If I could give this more than one thumbs up I would. I love the off grid planning, the design of your home, the smart features, the hog gun on stand-by, the outdoor space, and just how down to earth and humble you are. Thank you for sharing this experience with us, and inspiring people like me to one day have something like this to call my own. God Bless!
Beautiful! Thank you also for answering every bodies question, which means I have no questions at the time since I read all the comments! Just bought 20 acres in Northern Nevada and plan on doing the same as soon as I can make the break from Commiefornia...pray for me!!!
I stumbled upon your build at about halfway through, but have seen all your videos now.. and wow, I'm glad I did see your first one. No wonder you're so proud, you have a fabulous home in a wonderful setting.. just gorgeous. Congratulations Mt Hoybook, and thanks for posting this whole series. Well done ! .
Great move with the aerators in the lake. It will make a huge difference in the health of the lake. The house and grounds are awesome. I really like your taste in wood and tile. Nice work. You and your wife have a lot to be proud of.
Michael: You have the patience of a saint but you now have a beautiful new home in a wonderful setting! I love the metal roof and that is something that is really catching on with older home renovations where I live in east-central Ohio. I am about your age (or older) and my wife is trying to talk me into building a new home. If she is successful, I hope I can muster the patience you exhibited during your new home build. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Wow! My wife might not agree with the patience thing sometimes. It really depends on the job. I love technology and learning new things and the pride of a completed project. My ford truck needs body mount bushings right now and 20 years ago I would have done it but I will pay someone to do that job now- no patience any more for that stuff. But I will install a complete solar electricity system or I can spend hours working on computers (which is my profession)? Go figure.
Micheal it's been a pleasure following along with you on your property and home build. Everything looks great hopefully down the road you'll come back with a follow up video of the lake fishing and your home thanks again
Thank you, Jake. Another idea for a video! I have the lake stocked with catfish and bass and we have been "catch and release" fishing already. The catfish are definitely eating size but we just don't have everything setup and ready to clean and cook. So many video ideas!
Excelente, acompanhei todos os vídeos desta construção, lindo lugar e linda mansão, a capitação da água da chuva muito show, parabéns pela equipe da construção. Boa sorte nesta nova morada.
I've had other people comment about this as well. I thought it was a little odd myself but the general contractor and framing contractor recommended using the rough cut cedar to frame out the entire roof of the patio - which left the two ends with exposed rough cut cedar. We like it now that it's finished.
Yeah, I considered it but if some crook shows up while I'm home, I'm armed. If they show up while we are gone, we have a security system and cameras and they would find the safes anyway.
I may have missed your commentary, but how do you like the stained floors now that everything is completed? I hated them at first, but now I love them!
If you haven't painted the garage walls yet, and I see many people do that for some reason, paint them pure bright white. It will amaze you at how much light it adds, like adding a couple fluors to the place. // The alder wood is very nice. I like it, too. // Like you, I'm not much of a fan of stained concrete. // Really love that shower tile. // Oh, smart. Big kitchen/living room combo. // Ooh, I love that, too: instead of the normal wall-mounted flashlight at the back door, you have an AR. LOL! // Prepping is extremely smart, as is two extra ammo safes. ;) // Did you stock the lake? Do you hunt your land? Nice place.
Absolutely stunning work! I'm half your age and it makes me tired thinking of all the work you've done. Anyways, quick question: with such extensive solar electric capabilities, what did you decide to use the propane for? Only backup heat? Some of your appliances? Thanks for your time. Dan
Thank you. My wife and I are exhausted also but very happy to be doing this. You pretty much guessed it about the propane. We use in the house for our oven and our tankless water heaters - which themselves are simply backup for our solar hot water system. We also have a second tank for our propane backup generator (which just charges the batteries but could be switched over to run directly to our service panel). Our outdoor kitchen also runs off the second tank. These are both 1000 gallon tanks and could probably last us a year or two if necessary. It's kind of that "prepping for the worst" mentality.
well done fantastic home and that lake is great your catfish will reach a really big size in there, hope you make a video of you fishing for a catfish when they have a chance to grow.
Sir, well done, beautiful home with awesome extras. Thought for a minute I was getting a tour of the Star ship Hoybook. Looking forward to your video on the solar hot water system. From this old Navy man, I extend to you a very well deserved BRAVO ZULU!
