Tag Archives: solar power

This tiny home features an open-plan layout and solar system for off-grid living!

Posted on by

Kingfisher is a tiny home from the New Zealand-based tiny home company, Build Tiny, that doesn’t feel so tiny on the inside, featuring room for a full kitchen, shower and bath, dining area, living room, and two-bedroom loft.

Few topics are hotter right now than off-grid, tiny living. After spending so much time in our own homes in recent years, we’re slowly waking up to the concept of downsizing. We don’t need such large-scale living spaces when we can pack all we have into 400-square-meters or less.

Offering clients the opportunity to design their own fully functional and personalized tiny homes, Build Tiny is a New Zealand-based tiny home company devoted to small-scale living. Kingfisher, one of Build Tiny’s more popular tiny home models, is a flexible and open-plan mobile tiny home that has enough space for everything from a full kitchen to a two-bedroom loft.

Measuring 8m long x 2.4w x 4.2h, Kingfisher keeps an average, approachable size. From the outside, Kingfisher sports a steel frame clad in vinyl with a cedar feature wall to the side that’s lined with vertical timber panels. The aluminum windows are double glazed to provide ultimate thermal insulation during the colder months.

The roof is only slightly pitched to provide some headspace inside for the two loft sleeping spaces, giving the tiny home a more dynamic quadrilateral shape. Placed on top of the pitched roof, Build Tiny provided Kingfisher with a solar system for off-grid power, consisting of ​​6 x Trina 270w Honey Poly Module panels.

Inside, residents can enjoy all the typical household amenities like a shower and bath, full kitchen, living space, dining area, and sleeping lofts. Walking from the stark black steel exterior into poplar core plywood-lined interior, residents are welcomed by a spacious entryway with the living room on the right and kitchen to the left.

Each room features plenty of hidden storage compartments, like bookshelves and lift-up cubbies, to optimize the tiny living space inside Kingfisher. In the bathroom, a folding shelf allows space for clothes and towels while residents use the shower. Then, under the staircase, Build Tiny incorporated concealed, slide-out cabinets that could work as kitchen pantries or additional wardrobes.

Just beyond the entryway, attached to the home’s main wall, a ladder brings residents to the tiny home’s two-bedroom loft, where one larger bed remains just a few feet away from two twin-sized beds. While the Kingfisher certainly fits the tiny home bill, with plenty of integrated storage space and a pitched roof, residents won’t feel the tininess on the inside.

Designer: Build Tiny

Throughout the home, added space-saving features take full advantage of the available living space.

An integrated ladder brings residents to the home’s two-bedroom loft.

The living space stands just to the right of the home’s spacious entryway.

Concealed, pull-out cabinets leave room for kitchen supplies and excess accessories. 

While the two bedrooms are only a few feet away from one another, they remain on opposite ends of the tiny home.

A folding cabinet provides storage space for clothes and towels while residents shower.

Solar systems and other power accessories provide the means for off-grid living.

The post This tiny home features an open-plan layout and solar system for off-grid living! first appeared on Yanko Design.

These sustainable DIY flatpack cabin kits let you build your dream off-grid cabin with your own two hands!

Posted on by

Backcountry Hut Company released a collection of DIY A-frame cabin kits that allows buyers to build their own cabins without construction permits and little to no heavy machinery.

For the past couple of years, spending the winter months in an A-frame cabin somewhere in a snow-covered forest has been at the forefront of our minds. While we’re all itching for a wintry escape, the feasibility of building our own cabin always feels just out of reach. While prefabricated cabins and campers-turned-tiny-homes are exciting options if you’ve got the funds, Backcountry Hut Company designed a more cost-effective answer for the rest of us. Designing a collection of DIY off-grid cabin kits, Backcountry Hut Company made the cabin of our dreams a reality in four different models.

Each cabin ‘system,’ comes prefabricated in a flat-pack layout that can be assembled either by amateur or professional builders depending on the model. System 00 is described as Backcountry’s “essentialist A-frame shelter.” Stocked with only the essentials, System 00 measures 10’x10’ and was designed to welcome living spaces such as a single bedroom with room for one sleeping bunk, a meditation studio for yoga, or an open space for working on art.

