bus into off-grid portable tiny home

I just saw this and think it is so inspiring I wanted to share:
https://navigationnowhere.com/category/bus-renovation/

It is a guy who has renovated a bus to be an off-grid tiny home.

This is kind of my dream...

Great link Kat.  

I was asked to move your post into nomadic housing and tiny house living, where it is better suited and might get more views.  

Good luck with your own dream house.

Ok thanks Roberto!

Is there an "off grid" forum? That's what I was actually looking for, I'm particularly interested in the off-grid and portable part -- which makes it a tiny home, but that's not the most important feature to me. So I found the homesteaders forum when I searched for "off grid" had most of the off-grid posts.

Hi Kat.  It makes sense that a search for "Off Grid" would come up heavy in the homesteading forum.  Many homesteads are, by nature, off-grid at least to start with, and many folks have off-grid living as their goal for their lifestyle when choosing to homestead.  

Is there an "off grid" forum?

 No, there isn't.  There is so much interest in "off grid" ideas, that we created a forum called "Energy", and in there, you will find that it's broken down into all of the subforums which contain the individual "off grid" modalities, like wind, solar, et cetera.  Energy is right under homesteading in the column of buttons to the left of the thread.  If you click on Energy, you will see the subforums on the right side of the next display.  Hopefully, you will be able to find what you are looking for in those subforums!  Or if you have a specific question, about a specific modality, then posting it in the subforum specific to it would probably be the best way to do it.  I hope that helps.  :)  

Meh.

My nephew came to visit us a couple years ago.  He and his family lived in a "Skoolie" (converted school bus).  He painted it white to help keep it cool during the summer, it still to WAY more energy to keep it barely tolerable than it took to cool my whole 1500+ SQ Ft house to a comfortable temperature.  From what he tells me, it's even worse in the winter.

IF you live somewhere temperate, then that's not a problem.  If you live anywhere that requires heating or cooling, it can be a big issue.

A School Bus has zero insulation.  The one in the linked article has about 200 sq ft of living space behind the drivers seat.  If you insulated it to the same level as a typical house, you'd lose about 20% of that.

I always assumed that the main point in a tiny home was to save money.  If you spend twice as much to heat/cool it as a full size house, then what's the point?

Peter VanDerWal wrote:Meh.

My nephew came to visit us a couple years ago.  He and his family lived in a "Skoolie" (converted school bus).  He painted it white to help keep it cool during the summer, it still to WAY more energy to keep it barely tolerable than it took to cool my whole 1500+ SQ Ft house to a comfortable temperature.  From what he tells me, it's even worse in the winter.

IF you live somewhere temperate, then that's not a problem.  If you live anywhere that requires heating or cooling, it can be a big issue.

A School Bus has zero insulation.  The one in the linked article has about 200 sq ft of living space behind the drivers seat.  If you insulated it to the same level as a typical house, you'd lose about 20% of that.

I always assumed that the main point in a tiny home was to save money.  If you spend twice as much to heat/cool it as a full size house, then what's the point?

Modern school buses actually do come with insulation. Unfortunately it I thin and poorly implemented. Pretty much useless.

To address this issue, many of us strip out all of the interior metal panels, wall and ceiling. Install good insulation and thermal breaks on the ribs. Then build a new wood ceiling.

I lived full time in a bus that was very well insulated for 6+years and found it to be very comfortable.