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Western Oregon | I grew up in an old farm house that Dad added a 2nd story to. 1/2 my bedroom floor was over the porch, no ceiling in the porch, my floor was a farm load of ship lap with open knot holes up to 2". No heat up stairs except a register in my parents bedroom floor right above the wood stove downstairs. Snow would blow in from the knotholes in the floor. No insulation, what so ever.
I left home at 12. Lived in a 8'x12' un-insulated chicken coop with a trash burner. I did line the rafters and walls with cardboard. 5'x 3' high window across the front with a single layer of that green plastic & chicken wire mesh.
Now wife and I live off grid, very comfortably. 280sqft cabin. 2"x4" walls with 2" of closed cell insulation and 1" insulation board under siding to stop condensation transfer through wood studs. 200w of 12v solar with 1500w solar generator and solar thermal mass heat through patio doors and heat sink concrete floors. We have enough 120v power from the solar generator for a hot pot and single coil burner. Insulated curtains to keep heat in, cold out or heat out in the summer. No AC. We do have a small propane fireplace, glass door, can cook on top, for back-up heat. In winter, we use an old ice box out of a pop up camper in an outside wall with louvers to regulate outside cool air for refrigeration to save the loss of solar with less sunshine. We do have a small chest type 12v freezer, in summer rotated frozen drinking water bottles and thawing food is used to keep a small cooler, cool. It doesn't take a lot to live, water, a little food provided in wild meat and fish from our pond and creeks, fence row fruit and nuts and a small garden. We do have a solar greenhouse, fish tanks to grow fish and vegetables and 2 small raised beds with hoops. Food still growing and stored under hoops. So far, this winter we haven't had a freeze yet, low of 34, on the east slope of the Coast Range of the central Willamette valley. Gravity fed spring water, no pumps. On demand propane hot water. I have a solar water heater in the greenhouse, a coil of black water pipe under the glass roof, flow provided by small orifice. Heats water during the day to radiate heat in the fish tanks. Lots of technology today, to make it much easier....James | |
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How did the pioneers make it work?