Backcountry’s smallest cabin, System 00 was designed to be self-assembled by a team of four to five builders within a week. Requiring no heavy machinery, System 00 is the only cabin from Backcountry’s catalog that does not require a construction permit.

System 01, the older sibling to Backcountry’s essentialist A-frame cabin, comes in at 18.5’x10’, providing more than enough space for a family or group of friends to live comfortably with enough space for living and sleeping. With the right set of professional builders, System 01 can be put together with little to no mechanical assistance in less than one week. The type of cabin that Goldilocks would call, “just right,” System 01 strikes the perfect balance between tiny living and spacious ceilings.

System 02, the largest cabin design from Backcountry is their most customizable. Rising to two stories, System 02 also measures 18.5’x10’, providing more than enough space for a couple of bedrooms and accompanying ensuite bathrooms. Each cabin is built to withstand all weather elements and conditions, including rain, snow, sleet, and hail.

Inspired by Nordic sauna culture, Backcountry was sure to include a DIY kit for those who’d prefer more of a tiny spa to a tiny cabin. System S is Backcountry’s representative sauna structure, measuring 8’x10’. Lined with sustainably sourced cedar, Backcountry customers can rest assured each cabin design is first built with timber that has been certified by Forest Stewardship Council. While the beds are left to the smaller cabins and the larger System 02 home, up to six adults can sit back and relax in System S to enjoy the sauna’s Tylo Sense Pure 8 heating system.

Designer: Backcountry Hut Company

The post These sustainable DIY flatpack cabin kits let you build your dream off-grid cabin with your own two hands! first appeared on Yanko Design.

Two DIYers built this off-grid micro-cabin from repurposed steel and recycled building material for almost no cost!

Posted on by

Nathalie and Greg Kupfer’s micro-cabin is built from repurposed waste findings and secondhand furnishings, outfitted with rainwater collection sites and solar systems for off-grid living.

We each have our own budget shopping tricks. Some of us hit up department store sale racks, some hoard coupons and bring them out just in time for the holidays, and then a rare few know just the right dumpster where they’ll find the perfect lamp or photo frame to clean up and decorate the living room for free. Two select DIYers of that rare few found most of the structural and interior design elements for their new off-grid, micro-home in sidewalk waste piles and handoffs from friendly neighbors.

Retired industrial designer and former paramedic, Nathalie and Greg Kupfer began work on their off-grid micro-cabin in Canmore, Alberta after receiving a plot of ranch land and a decrepit shed from two neighbors. Following the cabin’s fortuitous beginnings, the Kupfer’s conceived a layout for their snug, solar-powered, 97-square-foot micro cabin built from recycled and repurposed outfittings, amounting to a total net cost of only $50.

During a summer spent collecting building material and constructing their new micro-home, the Kupfer’s found all they needed from neighborly help. Finding new purpose in discarded steel, the Kupfer’s cast the micro cabins siding in steel for an all-season, durable finish. Receiving a seemingly down-and-out garden shed from a neighbor, Nathalie and Greg scored insulation material and glazed windows to keep the home warm during colder months and to bring sweeping views inside the cabin’s domed 14-foot ceiling. Finally, by relocating gravel from the cabin’s driveway to the kitchen, the Kupfer’s designed and built a gabion wall behind the kitchen’s wood stove.

Before selling the materials that weren’t used for the cabin’s construction, the forested retreat cost the couple $2,109. Included in the project’s net cost, Nathalie and Greg put out an additional $20 to build and furnish an outhouse on the property. Once the cabin’s build reached completion, the DIYers got back almost all of the $2,109 they spent on construction by selling unneeded building material they bought through bartering.

Designers: Nathalie and Greg Kupfer

Solar-powered Products designed to help you switch + upgrade to that eco-friendly lifestyle!

Posted on by

It’s 2021 and we need to get as eco-friendly as we can! We can no more continue living the way we always have, ignoring the needs of the environment and being insensitive to Mother Earth. Living a more conscious life also includes taking into consideration our energy sources. Curbing fossil fuel consumption has now become a priority, and we have a more positive energy source in mind as an alternative – the Sun! Solar power is taking the world by storm. Designers and architects are coming up with solar-powered products, homes, hotels, offices, and automobiles! Solar energy can be used to power almost every object we use in our day-to-day lives. Hence, we’ve curated a collection of product designs backed up by the sun for you – from a fleet of autonomous sail drones powered by the sun to a backpack with its own solar panel!

