Tiny House Truck Finished with Build process.

[jedics]

I built a tiny house truck for full time living and wills videos were a massive help to me!
Here is link to my google photos page showing the finished project and explaining the build process, I hope its helpful to others:

Tiny House Truck Life

113 new items added to shared album

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Why 3 places?

 

[jedics]

Because I didn't know where it should go really...

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I would have gone with Show and Tell.

 

[kenryan]

Very nice! I fully appreciate your work.

 

[corn18]

That needs a few windows. I couldn't stand living in a windowless box. I guess it makes the perfect stealth camper.

 

[jedics]

There are just too many benefits to not having them. The only thing I am missing out on is a view and I can just go outside when I want that.
Cities aren't exactly view worthy usually either which is why most windows spend most of their life with the curtains drawn anyway.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Cameras displayed on the monitor... that's enough windows for me.

 

[jedics]

Yeh I find my window to the internet infinitely more stimulating, especially with most of the very crap views my truck has had over the years.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Clever evap. You have trouble keeping it fed with water? If you mentioned it, I missed it. How do you exhaust the humidity? Out the skylight?


Our place is high desert (6500ft/1980m), and fortunately, we typically have enough power (3kW PV and 21kWh Li-NMC) to run an A/C unit if we need to. We have two portable evaps on wheels, but they seem to consume a lot of water. Having only about 1000 gallons max water on-site, it's a trade-off. Water the the more precious resource for us.

 

[jedics]

Yes skylight vents all the humidity, I mention in the post how I built the evap so I could stay off grid longer but it can use about 80 Litres a day so I am out of water in 3 days when its peak summer anyway. I have 9kw of batteries which is probably enough to run a a split system over night in summer but its kind of on the edge when I add my computer set up to it as well.

In the future I will probably upgrade to something closer to 20kw of batteries and double my solar input by either adding more panels I just deploy on the ground on a frame or some 'thin film' panels I can add to the walls of the truck or a combination of both, then I can run an AC as long as I want while the world burns.

 

[djnorth]

What type of mpg do you get?

 

[jedics]

I haven't really measured it but a guy who had the exact truck with the same sized body on it as mine said he only got 300 to 400km per tank on a highway but he was carrying heavy machinery in his, I imagine 500km tops per 100L tank. It has the aerodynamics of a house so the short answer is terrible fuel economy.

Lucky for me I don't drive it around much...It stayed in its first home for a year, its second home has almost been a year, so the only diesel I use is for my heater, I wasn't even paying to registering it when I had somewhere to keep it.

 

[No Idea]

Lived 6 years in Perth, WA so I know the dry heat well. Absolutely your build thread and your choices. Clearly you spent a lot of time researching before you started. Fantastic results and stealthy as it should be.

I am a bit of a water filtration geek in terms of energy water conservation and proper purification. If you haven't got one I will email you an excel sheet I have for inputting all the UV steriliser dimensions and UVC outputs to tune your flowrate for the best dose for all the published baddies you can get in water. Feel like I want to contribute something to you for showing me what has only ever stayed inside my brain.

 

[jedics]

I already have a 7 stage filter system for drinking water, for a while I also had another 3 stage with a uv sterilizer for a recirculating shower but I didn't like it, the water smelt no matter how much a cleaned it and the globe needed to be left on constantly using a lot of power.
Given that water quality is only going to get worse I probably should look into a system to filter it as it goes into the tank.
Are you aware of a uv sterilizer that can be turned on only when it is being used without shortening the life of the globe drastically?

 

[No Idea]

Yes you can either buy one with the flow sensor as a package with the steriliser or buy seperate. They are cheap as chips. Depending on your flowrates if you need a bigger one just get an aquarium one. So long as it is stainless steel body for better internal reflectance. They all have DC ballasts for the light and some can run straight off 12v or 24v too so not wasting DC>AC>DC conversions.

 

[jedics]

I had a large aquarium 240v stainless steel one and everything similar required the globe to be constantly on.
Do you have any links for the type you suggest?

 

[No Idea]

Ahaa IC. If your existing one is 240v can you check output voltage and whether it is a combined AC DC and ballast or seperate ballast? If combined you would need a complicated control for the AC side but if ballast seperate then you can cut off the AC plug and provde DC input to ballast and a DC flow switch in line with your filter tubing.

Before you go too far looking at your existing aquarium steriliser, picking UV size is same as DIY solar planning. Start with your flow rate requirement first. Showers too or only drinking water and if drinking water sterilize point of use, or sterilise as you fill your tanks, or both? I recommend. Personally I dont think you need UV for showers.

Sorry we are going off topic for solar but of you want UV I recommend dont sterilise as you shower but do sterilise as you fill your tanks then only sterilise point of use for drinking water. So two UV filters: big so you can fill your tanks reasonably quick and has a simple manual on off for that, and small flow rate controlled for point of use.

I design for 5 log 99.999% kill rate for pathogens.

 

[jedics]

I sold the system because I don't have room for anything I am not using, the uv filter was for a recycling shower, eg. using the same water to shower in multiple times but I doubt I will try to do that again because my experience was so bad, I prefer taking showers less often in clean water and I can still go 2 weeks between refills of fresh water tank.

The problem is the globes they use, they are not designed to be turned off and on regularly and die in months instead of years, the one I had used about 30w constantly, not practical for me.

So are there ones I can get that only power on for when the water is flowing?

 

[No Idea]

If you are not in a rush I will email you on the address in your build link. Happy to give you some links and pointers. Out shopping with wifey at moment.