Thanks. Yeah, I may be an old guy but I've always been a geek. I love implementing all the "smart home" components. I'll try to do that video soon since the solar hot water is working so well.
I am a bit surprised you have so much heat load with the SIP construction. Is it mostly through the windows in the kitchen? Can you put in some trees that would shade the house but not the solar panels? Lovely looking home, wish I had the funds to do a house from scratch on my property with SIP, passive and active solar. With the lake you also had the option of using that for your heat pump, but the latest mini splits like you went with are as good or better with a lot less work. Congratulations on finishing such a massive project and seeing it through.
I was surprised about the amount of air conditioning necessary but at the same time, when we figure it up, we are only using about 20 KWH for air conditioning per day for 2400 square feet. With this Texas heat and humidity, I guess we shouldn't be so surprised. We bought high end Marvin Integrity windows and have now added blackout shades that we pull down during the worst time of the day. That seemed to help. We got pretty energy efficient doors but we think that could be a problem and especially the "dog door". It all adds up. We actually considered using our lake for geothermal heating and cooling but decided on the surety of electricity for mini splits in case of the lake drying up in an extended drought. Thanks for watching and for the compliments.
I like your house architecture here in Europe our homes are built differently, i must say that i prefer the american way which seems more efficient to me. Thank you for this video.
Beautifull done and believe me, the building cost is a bargain to those in Holland. Your insulation makes the house warm in winter, but not necesarely cool in summer. Thick stone walls and ventilation prevent heat transfer to your living space. The SIP construction in combination with an airtight house makes that whenever the warmth is in the house its very difficult to get it out, even by airco, because the whole construction has warmed up. You made a very good decision by spacing the metal roofing from the SIP, but even then it will tranfer a lot of heat into your construction. One of the solutions could be: creating a double layer by insulating the first floor, so that the heat stays above and at the same time ventilating the upper floor, by creating overpressure trough mechanical or natural ventilation on the upper floor at the front and the back of the house. I'am sure that your house will be warm in winter.:-)
Electricity - not so much! We are using 40 to 45 KWH per day because of air conditioning. Our heat index is 100 degrees Fahrenheit and more every day and will continue this way until mid September. Our 1500 amp hour battery is sufficient to get us through the night running a couple of mini-splits and our 6240 watts solar panels is enough to provide the electricity we use during the day but not enough to recharge the batteries. We have 24 more panels on hand waiting for the ground mounts to be delivered soon. This will add 6720 more watts and should be enough. I did not have any idea that every day here in northeast Texas is "partly cloudy" and I didn't realize that solar panels become so inefficient in the heat. We are only getting about 80% efficiency in this heat. It's definitely a learning experience but we love our new home. There will be a video on the new panels! Thanks for the comment. By the way, we recharge our batteries with our 15 KW propane generator every evening right now!
I liked your video's. Very informative. I was interested in the SIP House construction. but the video's carried me much further . Thank you. I was wondering what town are you near? Not to be nosy but curious when you said your lift came from Longview. I live near Longview..
Funny you should mention that. We were sitting on the patio last week about 6:30 in the morning and a coyote walked to within 30 feet away and stopped and looked right at me and then just casually walked into the woods. Of course I had no camera or rifle handy. I have a night scope on my rifle that will record video so I am going to have to learn how to use it and I might put up some wild hog exterminating videos! We had part of our new Bermuda grass sod rooted up the second night after it was put in by a wild hog. They are on my hit list.
Thanks. I used Samsung Smartthings as my hub and Google Home works with it very well. There are a few phrases where I have to use IFTTT. It's not only fun but saves a lot of steps. I might make a video but there are a lot of these on TH-cam. By the way, our electricians were not real happy with installing all the smart switches. I was a PITA to several sub contractors on this construction job.
Wow, Who needs a cave when you got the whole joint.. :-) Very good journey. Looking really good. You have inspired me for sure over the last year, I have been watching from the beginning. Looking forward to the component videos, Your Hot water one sounds great. Did I see an Atari in the museum LOL, 2600 nut here, but hell I remember punch cards too. Do you think you might do a "if I had to do this over" or " things to plan/watch for " video. Your experience is awesome. Thanks for the share and taking the time. I appreciate it.
