Anyone who has tried to assemble IKEA furniture has stories to tell about trying to figure out the purely diagrammatic instructions and understanding what goes where and what to do when parts are left over.
But now the company has entered the tiny home market, selling a 187 sq. ft. home for around $50,000.
It is not clear if the home has to be assembled by the buyer.
That music! ::ears bleeding::
I’m a bit skeptical of the “self-contained plumbing system,” which is not the same as a sewage system. Sounds like you’d need to make a trip to “the grid” at least once a week to dump the dunny. Might as well just buy an RV.
For less than that you could buy a used van and DIY. There are better options.
I haven’t followed the link, so apologies if this is mentioned. I presume this is a commercial follow-on to the Better Shelter, Why Ikea’s flatpack refugee shelter won design of the year: “Ikea’s solar-powered Better Shelter lasts six times longer than a typical emergency tent and has already changed the lives of thousands of refugees around the world” (Jan-2017).
I like how you can’t see much of the small-footprint house because of the huge footprint of the subtitles, which are necessary because of the auditory footprint of that … background? music. I’m sure the house has its problems too. Better than nothing but not something you’d want to spend a sustained lockdown in, to name just one unlikely, over-the-top scenario that’ll never happen. Also, if there was a zombie horde or raptors on the loose, would you even have room to barricade the door, to say nothing of the material?
The music was fine. It’s the robotic auto-reader voice competing with it that makes this unbearable to listen to.
I have never had a problem with assembly instructions from IKEA. My problem is with the quality; in particular endurance. My IKEA dresser is falling apart just now.
Heating and cooling needs depend on surface-to-volume ratio. So if you are truly concerned with the environment, perhaps tiny single homes are not the best way to go.
@1 Ridana; yes the sound track is awful. No effort was put into making it not interfere with the voice track, either by reducing the volume or suppressing the relevant frequencies.
Simple off-grid sanitation: There are some good books on the subject but most what you need to know comes down to:
Keep urine and feces segregated. They are best handled separately.
Urine is, barring bladder infection, not an a biological risk. To dispose dilute with water and use to water plants. Do not pour into standing water or saturated ground. Limited amounts on the compost pile are good as long as you just dampen the pile.
Feces stink only when moist. Once dry they have very little smell. Deposit feces onto a bed of dry carbonaceous material several inches thick and cover with more loose material. Done correctly it dries in a couple of hours. Alternate layer feces with the carbonaceous materials. Sawdust, dry sphagnum moss, shredded newsprint all work well. Do not smother the poop. Allow it to breath and dry out. In cool/moist or stagnant/humid conditions a small fan (~2″ 12v muffin fan) run on a small solar panel helps but in most situation normal convection up a vent stack is sufficient. The worse thing you can do is put it into an airtight container, like a plastic bag. The material and smell that result are many time worse than the raw poop.
Layered, ventilated and dried the results are compact and smell like rich earth. This material can also go into the compost pile where the carbon and nitrogen rich materials will cause a microbial bloom that raises the temperature and effectively sterilizes the contents. Once composted you can use it as garden or potting soil.
Alternatively, once dry the material can be buried in a shallow hole well away from standing water, watercourses, or swampy ground.
Grey water, water from sinks and showers, cannot be stored for more than a few days, at best. Use it to water plantings in a timely manner. Stored longer it often becomes corrosive and smells.