Who Loves the Sun?

I once met a vegan who ate plants because they were closer to the sun. His reasoning: if plants get power from the sun, animals eat plants, and we eat animals or their byproducts, we get shortchanged in the sun department. By simply eating plants, therefore, he  figured would close the gap and be fortified with much more solar energy.

Luckily, the universe has finally come to its senses and allowed cheese-lovers like myself an opportunity to harness the power of the sun in a less calcium-deprived way: solar panels.

Soaking up the sun 

It's hard to think of a better way to power a tiny house. After all, you can get sunshine pretty much anywhere you bring your home. Install a panel or two on the top of your house and boom! Good to go! Or, you can try my personal favorite and use a plug and play system. This way, you can place your panels wherever you'd like.

(See also: A Tumbleweed in the Sun)

Given the small scale of a Tumbleweed, a little energy goes a long way. On a sunny day you've got yourself a pretty bright little space already, and you'll probably want to spend your hours basking outside on whatever gorgeous piece of land you're currently calling home. Then, when the sun moves on to power another hemisphere, you tap into your stored supply of solar juice, turn on a couple light bulbs, plug in your two or three necessary electronics, and live it up.

That said: yes, the sun is great, and with some smart investments, we should be able to do all we want electricity wise. But the first way to save money and help our earth is to scale down our usage in general. Just because the sun shines fairly reliably doesn't mean we should go crazy with it- after all, our usage of electricity goes beyond what's powering our devices. We have to think about who is making them and how, what they're contributing to on a larger scale, and if we actually need all of them on a regular basis.

Start by figuring out what uses the most power, then figure out if there's another way you can swing it. For instance, an electric water heater will use a good amount of electricity. Instead, why not try a simple passive solar water heating system? 

You can read about how Laura decided which appliances made the most sense here. 

In a tiny house, you'll probably find it easy to realize exactly how little you need- the rest will seem like clutter in no time. So live simply with solar power, and live simply with your solar-powered devices. But more importantly, get out and run around in that sun!

Have a good story about your solar powered tiny house? Submit it!