Thanks so much. No Atari in my museum. There is a TI 99 that might look like an old Atari. Yes, I used punch cards in my college computer classes in college. We've come a long way. That's not a bad idea for a video. I'll give it some thought.
Isn't it amazing what a million dollars can do? Nice, but off grid is not cheaper, it it just the ability to live well when the grid apocalypse happens! Hope you put in a panic room, you showed a lot more of your home than I personally would had.
You have a very nice home. Are all the lights LED? Also how do you get internet, via satellite? Finally, I was wondering how you lawn and lake are surviving the wild pig problem in Texas?
Thank you. Yes, everything that uses electricity is scrutinized! We get internet with a cellular hot spot and a truly unlimited data plan bought off of eBay. It is working very well and we use close to 200 GB of data a month. We had wild hogs (at least one) tear up part of our sod the next day after it was put in but I bought anti predator lights and we have not had another one since - 9 months now!
Good job on the lawn pests, keeping deer and pigs out of your lawn and shrubs will save it from being destroyed overnight. As far as the cellular service, does the metal roof cause interference? If so, there are antennae which can be mounted on the outside of your home facing the nearest cell tower to boost signal strength. They also increase the ability to receive a signal in bad weather. Good luck.
I just found your videos, had no idea you could do that with a mini spilt. I just see them on tiny house, do you think you could run mini split in a Morton house
If you are referring to a Morton steel span home, the primary factor would be insulation. I'm sure you could build a very energy efficient home and mini splits would cool it just fine. My concern would be the steel beams themselves when it comes to thermal bridging. You would need to check into that. Most people don't realize the effects of thermal bridging even on a standard stick frame home.
Thanks for the compliment. That's a really tough question. Building lake and clearing property and building road - about $35,000. Solar electric system completed now (with 13 KW of solar and 3000 amp hours of battery storage) - about $45,000 . Rainwater collection - about $10,000. House - about $350,000. Everything was more expensive than we were planning but the end result is absolutely fantastic.
Improved? Not so much. More of a convenience to be able to turn on a ceiling fan or a light while never getting up off the sofa or out of bed! And things like all doors locking automatically at a certain time every night or closing the garage door from the sofa! It's just cool!
The shed was built before we knew we were building a house on the property and when we decided to build a house we wanted it closer to the lake (or pond as some want me to say). Thanks for the comment.
I have answered this question in other comments but the home itself cost about $115 per square foot under roof and there are about 3600 square feet under roof. Not cheap!
Aldo Locatelli I'm reserving my final judgement until really cold weather. In this Texas heat, we have to run the two 9000 btu cassettes in the "main room" as long as we are bringing in enough power and it will cool that area to 73. We leave all other rooms open and they stay at 75 to 76. At night we leave on one "main room" cassette and our bedroom 7000 btu cassette and our bedroom stays at 74 and the rest of the house is about 76 to 77 in the morning. I believe winter is when we will see very little energy needed to keep the house comfortable but time will tell. By the way, we are using about one kw per hour during the night.
I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I'm still "compiling data" but yes, we have to run air conditioning in whatever room we are in. If we don't, the temps can creep up to 78 to 79 degrees. I am interested in winter performance.
I knew you were going to need run the air conditioning quite a bit with that Texas heat and humidity. SIP panels alone wouldn't be sufficient in keeping the house comfortable.
Yes, we stocked it with 1000 catfish fingerlings in the spring of 2016. They are all about 3 pounds each now and we have been harvesting them slowly. The lake is overstocked at this point so we have contacted our dirt contractor about expanding the lake to 3 acres from the current 2 acres.
Yeah, it's not a bad habit to get into to! However, all lights are LED and we could probably leave every light in the house on and not use more than 200 watts.
yes, but doing this 24h a day and you are up to 5kwh usage per day. glad to see you are installing more panels. a couple of months ago a built a new carport and covered the roof with 6kw peak panels. it made a big difference for winter.
Good for you. I currently have 24 panels on DPW top of pole mounts which are seasonal adjustable. I'm so impressed by them that I have ordered DPW ground mounts for these next 24 panels which are also seasonal adjustable. The only hitch is that it takes 4 weeks to get the mounts delivered.
well you are in the summer anyway, i am sure until winter they are all installed and ready. i find so 2 months around winter solstice is always by far the most tight power wise.
i cant believe you went to all that trouble of going off grid and then connect to google listening spy and get a smart meter , you must know that they make you ill . other than that your home is an absolute dream and the video logs were great to watch so well done to you and you team of doers .
