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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 energy output of a wind turbine is proportional to the cross-sectional area, and to the cube of the wind speed*. This means that to provide a useful amount of energy they need to be big, and they need a lot of wind - that means a high mounting point. These little pinwheels on short poles are just a gimmick - you'd be lucky to get 20W from them on a very good windy day.
*Think about it. (m*v^2)/2 will get you half-way there.
I'm sure it wouldn't look so showy if the "world's first ecocapsule" (which is totally not a caravan without wheels) had a more conventional shape but it would have been a lot more practical, and doubtless cheaper to build too.
Here is a link to a Airstream floor plan. Looks to be well thought out too. They do have a few years of learning how to do this. http://www.airstream.com/trave...
Passionately Indifferent
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.
This would make an awesome camper.
You mean except for the idiotic layout, the lack of wheels or towing equipment, the impractical shape, the lack of substantial water or battery space, the inflexible interior design, the ugly appearance and the expensive round shape?
Yeah other than that it's great...
I'm looking at all those rounded space-wasting contours. And once you try to fit it inside a (rectangular) shipping container to get it to your locale, there's even more space wasted between the pod and the box.
So how about some lateral thinking: instead of buying one of these and have them shipped from Slovakia, how about buying a discarded shipping container RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE and fixing it up for living quarters? There's some nice designs floating around on the internet... Which will cost you less, probably, than purchase and shipping on one of these eggs.
Could still be moved around with comparable ease locally, and when you want to go to another state or country, sell it and start over in the new locale. Although I'm thinking that 2 x 20ft/6m containers might be more livable for my claustrophobic slightly-oversized frame.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
Conventional filtration does not remove salts, which is the main reason that drinking one's own urine isn't a recipe for wilderness survival in the real world (contrary to whatever a fake TV survivalist may have told you) and why you can't survive off of seawater. It takes reverse osmosis or electrodialysis or similar to do that - that is, power-hungry processes. Filters that involve pushing water through fine pores, like ceramic filters wouldn't even remove a significant amount of the urea (the body's way of getting rid of excess nitrogen from protein metabolism). Activated carbon is effective against urea to some extent but usually with only limited capacity. Filtering out bacteria is pointless for a healthy person's fresh urine, as in a healthy person urine is nearly sterile. Neither porous filters nor activated carbon have an effect on ammonia, nitrate or nitrite from old urine.
It's perfectly fine to shower with urine even without having run it through a filter, or with a simple "mechanical filter". The question of course is, why would you want to?
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
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.'"
I don't know, but given its shape I'm assuming it will come in a carton of 12.
Not so much, once you cut holes in a shipping container it's very hard to move it.
Not unless those holes are so large they affect structural integrity. It is almost trivial to put some windows or extra doors into a shipping container without affecting structural integrity. The entire thing is made of steel so you can weld whatever reinforcements you need permanently or temporarily and steel is pretty much 100% recyclable.
If you plan to move your shipping container home, you'll also need to budget for a trailer to move it on.
This pretty much falls into the "duh" category. You don't have to own said trailer however.
About the cheapest I've seen a container trailer is five grand, and I didn't go look at it so I don't know what kind of condition it was in.
Or you can just hire one for a relatively modest fee unless you plan to move it around constantly. One of the beautiful things about using standardized containers is that there is enormous existing infrastructure for hire to move them about. You can put them on a truck, a train, or a boat easily and economically take them almost anywhere you want. You can even have them lifted by helicopter or crane with no modifications or special equipment.
If you're going to have a home built into it, you're talking about some real weight there.
Real things have real weight. Unlike this stupid pod however it would actually be functional for something more than glamping.
All this wandering isn't all that eco, it takes energy to drag a house around.
Sure it does but if you are wandering there presumably is a reason you are doing it. A standardized container is FAR more economical and eco-friendly than this stupid egg pod thing.
Have you ever looked inside a kitchen cabinet? If you fill it with the normal, round plates and glasses, the corners are almost NEVER used.
I assure you I can fit more round glasses into a square cabinet with X length/width than I can a round cabinet of X diameter.
But that isn't why it's oval. The reason why the external shape is oval is because such a shape is far more storm resistant Wind and rain does not have a single surface to push against.
Unless you are planning to live in a hurricane, that's demonstrably not a meaningful problem. Most houses are square and you know what? They deal with the wind and rain just fine. Unless you are trying to make the habitat as light as possible (like for spaceflight) it is a far more sensible decision to simply built it adequately strong than to use fancy and hugely impractical round designs.
The only advantage from square architecture is that it maximizes volume
Wrong! It is easier and cheaper to build. It is simpler to repair. It is easier to modify. It can store more things with less problems. (easy to store round things in a square box but harder to store square things in a round box)
Finally the door. It is true that the gull wing shape makes it easier to remove in a storm - if it is open. But closed, it makes for a tighter fit.
"Tighter fit"? The tightness of the fit has nothing to do with where you locate the hinges. If anything it means you need stronger hinges AND a device to keep the door propped open in the up position.
You are correct that the standard rectangular shape is cheaper.
It's not only cheaper. It is easier to build, easier to repair, more practical in utility and easier to modify.
This shape was chosen because while more expensive, it is FAR MORE PRACTICAL.
It is far LESS practical. More expensive to built, harder to maintain, less flexible to use and update, and impractical to use. It requires single sourcing of custom furnishings. It's a fail on almost every level.
It stands up to a storm better, collects the rain better, conserves heat/cold better, and also is a far more efficient use of space - as long as it is filled with custom designed furnishings (which it comes with).
Tell you what. I'll use a converted shipping container and you use your stupid little people pod. I assure you that I'll withstand the storm better, I can insulate it better, I can collect rain better and more of it, and I can use whatever furnishings I want. Furthermore it will be more durable, entirely recyclable and easier to modify and fix.
Custom designed furnishings in a weird space basically means you can't change anything and if anything breaks you can't replace it easily or cheaply. Anyone who has actually owned a residence will tell you that the one thing you can be sure of is that things WILL break and wear out. This egg thing is stupid on so many levels it's hard to know where to start.