What are the potential benefits of living in an off-grid home you may ask? Well, let us tell you that in an off-grid home, you are the master of your own energy. You don’t need to rely on anyone let alone any corporate giants for your home’s energy needs.
Rather, your self-sufficient off-grid home can create its own energy, thus helping you reduce your carbon footprint to a great extent while you live your life independently, cut off from the rest of the world. If such a house appeals to you, then here are 6 of the best off-grid homes in the world you can take inspiration from to build your own off-grid home.
The Soleta Zero Energy Home
The brainchild of Romanian green tech firm Justin Carpa Foundation, the Soleta Zero Energy Home is a flexible off grid home that is both comfortable and sustainable. The size of the house varies between 48 and 100 square meters and can be customized depending on your individual needs and budget. The off-grid home comes with its own solar and wind power generating systems, a water collection system and a geothermal water heating system.
The Freedomky House
Designed by Czech architect Marek Stepan, the Freedomky House is a compact, modular house that can be assembled in four hours flat. Available in two sizes (23 square meters and 38 square meters respectively), the house comes with a fully functional photovoltaic system for power generation. Back up electricity is provided by a diesel generator while a solar thermal system heats the water. A waste treatment unit is also available in the house.
The Zero House
Here’s a home that would help you survive even the Apocalypse in style! The Zero House features an impressive helical anchor foundation that allows its owners to stay safe indoors even when the water rises to over 10 feet outdoors. Occupying an area of 650 square meters, the house can also withstand gales of over 140 mph. An inbuilt solar bank captures and stores enough solar energy to power the house for one whole week without sunlight. What’s more, it has an inbuilt water catchment system and also hibernates when needed to conserve energy.
The Pump House
Designed by Australian firm Branch Studio Architects, the Pump House is a rustic cabin that has been built out of budget friendly materials like rough sawn timber, plywood and corrugated sheeting. In addition to housing the amenities one would want in a weekend retreat, the Pump House comes with rainwater harvesting tanks, a solar power generating system and a wood burning stove to conserve fuel and energy.
The Stamp House
This off-grid home owes its design to Charles Wright Architects, and is strong enough to remain rooted to the ground even during a Category 5 cyclone attack. The house comes with an impressive list of sustainable features that would make living here a dream even during the Apocalypse. These include an inbuilt solar panel roof and a solar powered generator for electricity and a water harvesting system capable of harvesting at least 250000 liters of water at any given time. The water thus harvested, can be used for home and irrigational purposes.
The Fab Lab House
The brainchild of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, the Fab Lab House can be considered as a smart, sustainable solar cocoon of sorts. The highlight of the house is that it was printed, not built.
The 26 m3 home was assembled using pine timbers. The organic design features curves and undulating forms that can be adapted to different climates. Natural insulators line the interiors of the home while smartly planned out windows achieve cross ventilation to substitute air conditioning. An inbuilt solar panel system on the roof generates enough power for the home to function uninterrupted even for days.
If you think living life off the grid is hard, take a look at these houses. From featuring eco-friendly interiors to completely sustainable living solutions, these are some of the most sustainable off grid homes you can ever come across.