Well I don't have any kind of meter and I guess concerning the Google Home - on the scale of naive to paranoid, I'm right in the middle. Google's not going to hear anything incriminating in my house. Thanks for the compliment though.
Well, technically the roof was eventually done very well and we are very happy with it. But to your point, yes the first roofing contractor really screwed us up as far as not finishing.
Thank you very much. I totally underestimated necessary panels and also how many cloudy days there are here in Northeast Texas. We are right in the path of the Gulf Stream clouds that are traveling north every day.
We are generating approximately 28 KWH per day with 24 panels thanks to the partly cloudy days we've had since we moved in. This is not enough to run all our "stuff" and recharge the batteries each day. A little more than twice that, about 60 KWH per day with the additional 24 panels should do it. Then we will worry about winter when it gets here.
Yikes, that is way higher. I noticed the KWH numbers they quote dont clarify if it is per month, per day, per second or what. Very confusing. By decree of the energy corporations, I'm sure.
It's a little confusing, I know. My wife says that all the time. A KW is a measurement of "instantaneous" energy usage where a KWH is TOTAL energy used and not per any time period. For example, my 65 inch LED TV uses about .23 KW the entire time it is turned on. If I left it on for 10 hours one day, then it would have used 2.3 KWH. If I didn't turn it on again for another month then it will have used 2.3 KWH for that day and 2.3 KWH for that week and also 2.3 KWH for that month. Hope that kinda makes sense.
If I could give this more than one thumbs up I would. I love the off grid planning, the design of your home, the smart features, the hog gun on stand-by, the outdoor space, and just how down to earth and humble you are. Thank you for sharing this experience with us, and inspiring people like me to one day have something like this to call my own. God Bless!
Wow! Thank you so much. God Bless you too and good luck with your future plans.
Beautiful! Thank you also for answering every bodies question, which means I have no questions at the time since I read all the comments! Just bought 20 acres in Northern Nevada and plan on doing the same as soon as I can make the break from Commiefornia...pray for me!!!
Sorry to take so long to answer yours. I wish you all the best in getting out of Commiefornia. Hopefully, you're out by now.
I stumbled upon your build at about halfway through, but have seen all your videos now.. and wow, I'm glad I did see your first one.
No wonder you're so proud, you have a fabulous home in a wonderful setting.. just gorgeous.
Congratulations Mt Hoybook, and thanks for posting this whole series.
Well done !
.
Thanks so much for the kind words. We love our home.
Excellent show of your home Michael, fantastic job to you and your wife. Job well done, enjoy your new dwelling.
Thank you.
Great move with the aerators in the lake. It will make a huge difference in the health of the lake. The house and grounds are awesome. I really like your taste in wood and tile. Nice work. You and your wife have a lot to be proud of.
Thanks a bunch.
Michael: You have the patience of a saint but you now have a beautiful new home in a wonderful setting! I love the metal roof and that is something that is really catching on with older home renovations where I live in east-central Ohio. I am about your age (or older) and my wife is trying to talk me into building a new home. If she is successful, I hope I can muster the patience you exhibited during your new home build. Thank you for sharing your experience.
Wow! My wife might not agree with the patience thing sometimes. It really depends on the job. I love technology and learning new things and the pride of a completed project. My ford truck needs body mount bushings right now and 20 years ago I would have done it but I will pay someone to do that job now- no patience any more for that stuff. But I will install a complete solar electricity system or I can spend hours working on computers (which is my profession)? Go figure.
Good luck on your home building experience. The excitement and pride outweighs the headaches by far.
Michael - Thank you for sharing. I've gotten some great ideas from the design of your beautiful home. I look forward to additional videos!
Thank you. I have gotten some great ideas from other TH-cam videos so happy to share our experiences. More videos are coming, I promise.
Micheal it's been a pleasure following along with you on your property and home build. Everything looks great hopefully down the road you'll come back with a follow up video of the lake fishing and your home thanks again
Thank you, Jake. Another idea for a video! I have the lake stocked with catfish and bass and we have been "catch and release" fishing already. The catfish are definitely eating size but we just don't have everything setup and ready to clean and cook. So many video ideas!
