrictive than someplace like rural or bush Alaska. To be honest I'd avoid Vermont because of land prices and taxes. Maine isn't bad if you pick the right location. NH is a mixed bag. I wouldn't bother with Southern New England (CT, MA, RI) at all because of their laws, etc. It's actually illegal in CT to not be connected to the power grid. Insane...
Rules are more lax in NNE states for primitive "camps" that are not full time residences. You could get away with living in one full time in several areas but be careful where. Different states have different definitions. VT is the most restrictive these days it seems, and lots of control freaks here who look for this stuff. N. ME is perhaps best for that sort of thing.
As for the cold up here...get a good woodstove (EPA certified will be most efficient), and buy plenty of wooded land (I'd say get at minimum 20 acres) to supply wood. You can get it cheap enough usually if you look around a lot but it's always better to not rely on buying fuel. Learn how to safely use a chainsaw and fell trees of course if you've never done this before. Occasionally I see classes offered on this up here, often by schools that have forestry programs, open to the general public for a small fee, if you can't find someone to teach you. Don't even think about starting a chainsaw without chainsaw chaps on and preferably a helmet with face shield, or I'll tell you what happened to my uncle years ago. Plenty of stuff grows up here if gardening is your worry, you just need to start things like tomatoes and peppers early indoors, and have some plastic sheets available in case of early and late frosts.
That is pretty good, let me guess.... 1000 sq. foot, 6 inch walls and insulated very well. Am I right?
Come live in California on the coast and you can stay nice and toasty all winter long by burning ZERO cords of wood. A home can be well insulated and use passive solar and solar panels for a very green life. Burning wood and coal add to air pollution and now in some urban areas is banned. Passive slar is the way to go.
Come live in California on the coast and you can stay nice and toasty all winter long by burning ZERO cords of wood. A home can be well insulated and use passive solar and solar panels for a very green life. Burning wood and coal add to air pollution and now in some urban areas is banned. Passive slar is the way to go.
Automobiles are the biggest pollutors in the U.S. today. Woodsmoke is not nearly as toxic, simply more noticeable when it's present. It's funny (well not really) how in some of the cities that ban woodburning, you walk along the streets and what do you smell constantly...toxic engine fumes from automobiles. And they're worried about wood? In Fairbanks, AK, the authorities (mainly the EPA) come down heavy on woodburning, yet, during the summer, the air can be filled with woodsmoke from wildfires, to a degree woodstoves could never come close to it.
I would never want to live where it's so warm. I wouldn't want to live in CA either. Passive solar should be taken advantage of to reduce fuel use but it won't be enough on its own in Northern areas. The biggest obstacle to solar systems of any sort in the North is the dark winter days, it requires more panels and more storage capacity to get through the long stretches of cloudy, gray days. Wind is useful in addition but some areas don't get enough wind.
I would never want to live where it's so warm. I wouldn't want to live in CA either. Passive solar should be taken advantage of to reduce fuel use but it won't be enough on its own in Northern areas. The biggest obstacle to solar systems of any sort in the North is the dark winter days, it requires more panels and more storage capacity to get through the long stretches of cloudy, gray days. Wind is useful in addition but some areas don't get enough wind.
It is funny that people think California is so warm all the time. It isn't. Some parts are warm in the southern part but not along the coast. Where I live it never really goes above 80 degrees F or lower than about 40 degrees F. We get 266 sunny days which produces alot of solar energy. I have a neighbor with a solar array that allows his electrical meter to run backwards during the day and then he tabs the utility company at night. His utility bill is practically zero each month!!
Mark Twain one said that the coldest winter he ever endured was a summer in San Francisco.
And, no matter what you say i still contend that burning wood or coal contributes to air degradation and the increase of asthma. Why the prevalence of black lung disease in the early industrial days of the US and England?
When I took a physical for a job back in 88, the x-ray revealed a spot on my lung and I had to get more detailed x-rays from a specialist.
( he determined it was nothing to worry about,but I should monitor it )
Anyway, the first thing he asked was if I smoked (NO)
---------the second thing he asked was if we had a wood stove in the house (yes)
It is funny that people think California is so warm all the time. It isn't. Some parts are warm in the southern part but not along the coast. Where I live it never really goes above 80 degrees F or lower than about 40 degrees F. We get 266 sunny days which produces alot of solar energy. I have a neighbor with a solar array that allows his electrical meter to run backwards during the day and then he tabs the utility company at night. His utility bill is practically zero each month!!
Mark Twain one said that the coldest winter he ever endured was a summer in San Francisco.
And, no matter what you say i still contend that burning wood or coal contributes to air degradation and the increase of asthma. Why the prevalence of black lung disease in the early industrial days of the US and England?
But, to each his own.........
80 is way too hot for me, and 40 isn't cold enough for me.
You can't compare the early factories of the IR with modern heating stoves. The cancer rate in the U.S. has soared since cars became common. No coincidence. Are you for banning cars entirely? Car emissions are far more toxic than wood. It's a matter of picking an easy target. Woodburning is an easy target for city people to ban as most don't use it, cars are not even though the cars are far worse, because so many rely on cars.
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