Neil, a New Zealand military veteran, a builder in trade and my Couch Surfing host, decided to see if he could build a cheap self-sustainable house. So he bought some land outside the city of Raglan and went to work. This is the cool result! Read on…

Even has a flat screen TV

The house is built out of shipping containers but from the inside you’d never guess it because it’s so warm and homely. Wooden panels on the inside and insulation between the container and the wood provide for a welcoming environment.Solar panels on the roof provide most of the energy needed and there’s a backup generator just in case.

The roof is also used as a water collector with drains collecting water to into a container under the house. When the container fills up Niel turns on a pump and the water is transported to a container at the top of the hill. The height difference from the main container to the house allows for a gravity pump so water is pressurized. In the kitchen there is a water a purifier for drinking water.

Lucky New Zealand has loads of rain

Hobbits do like there food 🙂

The toilet is a compost one, which means no water and no sewage. When I asked Neil how it works he took out a big fat manual.  Well, I didn’t RTFM it all but the basic idea is this, there is a huge container under the toilet which is built in a diagonal way so that the oldest material flows down and outwards. In the container there is an ongoing ‘chemical factory’ whose workers are germs eating the nitrogen in human waste. For the ‘factory’ to work you also need some carbon in the form of leaves, saw dust or even vegetable left overs (although from Neil’s experience vegetables draw rats trying to get in the container) and oxygen (which means the waste can’t get too packed due to access moist – which means peeing in the garden if the weather is nice). After 12 months you can start shoveling out the compost and using it to nurture your garden.

No flushing!

The toilet has a pipe leading to the roof and a ventilator which airs it out. It didn’t smell like roses but I’ve been to plenty of regular toilets that smell a lot worse and as long as the toilet seat is kept down there is almost no smell.

Niel at a town party

Neil’s next project is to build an underground house that will be even more self-sustainable  and be protected from the wind which is really fierce and causes the house to shake sometimes because the shipping container is flexible. Best of all it even look like a real hobbit house!

Sort of Related:
Neil’s also trying to prevent the sand from the west shores of New Zealand from being mined by the Chinese. The black beach sand contains iron and the New Zealand government is planning to sell it to the Chinese. In order to try to resist this decision Neil made these sweet bracelets (which are way better than the stickers I’m used to giving out) and is trying to increase awareness so support the cause, check out the site kasm.org.nz and spread the word.