The Generark HomePower 2 is a backup battery for your home that’s cheaper than setting up a generator or shelling $12,000 on a Tesla Powerwall, it’s also classier and less noisy than those gas-powered generators that definitely seem archaic. Recharging the HomePower 2 can happen in multiple ways. The backup battery kit comes with an optional set of solar panels that can be set up anywhere, replenishing your HomePower 2 in hours… or you could just traditionally plug the generator into a socket in your house and juice it up for a rainy day. Once recharged, the HomePower 2 can hold onto all that energy for an entire year, making it much more affordable and easy to maintain in the long run.

For eco-conscious travelers and adventure seekers who want their environmental footprint to be minimal, this collection of mindful camping accessories is the way to go. Made with the idea to give your camping a glamping lift – sans environmental impact, the glamorous camping accessories have a sensory appeal and are all powered by clean energy. Yes, everything from the tripod-style fire pit to the drip coffee brewer and the hanging pendant lights to tableware is powered by the sun. The reimagined camping gear is made in a way that it can charge by the day and emit by night providing you an exciting experience out in the wilderness.

This fleet of sail drones is comprised of solar and wind-powered USVs that acquire data on climate change and weather conditions through AI technology and over 20 advanced sensors, leaving a minimal carbon footprint while exploring international ocean waters. Amounting to around 1,500 pounds, each sail drone comes equipped with a photovoltaic sail that’s designed to keep each sail drone powered up as it sails right into the eye of a hurricane. All in an effort to understand hurricanes and global weather events, for years Saildrone has been developing the technology necessary to map the ocean floor while measuring water temperature, salinity, and chemical composition. Once programmed for navigation, the said drones can sail autonomously from waypoint to waypoint.

The Seeon 180° backpack is easily the most advanced bag I’ve ever seen… and I’ve been writing about innovative bags for 6 years now. The fact that it carries your luggage from point A to point B is an incredibly small part of what the Seeon 180° backpack does, but an incredibly important one too. The bag even has solar panels and a built-in power bank to allow these features to operate, as well as to charge your gadgets… and if that wasn’t enough, the bag has its own light-strip that automatically illuminates in the dark, allowing cyclists and other pedestrians spot and avoid you while you’re walking on the pavement or crossing roads.

Rather than heading to the pharmacy to get the medicines, this autonomous robot brings home the needed supplies in a safe and secure manner. Even more vital for the elderly or patients who cannot visit the pharmacy due to underlying medical conditions. The robot has a large screen to display the instructions about the medical product that’s being hauled for a smooth and informative process. The USP of this medicine delivery robot is its onboard drone that attaches to the back. When it is time to deliver the medicines, the drone attaches to the delivery compartment courtesy of the rails and flies straight off to the patient’s window for a hassle-free and safe hauling of vital medicines. The drone has solar panels on top to soak up the sun’s power for a flight anytime, anywhere.

This beach umbrella comes with an origami-inspired design that unfolds to display a photovoltaic array that generates electric power which gets used for further refrigeration and cooling for the beach people. Measuring 2.5 meters high and a 3.2-meter diameter, this umbrella’s transformation brings to mind the mechanisms we see on the NASA spacecraft. The entire setup can be used individually or be rigged together to generate electricity that can even run an ice cream freezer on the beachside. It’s perfect for a private beach or even a luxury beach resort where these umbrellas can be deployed to keep the machines churning.

This sustainable energy producer basically depends upon a plug-and-play system. The system works perfectly with WZHM Architects’ Sunrider bike (a solar bike). You connect mySUN to the bike, and generate your energy, as you ride the bike! The energy is created via biomechanical power and is even stored. Since an average person generates almost 100 to 150 watts of power while riding a stationary bike, by combining mySUN to the Sunrider bike, you can produce enough energy to power the lights of a 300-square-foot space for a whole day! How cool is that? It’s the perfect combination of human and solar energy!

