Tiny houses!

[Puke]

Most homes are spec... with customs largely being high end.

I have no idea what this means? What does spec mean?

[John Edward Mercier]

Spec is a builder's term... its short for speculation.

[Puke]

Spec is a builder's term... its short for speculation.

Ok, thanks.

[Ron Helwig]

http://homeplans.com
54 home plans under 750 sq ft. (Search on sq ft maximum and bedrooms 1 minimum 2 maximum)
13 home plans are under 500 sq ft.

[dalebert]

http://homeplans.com
54 home plans under 750 sq ft. (Search on sq ft maximum and bedrooms 1 minimum 2 maximum)
13 home plans are under 500 sq ft.

I like that! I can take a modest sized home and put a full finished basement in it for entertaining!

[Puke]

Neat.

[Ron Helwig]

Jaq just showed me a combination furnace/generator that runs on propane. Generate your own power and heat. You can size it right so that you are selling electricity back to the utility (You can't actually MAKE money doing this, just reduce your bill to zero).

Add photovoltaics on the appropriate roof, and you are off-grid and/or reducing propane generation usage. A few models have fireplaces - reduce your propane usage for heating.

Jaq suggests using composting toilets to not need septic, although I think for a permanent structure it is a good thing. Utilizing greywater while minimizing blackwater sounds good to me. 

Well, septic system, and a propane tank should provide everything except Internet access. Septic systems need state approval. Wells need to be tested.

The HPG-400 and HPG-600 models look pretty darn good.

[KBCraig]

I like that! I can take a modest sized home and put a full finished basement in it for entertaining!

If you're devious enough, you can hide a big underground house beneath a tiny cottage, so the tax assessors never even know. 

[John Edward Mercier]

I was under the impression that PSNH allowed net-metering. I'll have to review.
This link might help.

http://www.nh.gov/safety/boardsandcommissions/bldgcode/

[Ron Helwig]

I was under the impression that PSNH allowed net-metering. I'll have to review.
This link might help.

http://www.nh.gov/safety/boardsandcommissions/bldgcode/

"Net Metering" means you can provide electricity and the utility has to credit your account. They don't have to actually pay you. In other words, you can reduce your net electricity cost from the utility to zero, but you can't earn a profit from them.

If you generate over a certain amount, you are no longer a "net meterer" but a generation facility - and then more regulations start kicking in.

http://nhsea.org/

[MaineShark]

If anyone wants to draw up plans, I have a pretty decent architectural cad program.  I haven't gotten the opportunity to do any blueprints in a while, so feel free to bring a sketch or two and we can make them look professional.

Yeah, but then what happens to all those credits?  so, like, they're there if you ever start using their electricity again but otherwise you just gave the company free electricity?  those bastards!  lol  can you transfer credits to your friends' bills??

Nope, if you start making money on it (ie, not just canceling that particular month's bill), you are running a power station, and all sorts of fun regs kick in.

Of course, you can run wires to your neighbors and send the excess their way!

If I can find some investors, I'm going to start an R&D company and develop some designs I have for wood-fired CHP (Combined Heat and Power) systems.  Even with co-generation, running on propane doesn't make sense.

Home sized, as well as "district" systems for a few homes using underground piping to deliver the heat (and might as well run the power cables underground, if we have to dig a trench, anyway).  We can already do district heating off wood with relative ease, if a dense neighborhood wanted to get together and chip in.  Or if a builder wanted to design a subdivision for that purpose (tiny houses or not).

Heck, one of my wood boiler suppliers just sold two million-btu boilers to a guy in CT who built a castle and wanted to keep the moat from freezing (moats are useless if they freeze, duh!).  You could heat a good number of those tiny houses (like two dozen, if they were built right) off one of those two boilers.  A small cluster of them and a common building could easily be heated with a smaller boiler than that.  The modern gasifiers produce next to zero smoke, due to their high efficiency.

Joe

[Lloyd Danforth]

I believe a federal law was passed in the late 70's that require electric companies to pay people who send excess power into their system at wholesale rates.

[John Edward Mercier]

Yes, but wholesale would stink as its rather low as compared to retail.
I found the link to the PSNH site... http://www.psnh.com/Residential/Efficiency/netmetersummary.asp

[KBCraig]

Yes, but wholesale would stink as its rather low as compared to retail.
I found the link to the PSNH site... http://www.psnh.com/Residential/Efficiency/netmetersummary.asp

Thanks for the link. +1 (just to bring you up to zero. )

By the way, just out of curiosity... is it Mercier, or Mericer? I've seen it spelled both ways on some forums and the Union Leader comments section.

[John Edward Mercier]

Its Mercier. Sometimes I type too fast.

I don't worry about karma... what's an opinion worth if everyone agrees with you?