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Off-Grid Home Ecocapsule To Hit the Market This Year
Kristine Lofgren writes: If you dream of living totally off-the-grid anywhere in the world, you need to get your hands on this home. Nice Architects just unveiled their incredible egg-shaped Ecocapsule, and announced that the tiny solar and wind-powered dwelling will be available for sale later this year, with units shipping in spring 2016. From the website: "Despite its small form each Ecocapsule is fitted with all essentials necessary for a comfortable prolonged stay without a need to recharge or re-supply. Ecocapsule is powered by a built-in wind turbine complemented with an array of solar cells. Dual power system and a high-capacity battery ensures that you will have enough power during periods of reduced solar or wind activity. Spherical shape is optimized for the collection of rainwater and dew and the built-in water filters allow you to utilize any water source.
The picture on the website shows it can be put on a transport platform and drawn around by a car.
Or I could just buy a camper that is already "on a transport platform" and get a more practical design while I'm at it. Seriously, this is the sort of stupid concept "designers" are getting WAY too much money to come up with. The clearly started with the external appearance and a checklist of features and worked from there rather than actually spending time considering any functional considerations.
How do you propose to get this thing "on a transport platform"? It's clearly not meant to be dragged. There is no obvious hookup for a hoist. It apparently fits in a shipping container but that raises the question of why not just convert the shipping container to living space? It's more practical, modular, goes right on a truck and almost certainly is cheaper to make and convert. Plus probably more durable and recyclable. The transportation infrastructure is already available and it's not exactly a challenge to put solar cells and a wind turbine on the roof.
The amazing micro-dwelling is perfect for nature lovers, scientists, photographers, rangers and anyone who
...loves to waste space on shapes which are good for eggs but stupid for houses, and who wants to be kept up all night by their wind turbine.
If it's supposed to be eco-friendly, shouldn't it be made out of recycled materials? And there's absolutely nothing about the shape which makes it easy to collect water. In fact, it's much harder to deal with on a shape like that.
Here's how you get eco-friendly: You get a used shipping container for two grand, the energy cost of its production is already sunk. You get it delivered to your lot for 1-2 grand more, most likely. Then you start haunting demolitions and recycled construction material sales for materials. That's eco-friendly. You can't just go buy eco-friendly at a store with a big price tag on it. That stuff is never eco-friendly.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Lots of boats like yachts and cruisers have wind turbines and even small ones can get 25W and peak to 60W. Combine with solar and it's probably sufficient to run a small fridge continuously and lights and small power draw devices at night.
Those yachts and cruisers get most of their power from their engine, and many also have an onboard generator. The wind turbines are a way to get an extra boost while having a fallback solution (ALWAYS crucial for long-distance sailing) in the event that another system fails. The turbines in no way provide enough power to sustain normal life on a prolonged basis in the absence of any other power source. And this is in a living space without things that pull a lot of power like microwave ovens, large refrigerators, washing machines/dryers, desktop computers, etc. A home needs WAY more power than any yacht I've ever been on...which is why at docks you'll see people hooking up to 30W power feeds and being all set. According to current NFPW code, that entire dockside feed would be the equivalent of what you would require for a single large household appliance.
Oh, and I'm not sure where you're seeing wind turbines on yachts that can put out 60W; yachts that I've seen that were big enough to have electrical systems that could even handle that wattage didn't have turbines at all...they were all huge power cruisers for whom engine fuel consumption was so obscene that running a generator sufficient to power the whole yacht was an inconsequential expense in comparison to simply cruising for an hour at 5 knots. If it exists, I've never seen one on a boat.
I've lived on a yacht for a prolonged period of time...and while I loved it, I wouldn't even give a moment's consideration to a house where I had to live like that. The "small fridge" and "small power draw devices at night" combination isn't a realistic way to live one's life on land.
And I know what you may be thinking..."but a lot of yachts have solar panels too!" Yes, they do...but even the wind/solar combination, together, only helps. It's not enough on its own.
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