@151949 wrote:
@Mominohio wrote:
I don't watch the shows these are featured on, but have seen them in different articles, and the one difference I thought was that these tiny homes are most often put out on land, in some rather isolated areas. That could account for some of the price difference, maybe getting land or lot with it? Could they be built more solid and with more insulation than a trailer? Also, many of them, because of the isolated areas, don't have all (or any) utilities available, therefore composing toilets and wood burning stoves necessary.
And they may, for the most part, be just another fad that time will see come and go. Not that some people won't see benefit in them over time, but many people will tire of the lifestyle and move on to other things.
Utilities or not it is against the law for them to just throw their used dirty water on the ground - like from showers and sinks. They need to have a septic tank even if they have a composting toilet.And even those need emptied out every few days. Plus where are they getting water? and electric? They still need a hot water heater and a furnace of some type.
You are making a lot of assumptions. Many people live without electric. They either don't use electric at all or use solar generators or solar panels to supply all their electric needs.
Some areas have artesian wells, and you don't even need power or a pump to get water to the surface. We have such a well. Water comes out without either of those things, at about the width of a stream from a fire hose. Several of our neighbors have the same.
Many people also live without hot water heaters and furnaces. Many in this area are heating entirely with wood (some with coal), and heating water on the stove, or in apparatuses that attach to a wood burning stove.
Fridges are made that run on propane, and the use of ice boxes still exists, as in climates that get cold enough, ice can be cut from ponds (or in our case, poured and formed in molds from the artesian well), stored in ice houses, and used in the warmer months.
And in many areas, your septic and leach fields are draining into near by creeks and ditches. It varies by locality, but many places, 'greywater' is perfectly legal to use (that is all household water except sewage) and people build natural filters to use the greywater for other purposes (agriculture)
Composting toilets is a subject that can get rather complicated,and there are other options that people sometimes call composting toilets, that are actually something else. But the waste from composting toilets can be mixed with other things (sawdust and more in a process) and treated and is actually fit for composting and agricultural use. It is a more complicated process than just dumping the excrement on the ground, but research it is you wish.
I live in an Amish community, and they, along with many non Amish minimalist (and just plain poverty stricken people) live without many of the things we consider necessary requirements. As long as no health code violations occur, to each their own.