This is a home for a retired professor that really values her privacy. It was new construction and totally off grid. We utilized a lot of the woods around her home for the framing, trim and flooring for the project. It has triple pane windows and a very energy efficient design including passive solar.
off grid
Cabin Addition
This was an addition, believe it or not, but we tripled the size of the place from a little cabin, that was 12×20 and put a 30×30 on grade slab addition onto the cabin. We engineered an efficient boiler system that ties into a hot water solar system. Much of the trim and flooring upstairs was milled from beautiful, local wood. The siding is locally milled white pine from a local mill in Herbster.
Off-Grid Cabin
This totally off the grid cabin was built for a couple of doctors from Ashland. It is one story with a nice loft above. They wanted the place to be spartan, as this was a weekend get away place for them. We built a simple stick frame with an offset gable roof, which is a typical design from this architect. It sits on a block foundation.
The interior is all poplar paneling including the ceiling. It has lots of windows, and you feel like you’re outside even on a cloudy day. Their tiny get-a-way is approximately 750 square feet with the loft space.
Off-Grid Dream House
I call this a dream house, because it is my house. And it was a life long dream of mine to build a sustainable, off-grid home. Finally, in 2002, the time was right and I built my home and shop, complete with a 1.4 KW photovoltaic system and solar domestic hot water
Off-Grid, Energy Efficient Home
This is retirement home for two retired professors. The footprint is approximately 1400 square feet and is a one story with a “crawl space basement with a poured concrete floor. This is one of the most energy efficient homes I have built. We utilized local and environmentally friendly products as much as we possibly could on this project.
It is an off-grid home, which means it isn’t tied into the electric grid. There is a 1.5 KW solar photovoltaic system that generates the power with a battery backup for the evenings and periods of low sunlight.
The wall system is a typical “stick frame” construction, but it is built with staggered wall frame, which maximizes the insulation in the wall. We did a dense pack cellulose system and got an amazing R 42 in the wall cavity! The house is heated with a wood stove with a propane wall furnace back up.