Designed for use by the public, both the Fluid Cube and the City Snake primarily function as city benches with the same technical attributes. The Fluid Cube is a 9 cubic meter cube structure that partially encloses two parallel benches with an overhead roof for shelter during bad weather. The City Snake, a 7.5-meter outdoor bench that curves and bends to provide unique sitting options to travelers looking for a bit of respite. While the two structures provide seating for the public, they also come equipped with solar panels that generate power for some of the structure’s more technical features. Raised parts of the City Snake accommodates traditional solar panels, while solar cells are overlaid on the Fluid Cube’s glass roof. The solar panels on both of the structures yield power to use the built-in USB charging outlets, the WiFi hotspots, as well as the benches’ lighting systems.

Satechi portrays the Cybermouse as a super tough mouse for professionals and people who are hooked onto their screens all day long. It doesn’t stop at that, the mouse comes with solar and wireless charging making it a next-generation accessory – ready to top the charts selling like hotcakes. The next level 20,000 dpi speed ensures it is suitable for gaming or editing tasks – making it perfect for any user type. Oh yes, and if I just forgot to mention, you’re not alone if you see a stark resemblance to the Tesla Cybertruck – even the color seems to be inspired by the upcoming beastly EV. Yes, the name also gets the ‘Cyber’ alright, so nothing stops me from reimagining this as the Cybertruck of the mouse world.

Christened the Stella Vita, the curvacious camper is the work of 22 student teams at the prestigious university in the Netherlands. Unlike another solar-powered house on wheels, that rely for the most part on external electric power, this one is purely powered by the sun’s energy without any external assistance. It’s made possible with the 8.8-meter square solar array on top of the roof – capable of generating power for the 60-kWh battery. In the parked mode the slide-out panels span out for an impressive canopy area of 17.5 meters square. To add to the goodness, the pop-up roof expands the vertical area for two people to move around comfortably. They can cook comfortably in the kitchen or take a shower too with this feature.

This passive house features a living green roof that merges the home with its forested surroundings!

Posted on by

Hill House is a passive house designed and constructed by Snegiri Architects with a living green roof that blends the home seamlessly with its natural woodland surroundings.

Passive houses and green homes are rising in popularity, cropping up across the globe, and slowly, but steadily establishing a new standard for residence architecture. Photovoltaic panels, living roofs, and rainwater collection systems are some of the most common sustainable and energy-efficient elements that grace the outside and inside of such homes. Snegiri Architects, a firm based in Saint Petersburg, Russia, finished work on a passive residence called Hill House, complete with a living green roof that merges the home with the nearby forest.

Building new homes, especially passive houses, in dense woodlands without felling trees is a near-impossible task unless you incorporate them into the home’s layout. Managing to preserve the forested lot’s preexisting trees, Snegiri Architects built Hill House to be entirely integrated into the surrounding environment. Plotted with diverse plant life and shrubbery, Hill House’s living green roof sprawls with a grass carpet filled with stonecrop and dwarf plants including chamomile and sedum.

The gradual incline of Hill House’s green roof conceals the home’s structural presence, bringing the home inch by inch into the bordering woods. The rest of Hill House’s exterior strikes a balance between black-stained wood-paneled facades and natural, unstained wood-paneled eaves. With this contrast, the home blends naturally into its surroundings, but its interiors remain bright with light window accents.

From top to bottom, the Hill House undoubtedly reaches the energy efficiency standard set by passive house building techniques. The terrace and most of the rooms are oriented towards the home’s sunny side to collect the maximum amount of sunlight during the day and energy-saving windows prevent the heated or cooled air from leaving the home. The home is also ventilated with air recovery, and Swedish slab, monolith, mineral wool, and linseed oil-soaked larch all provide the home with insulation from its foundation to its roof.

Designer: Snegiri Architects

This fleet of autonomous ‘saildrones’ use solar and wind power to collect data during a hurricane!

Posted on by

Saildrone, a maritime research company and “world leader in oceangoing autonomous surface vehicles,” has launched a fleet of saildrones to collect first-of-its-kind hurricane data via advanced sensors and AI technology.

It’s been said we know more about outer space than we know about the ocean. In the grand scheme of Earth, we might not know too much about the deep blue that surrounds us, but that doesn’t mean it can’t tell us about the rest of our world. Today, a fleet of five autonomous saildrones has been launched from Florida and the Virgin Islands by Saildrone, a maritime research company, to collect data on hurricanes, spending three months at sea where the fleet will compile the first hurricane research of its kind completed by ‘uncrewed’ surface vehicles (USVs).

