OFF-GRID, MODERN, & INDESTRUCTIBLE

Tamar SOLARHOME, in Greens Beach, at the northern end of Tasmania's famous Tamar Valley, was designed and built in an attempt to create a genuinely emission-free house that would not only be totally self-sufficient for power, waste, and water, but also fireproof and cyclone proof.

It's a 170m² house that consists of a 150mm-thick concrete outer shell (including the roof and floor slab), with an unbroken internal layer of 250mm-thick polystyrene insulation in the walls, ceiling, and floor, triple-glazing, airtight construction, heat-pump-generated hot water and internal air heating, 25 high-performance solar panels, and a massive battery which stores enough electricity to power an occupied house for 5 days, during winter, with no solar input at all. It's also got 45,000 litres of stored rainwater and a tertiary sewage treatment system.

As you can probably imagine, it turned out to be a very expensive build for a relatively small two-bedroom house, but did operate as an Airbnb for almost five years without needing a generator. However, a backup generator eventually had to be installed after some guests plugged in an electric vehicle overnight and drained the battery, followed by a winter week without sunshine. So we finally discovered the problem with, and limits of, emission-free living and renewable energy – it can't supply electricity on demand.

The next prototype, the 27m² SOLARCABIN 27, to be built in the mountains above the Hunter Valley north west of Sydney (due to be completed before the end of 2022) is considerably less ambitious but much more affordable, especially for those people who want to live off-grid. It's a stylish but functional cabin, easily buildable on any site, thermally comfortable in any climate, and totally self-sufficient for power, waste, and water. Follow its progress on this channel.

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