Comments on: Tiny Dogtrot House – Part 2

By: Michael Janzen

Michael Janzen — Sun, 02 May 2010 15:20:13 +0000

You’re right, the roof design have weak spots just where you mention, the long unsupported cantilevered porch created by the gap. Increasing the pitch would also help.

Dogtrots are best for regions that are hot and humid but this part winter we saw a lot of those kinds of places under snow… so it seems more and more important to design/build/plan for more snow… just in case.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Sun, 02 May 2010 13:29:54 +0000

My concern is the weight of snow (we had significant amounts last/this year) might be too much for the roof between the units and the roof extension. I like the style of a traditional dog trot but wonder if the design changes (2 inch gap and extended roof) might pose a problem. Thoughts?

By: Tiny House Design , Archive » Dogtrot Friggebod

Tiny House Design , Archive » Dogtrot Friggebod — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:12:29 +0000

[...] small house dream. David is a ex-Aussie living in Sweden and was inspired by a combination of my dogtrot tiny house concept and a friggebod. In Sweden you can generally build a friggebod (small habitable adjunct building) [...]

By: Plus46

Plus46 — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:19:25 +0000

Great site and great effort on the dogtrot concept. Really appreciate your extended effort by designing a second dogtrot. ;~D

I have drawn up several concepts with two small cabins and a flat green roof. As I live in a cooler climate I planned to orient the larger side toward the sun and place a flat water tank (or well insulated sunken spa) inside the enclosed glass house allowing to be used as a low thermal heat mass, which can also be heated with a wood fireplace.

The permit issue is strange, where you can not join the two buildings. Beyond my research, currently.

I like Grant Wagner's comment re freezing water, it also lends well to underfloor heating. Perhaps combining a flat water tank and some kind of Back Boiler/ masonry Russian wood stove. Efficient fireplaces can be build on-site from raw materials ie http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/1... (not affiliated)

A really great effort on your designs and again great effort on tinyhousedesign.com

Nice to have dreams

Plus46

By: roof

roof — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:17:11 +0000

Great Post

Your post is really great and very helpful, keep it up.

From:Roof

By: Tiny House Design , Archive » Dogtrot Cabin at Two Mile Ranch

Tiny House Design , Archive » Dogtrot Cabin at Two Mile Ranch — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:56:49 +0000

[...] other day and spotted this dogtrot cabin. It caught my eye because I’d just posted a couple dogtrot shed designs the other week. This is the cabin at Two Mile Ranch and while it’s not exactly a tiny house [...]

By: ee downs

ee downs — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:33:40 +0000

First time poster, long time reader.

You’ve got a winner here, Michael. But I would make a couple of changes: I would make the screened porch a separate structure altogether. I would widen it a bit – you’ll want to spend a lot of time here given the small size of the other buildings, so make it bigger. But more importantly, I would raise its roof a foot or so for better ventilation. The porch roof being uninsulated, will be overwarm, so the higher the roof the better. The wind can then more easily carry the heat away. The porch roof should overhang the other two roofs a bit to keep the rain from coming in from the sides.

My two cents.

By: Michael Janzen

Michael Janzen — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:59:19 +0000

That’s an excellent point and suggestion. The rain/drinking water is not ideal for circulating through the floor but a solution made to do that is ideal. Building some kind of coil loop that travels through the water tank (heat exchanger) might be the best option. The water tank should be well insulated like you suggest but the glass is there to act like a little solar oven to heat the water on cold days.

Actually it might be a fun little experiment to design a little test system with a solar oven, gallon water jug, copper tubing, and solar powered pump to see if a heat exchanger like this would work.

Thanks for the input Grant!

By: Grant Wagner

Grant Wagner — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:42:35 +0000

About the box around the collector, as you commented on in your previous post, I think it’s the insulation which matters as much, if not much more than the amount of glass. If you’re in a cold climate like I am, it’s all about not letting the heat escape, and even the best glass is a very poor insulator.

Although a good deal more complicated that just a box around a tank, if you’re truely worried about freezing, have a closed heat exchange system. This means that you’re running glycol or some other freeze resistant fluid through your solar collectors and then using heat exchangers to put the heat into a VERY well insulated water tank. It’s always a trade off between simplicity and efficiency.

By: Tim R

Tim R — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 18:27:07 +0000

I agree, I wish I had a place to build something like this and the money too.

You could also put a reflective material on the inside of the water tank doors so that when the doors are open they would concentrate more energy on the water tank to heat it more. Like I’ve seen on some solar cookers. Something like aluminum foil or radiant barrier stuff would probably work just fine.