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Anonymous
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# Posted: 23 Nov 2007 11:55am
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Great site. I too am a small cabin owner and am always trying to convince my friends they should be to. I was lucky enough to find land with a cabin on it. I think your site is just what people are looking for. I have met so many people who just want such a getaway and I will recommend your site from now on. Great work.
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drmargy
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2007 02:01am
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I also am glad to find your site. I have been living in a small cabin for several years and it is a wonderful way of life. I will be watching to see what others have to say. If you want to see more about my cabin life you can click here. Here's a picture of it from the cliff. That's my floating garden in the front.
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CabinBuilder
Admin
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2007 10:02am - Edited by: CabinBuilder
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Floating Cabin – interesting idea... Beautiful view!
I was thinking of having something smaller – perhaps a floating deck/gazebo with table, chairs, etc.
Just curious – did you have to get any special building permit to construct your float cabin? Is this type of cabin typical in your area?
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Vince P
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# Posted: 20 Dec 2007 11:28pm
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Quoting: drmargy If you want to see more about my cabin life you can click here.
You have an nice cabin with a somewhat similar layout
to mine. I'm interested in your woodstove placement.
Are you able to get heat to the other side of your
cabin? Particularly where you have a guest room and
storage room partitioned off.
In the dead of winter (read: well below freezing), it
takes 24 hours or so for my living area to warm up,
but my partitioned off area never quite does warm up
much. My walls and ceilings are insulated with 6 inch
fiberglass insulation.
For now, my current plans are to heat up those areas
with a space heater run off the generator. This summer
I'm installing a cheap solar sytem with a deep cycle
battery which in theory should power a woodstove blower
and lighting.
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drmargy
Member
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# Posted: 22 Dec 2007 07:15pm
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Hi All -
First to answer CabinBuilder. Float cabins are a tradition on the BC coast from old logging days when people would move their living facility along with them as they logged new areas. Today you will find them mostly at fish farms or fish camps on the ocean. Our lake was near a mill town that started at the turn of the century. People who worked at the mill built cabins up the lake as their getaway place. In those days you could just pick your spot and build your cabin. Now you have to lease the water rights from the BC government. Since the cabins are not in the municipal boundaries there are no codes that must be followed either for the construction of the float or the cabin itself. There are about 200 or so flat cabin and maybe 50 more land cabins our lake, but there is currently a moratorium in place so no more growth can occur.
For Vince. Our weather is typically not below freezing, except sometimes at night. When we arrive at our cabin it takes a few hours to get it really warm and toasty. When we go to sleep we sometimes are too lazy to get up and stoke the fire and it cools off quite a bit by morning. My mom sleeps in the downstairs bedroom when she visits (she's a young 91). While it isn't as warm at the main room or the loft, she doesn't complain. We don't have any downstairs doors, so both of the small rooms have constant air flow. Maybe that helps keep them at a comfortable level. I do notice that the floor takes a long time to warm up, maybe a day or so. After it soaks up some heat all of the downstairs rooms stay warmer. The floor of our cabin is about 3 feet above the water level. Maybe the open air underneath also helps to moderate the temperature inside. We use solar only for limited lighting and mostly to run our computers. Because we have lots of clouds during winter we run out pretty quick. Propane lasts quite a while so we use that more for everyday lighting.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Margy
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drmargy
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# Posted: 23 Dec 2007 04:58pm
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Vince - I forgot to tell you about stove placement. It is on the outer wall at the front of the cabin in the living room area in front of the sofa. We get lots of heat from the pipe as well as the stove. You can see my floorplan here http://powellriverbooks.blogspot.com/2007/06/float-cabin-living-cabin-floorplan.html. It is closer to the room we use as a bedroom, but all of the rooms seem to warm up fairly well after a few hours and maintain their heat for a few hours after the fire goes out. -- Margy
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Vince P
Member
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# Posted: 23 Dec 2007 05:05pm
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Quoting: drmargy We use solar only for limited lighting and mostly to run our computers. Because we have lots of clouds during winter we run out pretty quick. Propane lasts quite a while so we use that more for everyday lighting.
Hi Margy, I use propane too and have come to enjoy the hiss of the lantern.
Regarding Solar charged batteries: How long would you estimate a full charge of your
battery will last you? I'm going to be using a 115 Amp hour deep cycle battery and wanted only to run a 23 Watt CF bulb. Since the bulb consumes 0.33 amp and the inverter consumes 0.4 amp, in theory I should get:
115 Amp hours / 0.73 amp = 158 hours
I'm very skeptical that I'll get that many hours even though I'm sure that this is the correct calculation. What do you think? I'm testing this right now as we speak and will post the results when I have some.
Vince
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drmargy
Member
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# Posted: 23 Dec 2007 08:34pm
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I am not an expert, but will try to tell you what we have. On the cabin we started with a small solar panel and two 6volt batteries in a series to make the necessary 12 volts. We then added two more batteries for additional backup. In the winter we don't get much sun. Even on a sunny day it comes over the crest of the hill at about 10:00 and sets behind the trees at about 1:30. Then there are the weeks on end of clouds and rain. Because of that we added a larger panel but kept the same batteries. We've also added a wind generator, but it only works in a strong storm. We never take the batteries lower than 12.0 or they can't be recharged enough with the sun alone. We also have lots of portable battery packs that we charge up on sunny days. How much actual electricity do we get? Not much. If there is no sun for several days we can't use the system at all. Then we rely on the propane and sometimes a gas generator if the computers need a fix. As far as lights, we probably use them for about 3 hours maximum a night. And by lights, I mean one energy efficient bulb over the sofa and one above the bed, but only one at a time. We use rechargeable reading lights at night and save our power. But in summer, we have more electricity than we need.
That being said, we also have a separate system on a boat behind our cabin that we use during the day and save our cabin system for the night. On the boat we have one panel and two batteries. We are getting ready to add two more out there. For a small cabin it is a complicated electrical system, but mostly because we have evolved over time.
Hope this helps. -- Margy
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 8 Jan 2008 07:52am
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You could try 12 volt LED lights. I have two and each draws 2.6 watts. Yep this is not a mistake, 2.6 watts not 26.00. Each is eqivalent to about a 30 watt incandescent light. In a small cabin 2 would work well and 4 may be overkill if 10.4 watts total can be described as such. I bought mine at Princess Auto in Ontario. About $9.00 each. I use two 15 watt solar panels and a single Canadian Tire bought 70 A.Hr marine type deep cycle battery for my set-up. The LED lights really make solar panels worthwhile for lighting alone.
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