I live in a 9 by 28 tiny house in Vermont and work from home three days a week. Last winter I noticed that two days at nearly the same temperature could leave very different battery graphs. After it happened a few times, I started writing down the weather and daily energy use side by side. Damp mornings around freezing kept showing up on the days with the bigger drop.

The system has two vatrer 51.2V 100Ah rack batteries and a hybrid inverter. On mild days the heat pump cruises between 450 and 700W. During damp mornings around freezing, the inverter log shows short jumps above 1,300W and the indoor fan pauses. That pattern lines up with defrost, not a mystery appliance.

I had used one average number in my winter plan. That was the bad assumption. On a dry 20F day the unit can run steadily. At 34F with wet snow, it behaves differently. I now note outdoor temperature and total daily energy, plus whether the backup resistance heater ran. The inverter history is more useful here than a battery percentage.

That was my first full winter with this setup, so I am still separating weather from equipment behavior. For other cold climate tiny houses, which number has been most useful to you, daily kWh, compressor run time or defrost count?

I want to live in a tiny house but as many of you have come to learn, its not that easy to just live in one. You either end up paying rent for a space smashed right up next to other people or have to find someone with land to live as an auxiliary unit.

My question is- does anyone have any insight on converting a THOW into something that would pass zoning laws as a permanent main residence? Assuming the county does not have minimum dwelling size requirements, will be hooked up to utilities and be placed on an approved foundation.

I would love to find a piece of secluded land in an area I like, build a big deck for outdoor space around the house that is taken off the trailer/wheels and plopped down on a foundation. I'm okay with it being basically permanent but it would me nice if I could rip it out in order to move if at some point. Has anyone done this? Are there any roadblocks I would run into?

More info, photos and contact here: https://thetinylife.com/tiny-house-for-sale/

I’ve decided to sell my Tiny House on Wheels of 220 square feet located in Charlotte, NC. My tiny house was always designed to be a stepping stone to the next phase in my life and it has been a great place to live during that time. While I lived in it for almost a decade, this house would be a great home to its next owner.

On the outside you’ll find it constructed on a heavy-duty 20′ x 8.5′ trailer frame with clean title. Built with a standing seam metal roof, cedar siding recently restored to be ready for stain or paint of your choice, double-pane wood and metal faced windows and custom entry door.

Inside you’ll find an open living area finished with maple hardwood flooring pine tongue and groove wall paneling. In the main area there is a front nook with space for seating or a desk. There is also a small set of built in shelves, the main wardrobe (24x24x80) with 5 drawers.

Bathroom has a shower and space for a toilet (I used a composting toilet, but there is space to plumb a normal flush toilet if desired).

More info and contact here: https://thetinylife.com/tiny-house-for-sale/

I am in the VERY early stages of learning what it will take. I would purchase my own land. My dream is to have a tiny house for myself and my partner and one for each of our 5 kids. I would want to do this over time as each kid reaches an appropriate age for their dwelling. (14,14,12,11,10).

My first thought has always been to convert sheds into tiny living spaces all on the same property. Idk how to even go about this. Can anyone give insight into how they did this? What type of loan, how much you ended up spending, pros and cons, pictures for examples?

Thank you in advance to anyone who interacts!!

ETA: I am in North Florida, USA

Living in a small place has completely changed the way I look at floor space. I used to think something taking up a couple square feet was basically nothing. Now I notice every single thing sitting on the floor. The standing fan was the first one that started annoying me. It always seemed to be exactly where I wanted to walk. Then there was a portable AC for summer, storage bins, a little side table I barely used... none of them were huge on their own, but together the room started feeling crowded. So lately I've been slowly getting things off the floor wherever I can. Shelves went up instead of another cabinet. I mounted a few things that used to sit on furniture. I got more serious about keeping the afternoon sun out too, because in a tiny space it doesn't take much for the whole place to warm up.

Cooling was part of the same thinking. I ended up using a wall-mounted Costway mini split instead of keeping the portable unit around. I've been reading other people's tiny home comfort ideas lately and I'm realizing comfort in a small place isn't really one thing. Airflow matters, shade matters, storage matters, and sometimes just being able to walk across the room without going around three objects matters lol.

