Moving toward sustainability
Time to work on the loft’s walls. I’m deviating from the original plans in order to provide more room in the loft. Originally, the roof was going to slope down to meet the loft floor, creating a tight space along the sides.
To fix this, I’m installing dormers—short walls to open up the loft and make it more roomy. The added benefit is the loft will have 5 windows instead of 1!
You can see an example of a dormer on the second floor here:
A tiny home’s air quality is affected by pollutants more than a larger home, simply because there is much less air inside a tiny home.
My goal is to build the tiny home as air-tight as I can, to minimize the amount of air that leaks in or out. This also means that planning for a means to bring fresh outside air inside the house is very important.
The trade-off is every hole cut in the wall reduces energy efficiency.
On one hand, we have the exhaust fan with louvers that close when the fan is turned off.
This fan’s only insulation is the louver, which doesn’t form an airtight seal. In hot or cold climates, this is not sufficient insulation.
According to the Department of Energy’s “Whole House Fact Sheet” (pdf), one option is to manually cover the opening(s):
Since standard fan louvers do not insulate or seal tightly, a cover should be constructed to airseal and insulate this hole …. The cover may be installed from the attic side (if attic access is easily available) or from the house side. Covers for both sides could be included in excessively hot or cold climates. Homeowners must remember to remove cover(s) before operating the fan and to replace cover(s) during seasons when the fan is not in use.
I can see that getting real old, real quick.
No solution, yet. Just something to think about.
The Tiny Home has a little 4’x4′ porch which is little more than a square hole right now.
I’ve been kicking around ideas for what to do. Here are some ideas:
I saw a nice wall hanging at Target that would look really cool as a porch.
The hanging’s slats are too thin to support a person’s weight, so I’d have to either reinforce it or build my own.
If I go with tile, I would need something to support it. I could make some supports out of steel and then powder-coat them to prevent rust.
Speaking of seel, I could make supports out of steel and weld expanded metal to the top as the deck/porch. I’d leave it to rust because that would look cool.
What do you think?