It’s been a week since I moved in to the HomeBox for real. So far, so good. All the utilities are working nicely, the BedNette is a bit firmer than I’d like, but I can sleep in it okay. Cooking is limited for now since I don’t have a microwave or any of my kitchen stuff (I bought a frypan, a plate, a bowl, and flatware for 1 just do I could do a little home cooking while I wait for my stuff to arrive this weekend), but aside from that, it’s all good. I’ve used the handshower — though not a proper bath in that king sized tub just yet — no issues with anything.
The insulation, even just in my 2×4 walls, is pretty amazing. The furnace runs rarely even when it’s 30 degrees colder outside than in. The miracle of closed cell spray foam insulation. And four layers of wood on top of that. My nearly 2″ thick solid wood front door is doing well at keeping out the cold, too. All good.
The solar array is collecting about 1600W during peak sun in November, which is less intense sunshine than I’ll have in the summer. That said, even just 2.5 hours of sunshine at 1600W gets me to my 4kWh/day budget threshold. Excellent. It turns out that my electric usage is lower than expected. I only have to run my well pump for 4 minutes to fill 40 gallons into my freshwater tank and that’s enough to serve me for several typical days. The only things I need water for is washing and drinking — the toilet is a compost pail.
It has been interesting to see my usage patterns shift, though. I am very aware of my propane use, so I use cold water whenever I can, rather than hot (which is heated by propane). Likewise, I turn my automatic heat way down when I’m not in the house and use the wood stove for primary heat when I’m here. It’s very effective and who doesn’t like a cozy fire? For now, I have to use propane for cooking since I my microwave hasn’t arrived yet and neither has my induction cookplate. I do plan to use both of them preferentially, as battery levels allow, since I’d much rather cook with sunshine than dinosaur ghosts.
Speaking of usage patterns – I’m getting attuned to the rhythms of the solar power system, too. For example, the other day I noticed the battery was full but the sun was bright. That means there’s energy I could be using but was not, and I was out of room to store it. What to do? Run the well pump! The pump uses a lot of power (1700W) so running it off battery is a significant draw down. Running it during the bright sunny day when the battery bank is full means I don’t draw the battery down at all, saving that energy for when the sun don’t shine.
I recently had a couple of rotten bananas I needed to dispose of. Ordinarily, I’d throw them in the compost pen, but it was night and cold and I had no interest in going outside. In my tiny house, I don’t have room in the kitchen (or anywhere else) for a dedicated compost holding bucket. What to do? Hey, wait, I do have a dedicated compost holding bucket! It’s in the T.H.R.O.N.E. room! Right! Okay, then, into the toilet the bananas went. It was a little odd, but it makes sense if you think about it. And today, I didn’t walk on egg shells, I pooped on them. My life is maybe a little different than yours 😉
The night sky here is wonderful. Lots of stars. I can see the milky way most nights. It’s quiet. And if I don’t leave the property, I don’t see people. If I do head out, there are people around, though not a lot of them. That said, those I have encountered have almost universally been friendly and chatty. It’s nice here. I like it.
I’m still building out the W.O.G., especially the office area, in a race against the cold to get it built enough to keep warm. I think I’ll make it, but it’s gonna be close. For now, I’m doing my day job from the BeDiLiA, which I don’t much care for, but it’ll be okay for temporary.
Last night I did laundry, too. Eventually, I plan to have some kind of on-site laundry process but I’m not there yet, so off to the “nearest” laundromat I went. 12 miles. It was a trip back in time! Actual coin-operated machines, no modern card or stored-value payment devices. How did I spend the time waiting for my laundry? Doing 3D modeling of the next generation of electric race car battery cable quick-change handles, of course. What else would I be doing?