Old Knowlege: Solar and Energy efficiency.

Lately the news and "experts" have been touting how to save money with solar heating and insulation and other "innovative" techniques and devices. How great of them to invent things that are saving our money and energy..... Or are they?

I just got my hands on a book from 1981. "solarizing your present home" by Joe Carter. This coupled with my brothers 1972 book on residential home engineering have angered me with the current experts and every home builder and architect that has designed or built a home since the mid 70's.

Every breakthrough they toute today have been known about and in use for over 30 years now. This book talks about things that should be standard in home designs. When was the last time you saw a home with the correct eaves for the climate to reduce solar gain in the summer but enhance it in the winter? how about being built for the site and energy efficency?

Most homes are not designed right. your Architect and builder is doing you a disservice by not talking about efficency and showing you what your home could do if designed right instead of incorrectly to look like the next door neighbors.

I am starting to explore a few options to go along with smaller living that will further enhance ecological living that will not only make it incredibly cheap to live, but the side effect of reducing your carbon footprint as well. Homes can easily be designed this way. It's just that the architects have not been doing their job as experts in home design. They let the uneducated whims of their clients dictate design.

A drawback of smaller living...

If you are a "handyman" or like to fix your own vehicles and save thousands of dollars a year fixing it yourself, smaller living can be a disadvantage if you dont plan ahead. Build that small home, but build a seperate workshop to fit your needs. If you rent or buy a condo you may be stuck. They typically have rules keeping you from working on your vehicles.

Be sure to check first on rules and the possibility of having a workshop if you are a handyman or a "gearhead" that works on cars (or builds hotrods.)

Reduction process..

I started my reduction process this week. 5 garbage bags full of stuff I do not need. and honestly after looking at it all, I need a LOT more garbage bags. It takes a ton of energy and positive thinking to get rid of your stuff. I'm not blindly throwing things away, but I am looking at each item and asking myself the following....


1. Have I touched this in the past 12 months?
2. does this have a HIGH value?
3. Is this a family heirloom?
4. Do I really need this?

If I do not get a yes then the item goes away. I am having trouble with deciding about my musical instruments, I have not touched my guitar for over 2 years, I really want to get back to it, but cant see when I will.

Also this shows how much stuff you really have. I mean WAY too much stuff.

Time to start living it....

Well changes happen and in the next 90 days I'll be living in 1/4 the space I currently have unexpectedly. Wife and I have to move and apartment land we are headed. I legally have to have a 2 bedroom for my daughter, but we are going gangbusters in reducing what we own... so we will be downsizing faster than we were planning to. My hardest part is where to put all my vehicle hobbies. Motorcycel can go with me, and can store in the winter, but my sportscar and it's higher power replacement engine project does not fit with an apartment. so I need to figure that one out. I am designing an "apartment" networking rack that will fit in with the furniture to house the Crestron gear and networking stuff.

More to come....

A great site/blog for un-cluttering.

Unclutterer is a new blog/rss feed that I discovered that has some very useful tips for cutting down on "stuff" and clutter. nothing specific for smaller living but the tips are very useful.

Just wanted to share....

Smaller Vehicles...

Smaller living means giving up your escalade XLT that has been stretched. If you really need a SUV I found that the Subaru and Suzuki has offering that fit in a tiny garage or are smaller and overall very comfortable. But there are other options. If you live where it's warmer, a motorcycle is a better option. A bike takes very little space, you can fit 3 of them in a 1 car garage and they cost less to run, own and maintain.

I can carry all our family groceries home on my Motorcycle, go to work with my laptop and other gear and tools and easily go off on a weekend trip with the wife. We save money and space.

Smaller living = smaller bills.

A friend recently pointed out that if you built a 850-890 sq foot home right and sited it right on the lot, you would have nearly a $50.00 annual heating bill with the current high heating costs. He also calculated that that same home of it had the right windows and design would have an equally low electric cost (covering lighting and cooling) I also pointed out that by using more space saving tech you really would have less electronics that would use that electricity as well.

With costs sky-rocketing, being able to have incredibly low utility costs would go a long way to making this smaller living idea have more appeal to others...