Domes, Off-grid living and various research

[knux_v1]

A quick introduction is in order I feel 😉 I post on Youtube as Knux Veeone, my channel started several years ago when I uploaded my first Super Bus video. The Super Bus Project is my attempt at creating a usable campervan. I’m glad to say this project eventually resulted in success and I have since used the van to travel across Europe, from the UK to Estonia and back again.

The Super Bus project started after I saw several videos from JMEMantzel (1) in which he shared his off-grid dome home and the systems within such as water, power and heating. My hope was that I could take the bus to find a suitable location for my own off-grid property whilst at the same time seeing how I would cope with the self-contained systems of the vehicle. My research at the time naturally followed JME’s as he made understanding everything very easy. I believe there was also some mention about how extremely good the Dome structure is, especially based on the Geodesic model using triangles. I seem to remember claims that they are able to withstand some drastic weather conditions such as hurricanes and the like, but it’d be best to do your own research on the matter, I am no longer of the school of thought that Domes are the best structure based on the thinking of Lloyd Kahn(2) and the emergence of Containers as a more available building block. Lloyd wrote two books on the subject of domes while his third book was about more standardized structures due to his belief that ‘A dome is basically a roof, and all roofs eventually leak.’ I don’t know how true this is, and my original designs for the dome relied a lot on the idea of using the shape to better collect rain-water (which in turn would have been used to generate power via hydro electricity.) Sadly the website that I posted my designs to no longer exists and I would need to scan my actual copies in order to upload them here. I’m not saying the dome is not a viable structure base, but it certainly requires much more thought, and potentially maintenance than a container based structure and could also incur a greater cost depending on square footage.

Greater still is the ability for containers to link together, their strength, their availability especially in the US, their price point for suitable containers (which come in different ratings that I will outline shortly), customization, the ability to move them with some work, as well as completely flat roofs which allow for a field of solar panels or gardens. Negative points include rust, poor insulation and potential inability to deploy in extremely remote locations.

When buying a container, there are several things to bear in mind. They come in various sizes, most common being 10Ft x 8Ft, 20ft x 8ft and 40ft X 8ft, which are the external dimensions. I’d have to refer to my notes on square footage per container which I may include in a follow up post.

Another thing to consider when buying a container is it’s condition-
One trip containers are usually in the best condition outside of buying yourself a brand new container. These are sometimes listed as ‘New’ or ‘Nearly new/like new’

Wind-Watertight containers are ones that the seller believes to possess the aforementioned qualities, however it won’t have been checked by a proper surveyor

‘As-is’ containers tend to be the worst of the bunch, however they are everywhere which can lead to a better economical choice. Sometimes they’re rusting, sometimes they’ve got damage, dents, etc, but if the container is still a solid box shape (there are tests to make sure the container itself is in good condition) and you intend on cutting windows, doors and sections out, then aim to cut out the worst where you can. A potential solution that I’ve just considered is, say you want five containers and intend to arrange them as a simple box, I would invest more money on the two end containers, and just ensure good quality shape in the interior ones, you’d cut the ‘internal’ rust/dent covered walls out and trade them in for their scrap value.

While containers tend to be of solid construction, when you start cutting bits out you will need to re-enforce it. This is especially true if you intend on going up several floors with your container home. Check local laws too, as some places in Europe only allow containers to be stacked to 7, I am unsure of the rules in the U.S. If you do decide to build up, this gives you the potential for large balcony gardens based off the roof on the lower floor, while using the upper floor roof for solar panels.

Other things to consider would include-
Insulation – This is a big one, a big metal box in winter is going to be a complete nightmare, best to add insulation at the expense of a small amount of floor space, and potentially a fireplace or wood-stove. This consideration is based on the idea that your off-grid property is located in a wooded area where resources for a fire would be easily available.

Space for electricity – If you’ve got an RV or Campervan, you already know that batteries, zig units, chargers, invertors and extreme cases generators can take up a lot of space. With a container home, and depending on your electrical outgoings, you will need space for a myriad of batteries, charge controllers, solar panels, invertors, and the wiring. When designing a container home, it is best to keep in mind where you want to run your power, how you intend to recharge it and how to store it. My suggestion would be to include plans for a wind-gen or two to compliment the solar system if the funds are available. A solar tracker will also optimize the power you get from the sun but these can tend to get costly. Original dome plans had a theological idea of using rainwater to turn the blades on a sealed alternator unit to provide additional charge, I am unsure of how successful this would have been but it is always a good idea to have redundancy.

Water collection – You should aim to buy land near a source of running water where possible. Where it isn’t possible, you can rely on wells, or rainwater. I have no experience or knowledge of wells or ground water, however if your system is suitable you should be able to survive anywhere short of Arizona or the Nevada desert with minimal rainfall. The bonus of setting up near running water is that you can set up a rudimentary hydro-dam that can double as water collection.
Water should deffo be filtered unless you know it’s 100% safe. To achieve this, I planned on using a very simple filter that made use of several buckets filled with various mediums such as charcoal, small stones, sand. I haven’t personally tested this method as of yet however I have seen great success in the examples on Youtube.

Land for growing food – Obviously this depends on how ‘off-grid’ you are. If you’re down the road from town and can afford weekly shopping trips then thats cool, but if you wanna cut down on your reliance of such places then having garden space is a must. With a large enough garden, you can grow like John Kohler(3) and seriously cut down on the store cost. If you prefer a meatier diet, then space can be used to house livestock, and waste from the vegetables can be used to feed them. Chickens in a chicken tractor can be used to tend the land, pigs eat food waste, cows and goats produce milk, and turkeys raised on home-grown grains will make thanksgiving a bit cheaper, although this is all based on whether you have the skill to raise such animals and if you can go through the unenviable task of killing something for your lunch.
If you plan to set up in a place for the long term, an orchard is a must. Apples, oranges, grapes, anything you can plant and leave with minimal work will benefit you greatly in the future. You can also use food scraps, animal manure and the fallen leaves to keep the orchard full of the nutrients it needs. There is an excessively long video on Youtube about a gardening practice(?) called back to Eden(4) that seems to require the most minimal of input and clever planning. Strawberries are also a must, not just because they’re strawberries but because they can ‘hibernate’ during winter and resume growing again once the cold passes. The also send out suckers, so you can have a few plants to start with, and potentially end up with a field in a decade or so. Strawberries and Apples also equal jam, and you’ll want all the long term food you can get for when winter strikes once more.

Cold storage – Just as it says on the tin. Doesn’t need to be a fridge either, could be an underground small container and clever use of thermal mass to keep it cool. I’m fuzzy on this subject but I’m sure it’s possible.

Location and resources – It might be great getting a dense wood area and all the resources it provides, but you’ll need to consider your solar panels, if they’re only getting light for a couple of hours a day thanks to tree cover then they’re not operating at full efficiency. Best to get a balance of the two if you don’t fancy a lot of work clearing the place out.

Use what you’ve got – Some of us ‘cool-kids’ have campervans, with enough work, you can use this as a headquarters of sorts while you begin construction. This may be redundant if you plan on building with containers, as they can be built off-site, and brought in, linked together and lived in within a day. If you’ve moved the containers to the site already and plan to build them there, then you will deffo need somewhere to stay, and a place on site is a pretty big motivator to get the job done.

I might follow this post up with another, there is no doubt some things that I have forgotten but this one is going on far longer than I expected. I also want to point out that this is all just my opinion based on my own research, if you have better ideas or conflicting knowledge, please share it, we all stand to learn a great deal from one another.

I hope this helps, best of luck to anyone following this path!
Knux

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