Tiny House project

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Tiny Houses

  • Tiny Houses are currently experiencing a wave of popularity.
  • Their popularity is driven by a combination of factors such as:
    • The high cost of modern houses
    • High energy costs and living costs
    • People wanting to downsize or live simpler and debt free lives
    • Tiny houses are a viable option for people who cannot buy or rent.

Minitopia

  • There is a small village in The Netherlands called Minitopia which is a trial site for a Tiny House community.
  • On 16 October 2019 a Skype meeting was held with the founders of Minitopia (Tessa Peters and Rolf van Boxmeer) to understand the workings and philosopy of Minitopia.
  • A summary of the transcript is available here Minitopia notes
  • The broad aims of the project are:
    • Improve housing affordability
    • Experiment with a range of different housing types
    • Societal change - question standard assumptions about housing
    • Better housing to meet the requirements of people (not building regulations)
    • The building industry cannot keep up with the demand for new housing
    • To lessen the impact on the enviornment by making housing that requires less energy and resources

Minitopia - Close up Deutsche Welle June 11, 2019 12:30pm-1:01pm CEST

Tiny House Specifications

  • Tiny houses can be built that are:
    • Cost no more than $60-80k.
    • Self-built.
    • Energy efficient and relatively cheap to heat and cool.
    • Be powered using off-grid solar PV electricity systems with battery storage.
    • Use waterless (dry / composting) toilets to conserve water and reduce wastewater.
    • Minimise ground disturbance by requiring only potable (tap water).
    • Can be built to Passive House standards by optimising air tightness, insulation, thermal heat gain and thermal mass.
    • By locating services such as washing machines and kitchens outside the immediate living space.
    • Using electric bikes and shared transport to minimise the requirement for roads and car parking.
    • Significantly cheaper to maintain and operate (e.g. Council rates)

What is a Passive House?

  • A Passive House is designed to be signficantly more energy efficient than a conventional house.
  • See Passive House explained in 90 seconds
  • The key elements of a Passive House are:
    • The building envelope is air tight. Special membranes and tape are used to wraps and seal the house.
    • Thick insulation is used to minimise heat gain and heat loss. The higher the R-value (K⋅m2/W) the better the insulation.
    • Windows are double or triple glazed. Overall window area is minimised because even the best windows allow too much heat in and out. Windows are however important for heat gain in winter.
    • No thermal bridges. Metal window frames and pipes can easily let heat in and out of a building.
    • A Heat Recovery and Ventilation System (HRVS) is required to let fresh air in but reduce heat gain and loss during ventilation [1]
    • Windows should be north facing (in the southern hemisphere) to capture the sun's warmth in winter. This heat gain should be captured in thermal mass (e.g. concrete pavers on the floor).
    • The house should be shaded using trees and vines on the east and west faces. The roof should overhand the structure to prevent direct heat gain through windows in the summer.


Tiny House Example

  • The following floor plan can be used to plan the Tiny House.
  • The plan can accommodate a family of 3.
  • Cooking and laundry facilities are separate from the Tiny House to simplify the design.
  • This Tiny House has one large sliding window to the North and a standard door entry to the South.
  • The overall floor dimensions of the Tiny House are 4m width x 8m length, similar to a shipping container.

Tiny House Photos

  • Tiny house interior looking south.
  • Shows couch/bed to the right.
  • Flat screen television mounted to the wall.
  • Standard door visible in the background.

  • Tiny house interior looking south.

  • Tiny house interior looking north.

  • Tiny house interior looking north.

Tiny House - Urban Design Guidelines

Tiny House School Project

Tiny House Wall calculations for Model

  • Tiny House calculations were made for a single wall. Wall dimensions were 4m length x 2.7m ceiling height.
  • The following build material selections were made:
  • Tiny House dimensions were scaled down to 1/8th scale so that this could be modelled as a cardboard box with base dimensions 50cm x 50cm.
  • The box height was cut to 33.75cm (1/8th of 2.7m high ceilings)

Tiny House Cardboard Model

  • A Tiny House was built using a 50cm (base) x 50cm (base) x 40cm (high) cardboard box.
  • The cardboard box is 1/8th size of the real Tiny House.
  • The following materials were used to construct the cardboard Tiny House.
    • Cardboard shipping box 500mm x 500mm x 400mm
    • Scotch Magic Tape with Dispenser 19mm x 33m [2]
    • Kadink Coloured Transparent Sheets 76cm x 1m Assorted 5 Pack [3]

Special materials used to Construct Model Tiny House

  • Special materials typically used to build a real Passive House were also used in the construction of the Tiny House model.
    • Intello Plus moisture membrane [4]
    • Solitex Mento Plus external waterproof membrane [5]
    • Tescon Extora Profil 30m roll adhesive tape [6]
    • R4.0 Bradford Polymax Polyester Thermal Ceiling Insulation Batts cut to size [7]

  • Cardboard box cut to size.
  • Pencil used to mark lines to show location for vertical studs.


