Home building construction...

[gcb17]

so if i understand this correctly;
you have 12vdc outlets in each room
your aux lighting in each rooms fixtures including mood lighting are also 12vdc and are they all wall switched or on a photo cell or use some other lighting control?

thanks

The 12V lights (as well as 120V) all have regular wall switches. The wiring in the house is both 120V AC and 12V DC depending on the fixture/receptacle and switch they route to. The 12V receptacles aren't your standard 120V 2 flats and 1 round receptacle, so you physically can't plug in the wrong item. Excluding the "mood lighting", I've upgraded the other 12V lamps to LED and they're as bright if not brighter than a normal 120V lamp.

 

[Greg]

Am I this friend? Or do you have more than one friend who did this?

View attachment 105739

I was talking about a different friend, but I remember we talked about the IFC construction in your cabin too!

Looks great GJ! I'd love to see it in person one of these days!

 

[Greg]

Have you looked into this: http://sirewall.com/

There's a company in New Mexico that does similar work.

I'm familiar with rammed-earth construction, the Sire wall looks interesting... makes me wonder how it would hold up after many years.

Our house here in NC has solar and a windmill feeding a 12V battery bank, so that's an option. The builder (previous owner) ran power from the battery bank to one aux receptacle in each room, but more importantly to light fixtures in the bathrooms and closets. There are also some "mood lights" in the living room and kitchen that we use 99% of the time. It's free power! The battery bank is also hooked up to an inverter to change it to 120V. That is hooked directly to a small section of breakers in the fuse box in case of power outage. Our (120V) power bill has never been above $50. Not sure if it's because the 12V lighting helps or if we're just cheap.

Relying 100% on solar is a bit daunting, but there are options... And a well/septic are the way to go. If you have enough land there's no reason to pay for water/sewer.

My wife has a friend here in Colorado that has a massive, offgrid home with solar. It's an amazing building, but the cost all together is about 5x what I can afford...

I agree with having enough land, the problem out here is that there are places where drilling a well isn't an option, either too much alkali in the water and it's so bad it cannot be treated, or there simply isn't enough water. The price of land worth building is steep, too.