With news regarding climate change and tropical storms flooding our timelines, our eyes and ears are more tuned in than ever in anticipation of new data. For decades, the ocean has provided scientists with the data necessary to understand climate change, hurricanes, carbon cycling, and maritime security.

The fleet of saildrones is comprised of solar and wind-powered USVs that acquire data on climate change and weather conditions through AI technology and over 20 advanced sensors, leaving a minimal carbon footprint while exploring international ocean waters. Amounting to around 1,500 pounds, each saildrone comes equipped with a photovoltaic sail that’s designed to keep each saildrone powered up as it sails right into the eye of a hurricane.

All in an effort to understand hurricanes and global weather events, for years Saildrone has been developing the technology necessary to map the ocean floor while measuring water temperature, salinity, chemical composition. Once programmed for navigation, the saildrones can sail autonomously from waypoint to waypoint.

During their voyage, the USVs remain within a user-defined safety corridor and are monitored by a Saildrone Mission Control operator. Spanning from Arctic waters to the Atlantic Ocean, saildrones have collected data on weather and climate science from waters all over the globe.

Designer: Saildrone

This rammed earth tiny home concept reinterprets farmhouses with a pitched green roof and photovoltaic panels!

Posted on by

The Rammed Earth House in Slovenia merges traditional rammed earth building techniques with modern solar energy production methods to reinterpret the early 20th-century farmhouse for today.

Rammed earth is a sustainable building method that has been around for millennia. Dating back to as early as the 9th–7th millennium BC, rammed earth has been trusted as a reliable building method and material for homes and structures on every continent except Antarctica. Bringing the method to Slovenia, three architects Merve nur Başer, Aslı Erdem, and Fatma Zeyneb Önsiper conceptualized their tiny home called Rammed Earth House to reinterpret early 20th-century farmhouses, holding onto a traditional pitched roof and introducing modern solar energy production methods.

In conceptualizing the Rammed Earth House, the team of architects set out to balance contemporary energy production practices with traditional building methods. Located in Dobrava, a settlement in Slovenia’s flatland region, the Rammed Earth House is inspired by the famed floating roof designed by Slovenian architect Oton Jugovec. Since rammed earth involves compacting a mixture of subsoil into an externally supported framework, the three architects behind Rammed Earth House conceptualized a concrete foundation and timber framework. It’s generally difficult to make changes to a rammed earth structure, but the home’s overhang roof allows cement to be added in the case that extra stability is needed. Rammed Earth House is sheltered with an overhang green roof that works to protect the building material from the threat of erosion as Dobrava experiences rainy, temperate, and snowy seasons.

Rammed Earth House’s sustainable build allows for passive insulation and heating methods to cool and warm up the home. 

Specifically oriented to take in the sun rays during winter months and block them out during hotter seasons, the Rammed Earth House takes cues from its surrounding environment and climate to ensure comfortable, passive heating and insulation throughout the year. Windows are also strategically placed around the house to allow cross-ventilation throughout the home and changing seasons. The green roof also holds an array of photovoltaic panels to power the home with harnessed solar energy and a rainwater collector for water recycling and an integrated septic tank system. Inside, each living area is appropriately situated to benefit from the passive heating and insulation methods. The house’s north facade, for example, features fewer windows than the west facade to decrease potential heat loss during colder months.

Designers: Merve nur Başer, Aslı Erdem, and Fatma Zeyneb Önsiper

This sustainable floating pod converts seawater into drinking water through a natural desalination process!

Posted on by

WaterPod is a sustainable floating pod that turns seawater into drinking water through a natural desalination process.

97% of the earth’s water is found in its oceans, yet in its primary state, ocean water is unsuitable for human needs like drinking and cleaning. Since sustainable designs that rely on alternative energy production have been on the rise in response to environmental concerns, we’re closer than ever to scaling down macro desalination plants for individual use. One team of designers was recently recognized by The James Dyson Award for their desalination pod concept called WaterPod that turns seawater into drinkable water through an array of sustainable features.