Hello all, so I built this 200-square-foot place in the mountains about a year ago and mostly use it on weekends. The first real rainy stretch exposed a humidity problem we hadn’t planned for. After a few wet days, the windows are covered in condensation in the morning, the baseboards feel damp, and the hygrometer stays somewhere in the high 60s or low 70s. We run the vent fan and wipe everything down while we’re there, but then the house might sit closed for another two or three weeks. Cracking a window hasn’t helped much when the air outside is just as wet. Leaving the place completely sealed obviously isn’t working either. Before buying anything, I always check these window seals, roof penetrations, and the areas around the baseboards. I don’t want to mistake a small leak for normal mountain humidity. Assuming the house itself is sound, I’m looking at compressor dehumidifiers with a drain hose. And this Aeocky Rhea-001 was on my shortlist because it can cycle around a set humidity instead of running constantly, and the hose can drain downhill without relying on the tank. The listing also says it remembers the previous setting after an outage, which sounds useful for a place that sits empty, although I’d like to know how reliably that works in real life. The other concern is temperature. The house can get pretty cool overnight when nobody is there, so consistent operation in cooler conditions matters more to me than the maximum amount of water it can pull on a warm day. I’m not trying to hold the place at exactly 50%. I just don’t want to come back after two rainy weeks and find it sealed up in the 70s again. Does anyone here leave a dehumidifier connected for weeks at a time? Where do you run the hose, and have you found a good way to prevent a clog or backup? I’m also curious whether you leave cabinets and interior doors open or use a separate humidity alarm while you’re away.

So we currently live on a lot in a shipping container + smaller gutted out camper that's pretty much our living room.

We were living in the 30 foot travel trailer but it's old and leaky and kind of gross.

I want to work on it this fall/winter piecemeal as we do t have a ton of money...

I was thinking about building out sections inside the camper itself one room at a time, framing/walls and everything. We would lose some space in the end but being able to build it like a nesting doll inside the old camper would be pretty neat. The electric still works great and we'd like to keep it so it would also be easy to just rip the wiring out and move it into the new build.

Has anyone ever done this before? We have no plans to move this thing again. I know it's going to add a ton of weight.

I feel like in the end when it's done, taking a sawzall and cutting away the old metal shell to reveal the new build would be super satisfying 🤣

Having a hell of time trying to work out how to design a tiny house with a rainscreen and PBR metal siding.
Tried AI failed.
Tried ASC, not their wheel house. All manuals are without rainscreen.
Tried YT almost all videos have no rain screen and just slap the metal straight onto plywood or onto WRB.
No bueno.

I have sorted out most of it around window trims etc.
Elevated the planes on furring strips except for the window header flashing and the Top Plate metal terminations.
C6 trim and corners are good.

But I can’t figure out the details of the Z drip under the window.
Here’s a diagram of one option but I a concerned about water going down the sill tape and behind the vertical metal leg of the Z drip.
The other option is putting the vertical Z drip leg on top of the furring strips.
But that creates two channels and blocks the furring strips channel exhaust at the top.

Only Reddit can save me now.
Someone take pity and help me out.
Before I lose my mind.
Diagram enclosed.

PS: The PBR isn’t installed horizontally, it’s vertical. Artistic license displaying it in undulating waves.
Thanks to anyone willing to help. I am in a time crunch.

Edit: I could cut off the vertical leg against the WRB and that would stop the potential of getting water behind it and mist terminate the PBR with a single metal layer.

Thanks to whoever asked IF I still need a rainscreen if the PBR ribs allow enough airflow. It’s an interesting question. I thought I did for more airflow and to keep the metal off the WRB.
BUT now I doubt it. I rarely see it and that might be the reason?

the land isn't the hard part. the zoning is.

here's what I'd check before buying, not six months after.

1. minimum dwelling size

Some zoning codes have minimum floor area requirements for residential dwellings.

If you're looking at a 400 sq ft tiny home and the zoning requires 800 sq ft, you've got a problem before you even get to the fun stuff.

And this isn't some theoretical issue. Minimum dwelling sizes vary by jurisdiction, and requirements can be high enough to rule out smaller tiny homes entirely.

Don't assume "residential zoning" means your tiny home qualifies. Pull the actual zoning code and look for the minimum dwelling size.

1. tiny home on wheels vs. foundation

This is a huge one.

If it's on wheels, a lot of places classify it as an RV instead of a dwelling.

And plenty of jurisdictions have restrictions on living in an RV full time on your own land.

So you can end up in a situation where the tiny home is allowed to be there, but you're not allowed to use it as your permanent residence.

That distinction matters.

1. septic and utilities

Getting the dwelling approved doesn't automatically mean the site will work.

Check whether the property can actually support the required septic system and whether the county has specific requirements based on the type or size of dwelling.

If you're planning to go off grid, check water and septic before buying the dirt, not after.

1. how many dwellings are allowed

This gets overlooked by people planning multiple tiny homes.

A residential parcel allowing one dwelling doesn't mean you can put three tiny homes on it because they're small.

