Off-Grid Tiny Homes

It means the home is built to accept solar panels, battery storage, water collection and filtration, and a composting toilet, with those systems specified before the build starts rather than retrofitted afterwards. Choosing the capacity at design time is what keeps the systems, the envelope and the electrical layout consistent with each other.

It is quoted at design time, because the array, battery bank and water storage are sized to your site and your loads rather than sold as one fixed package. A home on a shaded northern lot and a home on an open southern slope do not need the same system and should not be quoted the same price. Package figures will be published on this page once they are confirmed.

There is no single answer, and any builder quoting one without asking about your site is guessing. The array is sized from your winter sun hours, your daily load in kilowatt-hours, and how many days of autonomy you want the battery bank to carry. Heating is usually the load that decides it.

Yes, if it is designed for your site's winter. Cold-climate insulation, freeze protection for water lines and tanks, and a backup heat source that works when the batteries are low are all part of the design rather than add-ons. The frost depth and snow load your build has to meet come from your state and often from your county or city.

It depends mostly on your county or city. Zoning decides whether the dwelling is permitted, the building code decides which water and waste systems are allowed, and the health authority decides on-site sewage. Even the code varies: Wyoming does not adopt the IRC statewide, so whether a residential code applies to a house is a local decision there.

On a foundation, often yes. A modular home on a permanent foundation follows the standard mortgage path because it is real property, once your state's factory-built housing program has approved it. Zenith is built to the IBC/IRC for that route. A home on wheels is personal property and finances through RV or chattel lending, where NOAH certification is recognized by US lenders and insurers.

We build self-sufficient homes to order rather than holding finished inventory, because each home's power, water and waste systems are sized for the site it is going to. If you are after an existing off-grid house with land, that is a real-estate listing. If you already have land or are buying it, check what the parcel allows first.

Yes, if the format suits the parcel. A modular home on a foundation is inspected as a building, which is how zoning treats a house. A home on wheels is built to the RV pathway, and in Montana, for example, it is titled as a travel trailer and cannot be lived in as a permanent dwelling except where local rules allow. Choose the format after checking the parcel, not before.

No. We build finished homes, with the power, water and waste systems specified before construction. A kit leaves those systems, and with most shell kits the insulation and air sealing too, to the buyer. That is the work that decides whether an off-grid home holds up in winter.

Start with the format the parcel permits, because a home you cannot legally live in is the most expensive outcome. Then stage the systems: specify the capacity at design time and install the full array and battery bank later. The affordable tiny homes page covers the lower-cost end of the lineup.