You have inspired us to try and replicate your vision.
Thanks so much.
Just beautiful Michael well done I enjoyed watching very much thinking of a sip place my self
Thank you and best of luck to you also.
Binge watched all of your videos, beautiful home/compound it came out great! God Bless!!
Thank you very much.
Thanks for sharing with us on your journey...your house looks great!
Thanks for the kind words. It has been quite a journey and every day is a learning experience.
Excelente, acompanhei todos os vídeos desta construção, lindo lugar e linda mansão, a capitação da água da chuva muito show, parabéns pela equipe da construção. Boa sorte nesta nova morada.
Thank you.
Thank You for the GREAT VIDEOS
ANDY W.
Thank you, Andy Williams. I appreciate the kind words and I loved "Moon River", by the way!
Nice beautiful home. The only thing I would add would be a piece of facia on the left end of your house. It looks odd like its incomplete.
I've had other people comment about this as well. I thought it was a little odd myself but the general contractor and framing contractor recommended using the rough cut cedar to frame out the entire roof of the patio - which left the two ends with exposed rough cut cedar. We like it now that it's finished.
Beautiful home, thanks for sharing. I must admit I wouldn't have shown the location of the safes though.
Yeah, I considered it but if some crook shows up while I'm home, I'm armed. If they show up while we are gone, we have a security system and cameras and they would find the safes anyway.
I may have missed your commentary, but how do you like the stained floors now that everything is completed? I hated them at first, but now I love them!
Glen Atchison I wanted wood floors but my wife wanted stained concrete. I'm OK with them. They take spills very well.
Thanks for sharing, I love it dogs lake tanks and all. Great job hats off!
If you haven't painted the garage walls yet, and I see many people do that for some reason, paint them pure bright white. It will amaze you at how much light it adds, like adding a couple fluors to the place. // The alder wood is very nice. I like it, too. // Like you, I'm not much of a fan of stained concrete. // Really love that shower tile. // Oh, smart. Big kitchen/living room combo. // Ooh, I love that, too: instead of the normal wall-mounted flashlight at the back door, you have an AR. LOL! // Prepping is extremely smart, as is two extra ammo safes. ;) // Did you stock the lake? Do you hunt your land? Nice place.
Absolutely stunning work! I'm half your age and it makes me tired thinking of all the work you've done. Anyways, quick question: with such extensive solar electric capabilities, what did you decide to use the propane for? Only backup heat? Some of your appliances? Thanks for your time.
Dan
Thank you. My wife and I are exhausted also but very happy to be doing this. You pretty much guessed it about the propane. We use in the house for our oven and our tankless water heaters - which themselves are simply backup for our solar hot water system. We also have a second tank for our propane backup generator (which just charges the batteries but could be switched over to run directly to our service panel). Our outdoor kitchen also runs off the second tank. These are both 1000 gallon tanks and could probably last us a year or two if necessary. It's kind of that "prepping for the worst" mentality.
well done fantastic home and that lake is great your catfish will reach a really big size in there, hope you make a video of you fishing for a catfish when they have a chance to grow.
Super nice ! Love the FIFO system int he pantry too. You are ready if things get bad or even if they don't.
Thanks. These are called Cansolidators. We have used a few of them for years but decided to go "whole hog" when designing the pantry!
great finish! I would love to see floor plan. thanks for all the updates
Thank you. I have enjoyed doing making the videos.
Sir, well done, beautiful home with awesome extras. Thought for a minute I was getting a tour of the Star ship Hoybook. Looking forward to your video on the solar hot water system. From this old Navy man, I extend to you a very well deserved BRAVO ZULU!
Thanks. Yeah, I may be an old guy but I've always been a geek. I love implementing all the "smart home" components. I'll try to do that video soon since the solar hot water is working so well.
I am a bit surprised you have so much heat load with the SIP construction. Is it mostly through the windows in the kitchen? Can you put in some trees that would shade the house but not the solar panels? Lovely looking home, wish I had the funds to do a house from scratch on my property with SIP, passive and active solar. With the lake you also had the option of using that for your heat pump, but the latest mini splits like you went with are as good or better with a lot less work.