Plyco laser ply

  • Prototyping of box designs is typically made using cardboard.
  • Full scale models for outdoor testing requires playwood.
  • Birch Laserply (3mm) 1200mm x 600mm will be used for all prototypes.
  • The Birch laserply will be cut to 600mm x 600mm dimensions so that it can fit in the laser cutter.
  • 3mm is the optimal size for lasercutting. The plywood has enough rigidity to build larger structures.
  • It is also thin enough for laser cutting.
  • Birch also warps less that other wood types.

Laser Cutter

  • The Trotec Laser Cutter Speedy 400 will be used for all prototype development.
  • The maximum bed dimensions are 101cm x 60cm.
  • Adobe Illustrator is used to make edits to svg files. Files are printed to the laser printer from Adobe.
  • The Trotec laser cutter then uses its own proprietary software to complete the print operation.

Laser cutting cardboard box

Box design for Tiny House Outdoor Testing 580mm x 580mm

  • The laser cutter we will use cannot cut a piece 600mm x 600mm so we will need to create a slightly smaller box 580mm x 580mm.
  • The instructions that follow will demonstrate how to create a square cube with walls, roof and floor modules.
  • The box will be constructed using 3mm Birch plywood (laserply).
  • There will also be an inner compartment through the middle of the box.
  • This will contain the electronics for temperature measurement and be insulated at both ends.
  • The inner compartment will be air tight.

Create Tiny House Prototype Box using MakerCase

  • Box designs with finger joints can be easily created using MakerCase and then downloaded as an svg file.
  • MakerCase will be used to create two box templates:
    • Outer Box - W580mm x H580mm x D580mm Close Box SVG File
    • Inner Box - W180mm x H574mm x D180mm Closed Box SVG File
  • Ensure that you have an Ad Blocker installed on your computer if possible.
  • https://en.makercase.com/#/
  • The svg file can then be edited using Inkscape.

Outer Box Dimensions

  • Set the following dimensions:
    • Width - 580mm
    • Height - 580mm
    • Depth - 580mm
    • Outside dimensions
    • Material thickness - 3mm
    • Closed box
    • Edge joint - Finger (51)

Set Labels and Spacing

  • Under Labels and Spacing set the colour to Black (#000000)

Set Line Colour

  • Set cut line width to 0.01mm
  • Set Outside Cut Line Colour to Red (#FF0000)

Set Kerf

  • Keep the Kerf value to 0.25mm (default setting).
  • The Kerf setting may need to increase when cutting plywood.
  • The Kerf represents the amount of play (gap) permitted between the finger joints.

Download 580mm x 580mm x 580mm Close Box SVG File

  • This box is used to test the thermal performance of a model Tiny House.
  • Box designed using MakerCase.
  • The click on Download SVG to create and download the file.
  • 580mm x 580mm x 580mm closed box 3mm ply

Modifying Outer Box SVG File from MakerCase in Inkscape

Creating Separate Pages in Inkscape

  • Create individual Document Pages were created in Inkscape measuring 60cm x 60cm
  • Each Document Page was given a label.

Ungroup all box elements

Drag individual box elements to separate pages

  • Final arrangement

Arrange pages in Inkscape

Delete labels on box components

Create opening for Front Box component

Align opening with Front Box component

Set Stroke Style to 0.01 pt

Check Paint Stroke - RGB - Red 255

Inner Box Dimensions

Modifying Inner Box SVG File from MakerCase in Inkscape

Insert Modification using Inkscape

Create two pages and organise Insert Box components

Remove labels

Change Stroke to 0.01 pt

Draw 130mm x 130mm box and centre

Inkscape Tutorials

Inkscape svg files of Tiny House wall

CNC Cutting of Plywood Model

Wiki House References

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