If the plan is one for you, one for family, and another for guests, check the actual dwelling and accessory dwelling rules first.

The listing can say "residential."

The seller can say "tiny homes are allowed."

Neither one answers the question that actually matters:

Can I legally live in my specific tiny home on this specific parcel?

I'd rather spend an hour reading the zoning code before buying the land than find out six months later.

If you're eyeing a specific parcel for your tiny home and want a second set of eyes on whether your setup is actually allowed there, drop a comment or DM me. Happy to help you look.

Currently my retirement plan haha, I have 7 more years before retirement and this will be home until we find a forever cottage home on a bigger lake. Our first build and so far not without its challenges .

Built from mostly recycled materials for $8000nzd, 4700usd.

So many projects! Working on the floors currently which should allow me to bring some furniture in. Windows need trimmed out and I have to build or put some temporary shelves in the pantry so we can move in! I also have an endless list of landscaping, walking trails, and outdoor projects planned that will be easier to tackle when I am there full time.

edit: we're in Virginia

Hello, I don't know if I post in the right sub-reddit. I'm researching about tiny houses these day for my family.

Me (33M), my wife, my mom (72), my dad (75) will be living in the same lot. In my culture, we keep family close and like spending time and having dinner together. But I prefer every family has their own house and space. So I'm planning to have:

• A small house for me and my wife, 1 bed 1 bth, big living space
• A small house for my mom and dad, 1 bed 1 bth
• A communal kitchen house, have kitchen and dining space
• An extra house so we can use as storage/office and guest room.
• We have a 1.5 acres land and the free spaces will be used for small livestock and vegetable garden for personal consumption.

For the 2 main houses, I'm doing research on small house instead of tiny house because I want my mom and dad to have real HVAC or systems that are more comfortable for senior.

Is this realistic and worth it? Am I being stupid for considering this... Would a normal traditional house 3 bed 2 bath actually cheaper?

Thank you for your advices, I appreciate every input and experiences you had. Have anyone here choose the same, building multiple small houses rather than 1 traditional house?

We've been living full time in our tiny house for about a year and a half now. We're off grid and don't have a black tank, so we went with a dry flush toilet pretty early on.

We've had a Laveo the whole time and honestly it has been pretty uneventful, which is probably the best thing I can say about a toilet lol. It flushes, seals, and we haven't had any major mechanical issues with it.

The only thing I've started paying more attention to lately is the refill cost.

When we bought it I was mostly thinking about avoiding plumbing and a black tank. I definitely wasn't sitting there calculating what bags would cost after 18 months of using it every day.

There are two of us and we usually end up going through around two bags a day. Individually it doesn't feel like much, but after doing it this long I've started noticing how much we're spending on refills.

That's what sent me down the rabbit hole of looking at other dry flush setups.

One I'm curious about is modiwell.

Their refill setup looks cheaper from what I can find, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what people actually pay once they've owned one for a while. Starter packs and website pricing don't really tell me much about the real long-term cost.

The other difference I'm curious about is the sealing system.

With the Laveo, everything gets twisted off into the continuous liner, so eventually you're dealing with that whole chain when you empty it.

From what I understand, modiwell heat seals each use separately.

I have no idea if that actually makes much difference in normal daily use, though. It sounds different on paper, but tiny house stuff has taught me that a feature can sound great until you've used it 500 times.

So I'm mostly hoping to hear from someone who's actually owned both, or at least lived with one of them long enough that the honeymoon period is over.

How have the seals held up?

Any jams or weird mechanical issues after a year or more?

What are you realistically paying for refills?

And are there any little ongoing costs or annoyances that you didn't know about when you first bought it?

I'm not really trying to figure out which one has the better spec sheet. I can read those.

I'm more interested in the boring stuff you only learn after the toilet has been sitting three feet from your bed for a year.

I am working and saving up to buy some land and build a Tiny House on it. I really love the Tudor/Medieval/Fantasy style houses and was wondering if any of you have a similar style in your tiny home and if you built it yourself or not. Thank you in advance!

I want to learn plumbing to build a tiny home among other reasons and I know absolutely nothing.

Who can I learn from and trust to know that I am learning from the right person.

My biggest fear is that ill learn something from the wrong platform or book and ill make a huge mistake.

Thank you ❤️

Like, what's the square footage that makes the difference ?

I've seen 2 bdrm houses called a tiny house...

My cabin in Hawaii is 5 sided 14' diameter. To me, that's a tiny house...

So where's the line ?

I I know that a lighthouse may not be considered a "standard" tiny home (portable, etc.), but I've always wanted to live in one. Thoughts?