Comments on: Off-Grid Giraffe

By: Emerald63

Emerald63 — Sat, 26 Apr 2014 06:46:02 +0000

@Frodo: "If you were in an area with consistent enough wind..." Duuude.... central Kansas. 'Nuff said.

By: Frodo

Frodo — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 21:00:31 +0000

@Emerald63: I never thought of a house-sized wind turbine. If you were in an area with consistent enough wind that may be a good option. A buddy of mine has a small stream that runs under the back of his house. The flow is enough that he was able to engineer his own hydroelectric power source.

By: Emerald63

Emerald63 — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 19:16:14 +0000

@Frodo: I'm no expert and the technology has progressed since I was in school, but there are "passive" solar design concepts that can be used to help minimize power costs. Of course many of these work best when building a place from scratch and better in some geographical areas than others. I would think a less industry-reliant alternative would be to construct one's own house sized wind turbine, best done in rural or low density settings. I mean, they can't tax it if they don't know you have it, right?

By: Frodo

Frodo — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 17:52:51 +0000

I don’t know all the details, but while there has been a tax credit for home owners using solar power in many states, I’ve recently been told that there are plans to tax solar panels. I’m intrigued with the idea of living off the grid, which is something I kind of like about this house, and it troubles me to think that people will be penalized for it in some way.

By: Frodo

Frodo — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 12:32:37 +0000

@Rincewind: That's a good point. The listing does say it uses radiant heat as well as a tankless heating system. So probably one of the heaters is for hot water and the others are for heating.

By: Rincewind

Rincewind — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 11:21:16 +0000

@Frodo: The pipes could also be a manifold for one of those in-the-floor radiant heating systems.

By: Frodo

Frodo — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 15:38:01 +0000

Not crazy about the train either.

It is a pretty cool off-the-grid setup. I believe those pipes are a series of in-line water heaters for a tankless system.

I like the relatively secluded and wooded 9 acres. The area looks like it has a nice small-town feel while still having a convenient proximity to larger metro areas.

Except for being a concrete dome, the house isn’t unmanageably over-the-top. It’s simple and durable. I could live there.

By: CrisA

CrisA — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 10:47:27 +0000

@Emerald63: Dome homes are still fairly popular with the type of people who would be building off-grid. They're energy efficient and can be made easily with 'alternative' materials.

By: Emerald63

Emerald63 — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 02:05:54 +0000

Yeah… the proximity of RR tracks would kill the deal for me. Otherwise, cool place! Maybe literally, what with the insulating qualities of concrete. I have no trouble believing their off-grid heating/cooling system is sufficient.

The one thing I’d love to have the chance to do is find an artist and plan some ceiling murals. Nothing overwhelming or fancy, just something to take up a bit of the visually barren wasteland of the dome. BTW, I had no idea they were/are still building dome homes; this one was constructed in 2008.