I really like Tumbleweed Tiny Houses. Apparently a lot of other people do too – since they launched, they’ve added a lot of other designs, and redesigned the website (not to mention an appearance on Oprah). I imagine that someday I’ll probably build a small house, very much like those. In fact, it’s what I think about whenever it’s cold out, or cold in a room. I imagine my small house with a nice wood stove inside, keeping everything very comfortably warm.
I like wood stoves too. I just recently learned how they work, and it’s very clever. There is even recent advances in wood stove technology! Today, you can get a stove with a catalytic converter, and it is supposed to create an incredibly efficient burn. I’ve also seen a few that incorporate little sterling engines in them, to power fans that move more air through a stove so a larger room is heated quicker. That is a little like my campfire powered patio idea.
I imagine a small fire pit built into a outdoor patio, with a little sterling engine to power a pump which would move oil through piping under the patio and seating, heating up the whole area. Concrete is an easy option for all of the ground and seating materials, but I’m sure there is a better option.
Heating, in general, seems like a fairly easy problem to tackle. At the moment, we’re doing it very wrong. A furnace is a terribly inefficient method of heating a house: heat is a byproduct of the process, but also the main purpose of the machine. The energy of a furnace should be put to work. This makes me think of the heating system in the bus. The engine up front serves to move the vehicle, and the coolant from the engine travels back to the veggie tank, which increases the viscosity so it is a viable fuel, which keeps the engine running on a cheaper smarter fuel. And if it is cold, we divert some of that coolant to the heaters. All of it serves a primary purpose other than heating, yet can still be used for heat.