Congratulations on finishing such a massive project and seeing it through.
I was surprised about the amount of air conditioning necessary but at the same time, when we figure it up, we are only using about 20 KWH for air conditioning per day for 2400 square feet. With this Texas heat and humidity, I guess we shouldn't be so surprised. We bought high end Marvin Integrity windows and have now added blackout shades that we pull down during the worst time of the day. That seemed to help. We got pretty energy efficient doors but we think that could be a problem and especially the "dog door". It all adds up. We actually considered using our lake for geothermal heating and cooling but decided on the surety of electricity for mini splits in case of the lake drying up in an extended drought. Thanks for watching and for the compliments.
run a blower door test , your house must have tons of air leaks because of not having peel and stick seals between sip panels and windows/doors
I really like the layout. Any blue prints available to see?
Thanks for the trip Michael. Looking forward to your solar expansion.
Thanks. Me too! It's going to be really hot when we are putting this one up.
I like your house architecture here in Europe our homes are built differently, i must say that i prefer the american way which seems more efficient to me. Thank you for this video.
You're welcome and thanks for the comment. We love our new home.
Beautifull done and believe me, the building cost is a bargain to those in Holland. Your insulation makes the house warm in winter, but not necesarely cool in summer. Thick stone walls and ventilation prevent heat transfer to your living space. The SIP construction in combination with an airtight house makes that whenever the warmth is in the house its very difficult to get it out, even by airco, because the whole construction has warmed up. You made a very good decision by spacing the metal roofing from the SIP, but even then it will tranfer a lot of heat into your construction. One of the solutions could be: creating a double layer by insulating the first floor, so that the heat stays above and at the same time ventilating the upper floor, by creating overpressure trough mechanical or natural ventilation on the upper floor at the front and the back of the house.
I'am sure that your house will be warm in winter.:-)
It's just one floor there's no upstairs
Love the video. Looks great. Keep 'em comin'.
Thank you. I have ideas for showing several of our "sub systems".
thanks for letting us watch you building youre house. You Seem to have youre water use in hand. What about youre Electricity?
Greetings from holland.
Electricity - not so much! We are using 40 to 45 KWH per day because of air conditioning. Our heat index is 100 degrees Fahrenheit and more every day and will continue this way until mid September. Our 1500 amp hour battery is sufficient to get us through the night running a couple of mini-splits and our 6240 watts solar panels is enough to provide the electricity we use during the day but not enough to recharge the batteries. We have 24 more panels on hand waiting for the ground mounts to be delivered soon. This will add 6720 more watts and should be enough. I did not have any idea that every day here in northeast Texas is "partly cloudy" and I didn't realize that solar panels become so inefficient in the heat. We are only getting about 80% efficiency in this heat. It's definitely a learning experience but we love our new home. There will be a video on the new panels! Thanks for the comment. By the way, we recharge our batteries with our 15 KW propane generator every evening right now!
I liked your video's. Very informative. I was interested in the SIP House construction. but the video's carried me much further . Thank you. I was wondering what town are you near? Not to be nosy but curious when you said your lift came from Longview. I live near Longview..
We are outside of Sulphur Springs.
Looking nice, hopefully we get a video of some wild life too.
Funny you should mention that. We were sitting on the patio last week about 6:30 in the morning and a coyote walked to within 30 feet away and stopped and looked right at me and then just casually walked into the woods. Of course I had no camera or rifle handy. I have a night scope on my rifle that will record video so I am going to have to learn how to use it and I might put up some wild hog exterminating videos! We had part of our new Bermuda grass sod rooted up the second night after it was put in by a wild hog. They are on my hit list.
What an amazing house you've got up there! Was it hard setting up the smart home features like the lights etc?
Thanks. I used Samsung Smartthings as my hub and Google Home works with it very well. There are a few phrases where I have to use IFTTT. It's not only fun but saves a lot of steps. I might make a video but there are a lot of these on TH-cam. By the way, our electricians were not real happy with installing all the smart switches. I was a PITA to several sub contractors on this construction job.
Wow, Who needs a cave when you got the whole joint.. :-) Very good journey.
Looking really good. You have inspired me for sure over the last year, I have been watching from the beginning.