WaterPod operates as a self-cleaning solar desalination system that absorbs seawater via underwater wicks, inspired by mangrove trees, which then passes through a condensation and evaporation process to remove the salt particles from the seawater. Just like mangrove trees, WaterPod’s underwater wicks fill the pod with seawater until its water levels reach the pod’s black fabric dome. Inside the dome, seawater undergoes evaporation as water vapors gradually flow from the transparent covering and collect in WaterPod’s storage compartment. Then, users can pump drinking water from the storage compartment’s recess. While the desalination process takes place, the WaterPod remains floating atop the water in a similar fashion to a conventional buoy. WaterPod’s top lid is filled with expanded polyurethane foam for thermal insulation and flotation enhancement while a cement base offers buoyancy stability.

The team of designers behind WaterPod developed the concept in response to a lack of clean, drinking water in Sandakan, Malaysia. Noticing the seafaring community’s reliance on the sea, the team of designers wanted to develop a means for individuals to have access to clean drinking water, no matter the amount of plastic pollution in the ocean. WaterPod is a modern solution that takes cues from the surrounding environment to bring drinking water to those who depend on it most.

Designers: Bennie Beh Hue May, Yap Chun Yoon, & Loo Xin Yang

This 3D printed smart home is autonomous and self-sustainable!

Posted on by




Do you know what the future of architecture looks like? Smart, sustainable, and self-sufficient! You shouldn’t have to choose between a smart modern home and a sustainable lifestyle because you can have it all in one 3D printed unit thanks to Haus.me because they have created the ultimate autonomous self-sustaining shelter!

This off-the-grid home comes fully ready to move in and is equipped with water tanks, solar panels, and autonomous waste disposal — no plug-ins needed! There are two models – mOne and mTwo – available for sale at $199,000 and $379,000. All the features are the same, however, the only difference between the two models is the floor area – the smaller one is suited for two inhabitants and the larger one is made for a small family. The homes also come with a patented window system and insulated walls to help minimize their energy consumption which lets them comfortably depend on solar power as their sole source of energy. The interior is packed with every smart feature that you could want like Nest cameras and thermostats, Apple TVs, and internet connection for complete autonomous living. When you buy any of the models, they come fully furnished with everything because it has all been designed keeping in mind how space can be optimized in the compact dwelling.

Haus.me’s homes also feature an air-purifying system that claims to eliminate 99.99% of bacteria – a USP post this pandemic for future homeowners. These structures are the first fully self-sustainable mobile houses and don’t require an electric grid, propane, natural gas, firewood, or any other fuel – it is 20x more energy efficient than a traditional American home. The 3D printed units have a minimal and modern aesthetic without compromising on the warmth of a home and while enabling us to live our best flexible/remote lives!

Designer: Haus.me

IKEA is set to sell renewable power from their wind + solar parks to become climate positive by 2030!

Posted on by

IKEA, the world’s biggest affordable furniture brand, has announced plans to sell renewable energy to households, starting in September with Sweden’s home market.

As part of their aim in becoming “climate positive” by 2030, Ingka Group, the owner of the most IKEA stores worldwide, says Swedish households will be able to purchase renewable electricity from the brand’s own solar and wind parks for IKEA-friendly prices.

Svea Solar, a solar panel production and installation company, produces IKEA’s solar panels and will buy the renewable electricity on the Nordic power exchange Nord Pool to then resell that to IKEA customers without surcharge. Similar to other utility bills, households that purchase IKEA’s renewable solar energy will commit to a fixed monthly fee in addition to a variable rate that will depend on each household’s energy consumption. The buyers of IKEA’s renewable energy will be granted access to an app that allows them to not only track their own energy production and consumption but also sell back surplus electricity to IKEA.

The brand’s 2030 “climate positive” initiative aims to cut the global company’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than what is generated from IKEA’s entire value chain, spanning from the factories’ production lines to the disposal of furniture. Speaking on how selling renewable energy will help IKEA achieve their 2030 goal, head of sustainability at IKEA Sweden, Jonas Carlehed says,

“We want to make electricity from sustainable sources more accessible and affordable for all. IKEA wants to build the biggest renewable energy movement together with co-workers, customers, and partners around the world, to help tackle climate change together.”

Designer: IKEA