Looking forward to the component videos, Your Hot water one sounds great. Did I see an Atari in the museum LOL, 2600 nut here, but hell I remember punch cards too. Do you think you might do a "if I had to do this over" or " things to plan/watch for " video. Your experience is awesome. Thanks for the share and taking the time. I appreciate it.
Thanks so much. No Atari in my museum. There is a TI 99 that might look like an old Atari. Yes, I used punch cards in my college computer classes in college. We've come a long way. That's not a bad idea for a video. I'll give it some thought.
Isn't it amazing what a million dollars can do? Nice, but off grid is not cheaper, it it just the ability to live well when the grid apocalypse happens! Hope you put in a panic room, you showed a lot more of your home than I personally would had.
You have a very nice home. Are all the lights LED? Also how do you get internet, via satellite? Finally, I was wondering how you lawn and lake are surviving the wild pig problem in Texas?
Thank you. Yes, everything that uses electricity is scrutinized! We get internet with a cellular hot spot and a truly unlimited data plan bought off of eBay. It is working very well and we use close to 200 GB of data a month. We had wild hogs (at least one) tear up part of our sod the next day after it was put in but I bought anti predator lights and we have not had another one since - 9 months now!
Good job on the lawn pests, keeping deer and pigs out of your lawn and shrubs will save it from being destroyed overnight. As far as the cellular service, does the metal roof cause interference? If so, there are antennae which can be mounted on the outside of your home facing the nearest cell tower to boost signal strength. They also increase the ability to receive a signal in bad weather. Good luck.
Seen all of your videos now..
like them, hope 2 se moore /Michael in Sweden.
Thank you, Michael in Sweden. Keep checking in. I have several ideas.
total cost will be something interesting to know, beside that i think is every man dream....outstanding.
About $115 per square foot under roof with a little over 3600 square feet under roof. We have dreamed about this for years also.
I just found your videos, had no idea you could do that with a mini spilt. I just see them on tiny house, do you think you could run mini split in a Morton house
If you are referring to a Morton steel span home, the primary factor would be insulation. I'm sure you could build a very energy efficient home and mini splits would cool it just fine. My concern would be the steel beams themselves when it comes to thermal bridging. You would need to check into that. Most people don't realize the effects of thermal bridging even on a standard stick frame home.
Excellent job! I am new to your vlog. What was the total budget and final cost breakdown?
Thanks for the compliment. That's a really tough question. Building lake and clearing property and building road - about $35,000. Solar electric system completed now (with 13 KW of solar and 3000 amp hours of battery storage) - about $45,000 . Rainwater collection - about $10,000. House - about $350,000. Everything was more expensive than we were planning but the end result is absolutely fantastic.
@@MichaelHoybook What you think about Tesla battery storage? Do you ever consider them?
beautiful house.. but i stick with traditional masonry
Are you going to finish up the facia boards on he left side of your house?
I guess you are referring to the rough cedar that the patio is framed with. We are not going to paint that. We love the natural look.
Nice place, Michael!
Thank you.
I see things I and things I don’t like. To each his own.
The squeaky concrete floors would get on my nerves. Personally I woulda gone with wood floors and some carpet in the bedrooms.
Spray seed the rest of your land so it looks much better.
Hello. You use the system of "smart house" ? How has it improved your life?
Improved? Not so much. More of a convenience to be able to turn on a ceiling fan or a light while never getting up off the sofa or out of bed! And things like all doors locking automatically at a certain time every night or closing the garage door from the sofa! It's just cool!
Nice place ,would hav build the shed in the back
The shed was built before we knew we were building a house on the property and when we decided to build a house we wanted it closer to the lake (or pond as some want me to say). Thanks for the comment.
Could you give a approx. cost of your dream site??????
I have answered this question in other comments but the home itself cost about $115 per square foot under roof and there are about 3600 square feet under roof. Not cheap!
is the cooling and heat stable with the foam walls or do u know yet
Aldo Locatelli I'm reserving my final judgement until really cold weather. In this Texas heat, we have to run the two 9000 btu cassettes in the "main room" as long as we are bringing in enough power and it will cool that area to 73. We leave all other rooms open and they stay at 75 to 76. At night we leave on one "main room" cassette and our bedroom 7000 btu cassette and our bedroom stays at 74 and the rest of the house is about 76 to 77 in the morning. I believe winter is when we will see very little energy needed to keep the house comfortable but time will tell. By the way, we are using about one kw per hour during the night.
Curious how much your electric bill is with the sips?
Uh - no electric bill. 100% off grid solar electric.
Do you run the AC much or are the SIPs keeping it cool enough?
I have to say I'm a little disappointed. I'm still "compiling data" but yes, we have to run air conditioning in whatever room we are in. If we don't, the temps can creep up to 78 to 79 degrees. I am interested in winter performance.
I knew you were going to need run the air conditioning quite a bit with that Texas heat and humidity. SIP panels alone wouldn't be sufficient in keeping the house comfortable.
I hope you have laminated films installed on your windows, they are burglar and tornado proof .
AR by the door 👍
It's called a modern sporting rifle! And why not keep it where you can grab it on the way out?
היי עם אני רוצה ליבנות 160 מטר קומה 1 בית סתנדרתי לא יקר .מה המחיר כולל יווא מישלוך לישראל
Guesstimation on full project cost?
Since you're commenting on the house construction video I'm going to assume you're referring to the house. That was right at $350,000.
Legit house, very nice. Are you stocking the lake with fish for food? How many fish could a pond like that carry?
Yes, we stocked it with 1000 catfish fingerlings in the spring of 2016. They are all about 3 pounds each now and we have been harvesting them slowly. The lake is overstocked at this point so we have contacted our dirt contractor about expanding the lake to 3 acres from the current 2 acres.
i see you are turning off lights when leaving an unused room. i suppose being off grid .......
Yeah, it's not a bad habit to get into to! However, all lights are LED and we could probably leave every light in the house on and not use more than 200 watts.
yes, but doing this 24h a day and you are up to 5kwh usage per day.
glad to see you are installing more panels. a couple of months ago a built a new carport and covered the roof with 6kw peak panels. it made a big difference for winter.
Good for you. I currently have 24 panels on DPW top of pole mounts which are seasonal adjustable. I'm so impressed by them that I have ordered DPW ground mounts for these next 24 panels which are also seasonal adjustable. The only hitch is that it takes 4 weeks to get the mounts delivered.
well you are in the summer anyway, i am sure until winter they are all installed and ready. i find so 2 months around winter solstice is always by far the most tight power wise.
Well, we have that to look forward to in about 5 1/2 months!. Thanks.
i cant believe you went to all that trouble of going off grid and then connect to google listening spy and get a smart meter , you must know that they make you ill . other than that your home is an absolute dream and the video logs were great to watch so well done to you and you team of doers .
Well I don't have any kind of meter and I guess concerning the Google Home - on the scale of naive to paranoid, I'm right in the middle. Google's not going to hear anything incriminating in my house. Thanks for the compliment though.
I can't believe you spent so much money and yet had such a crap roof finish!
Well, technically the roof was eventually done very well and we are very happy with it. But to your point, yes the first roofing contractor really screwed us up as far as not finishing.
That's a very nice house. Had a feeling there would be more panels in your future. Have nice day.Phil
Thank you very much. I totally underestimated necessary panels and also how many cloudy days there are here in Northeast Texas. We are right in the path of the Gulf Stream clouds that are traveling north every day.
19:00 There you go, 12KW sounds more like what the average moderate size house consumes.
www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=97&t=3
We are generating approximately 28 KWH per day with 24 panels thanks to the partly cloudy days we've had since we moved in. This is not enough to run all our "stuff" and recharge the batteries each day. A little more than twice that, about 60 KWH per day with the additional 24 panels should do it. Then we will worry about winter when it gets here.
Yikes, that is way higher.
I noticed the KWH numbers they quote dont clarify if it is per month, per day, per second or what.
Very confusing.
By decree of the energy corporations, I'm sure.
It's a little confusing, I know. My wife says that all the time. A KW is a measurement of "instantaneous" energy usage where a KWH is TOTAL energy used and not per any time period. For example, my 65 inch LED TV uses about .23 KW the entire time it is turned on. If I left it on for 10 hours one day, then it would have used 2.3 KWH. If I didn't turn it on again for another month then it will have used 2.3 KWH for that day and 2.3 KWH for that week and also 2.3 KWH for that month. Hope that kinda makes sense.