迷你屋生活在寒冷的气候中对地球是好是坏?

Are Tiny Houses Worth it? Are Tiny houses a good investment?这取决于你的生活方式以及你如何构建它们。Here are在你加入小房子运动并致力于在一个非常小的空间里生活之前，有一些事情需要考虑。

在过去的几年里，我们在我们的页面上展示了许多微型住宅，主要是因为我们喜欢紧凑生活的概念，以及微型住宅不可避免地包含的聪明的多功能设计方面。但问题是，微型住宅是否是应对气候变化和住房问题的好办法。

迷你屋生活是一种住房趋势，它激发了人们从根本上缩小住房面积，这是一件非常好的事情。The average house size in the US is almost 2,700 square feet, and in Canada it peaked at about 2,200 square feet but has dropped in recent years.

Today's houses are on average more than twice the size of homes built in the 1940s and 50s, which is a lot of living space considering family size has dropped from an average of over 5 people per home a generation ago to under 3 people per home today.

Compare that to Tiny House builders that are producing fully-functioning homes that are as little as 100 square feet, probably even less.

某事是好是坏、聪明还是愚蠢、聪明还是疯狂，完全取决于语境。虽然我们在我们的页面上推荐了一些小房子，但我们这样做并没有真正着眼于更大的全局，看看是否有不利的方面可以报告。我们的坏。

There is no doubt that the motive of many who build small comes from wanting to reduce their personal consumption and eco-footprint, but such well-meaning intentions don't automatically lead to the desired results. So we wanted to look at this housing trend in context to figure out when it makes sense, and when it doesn't.

Homes that have the lowest eco-impact:

公寓和共管公寓是微型房屋;它们只是堆叠在一起。他们在某种程度上是一种集体的生活方式，共享电梯、洗衣设施和派对房间，但最重要的是，他们共享热量。如果你足够幸运，在一栋做工精良的建筑里找到一套朝南的空调，你可能根本不需要加热。

这是因为大多数公寓只有空调空间的一面暴露在恶劣环境中，而任何独栋住宅都有五面暴露在恶劣环境中。由于大多数小房子都是有轮子的，所以它们的六个面都暴露在自然环境中。

An apartment likely won't have glamourous looking solar panels or super-thick walls, but they easily rank as one of the lower impact home choices. Along with shared heat, they use existing infrastructure (water/sewage/power) and are usually near bus routes and services, making even the worst of them greener than a lot of the 'green' homes that lie outside of urban centers.

不是每个人都适合市中心的城市生活，所以无论如何都要过自己想要的生活。但不可否认的事实是，如果你喜欢的话，城市中心的住房密度和共享资源将是减少个人碳足迹的最佳方式。

The economics of tiny houses:

They will for sure cost you less than a 'normal-sized' house, but when you calculate it by square foot it's often double the price. You can build a house for plus or minus $200-250 per square foot, but tiny houses can easily creep up to $400 or more per square foot. That's due to the economy of scale and the baseline costs that don't go away - you still need a kitchen, a bathroom, a heat source, ventilation system, windows and a door; but instead of those costs being spread over 1,000 or more square feet, they may be spread over only 100 square feet.

So, relative to the size, you will probably pay a lot for a tiny house. If you manage to get a permit to build something super-tiny on solid ground, you'll also have the inescapable costs of lot purchase, permits, plans, septic, well and power hookup (or corresponding costs to access city services), with very little space to show for it.

Anytime you build something that far outside of the norm (much bigger invites the same problem) there are less people that will consider it for purchase, so the potential list of buyers shrinks dramatically and makes resale a very real concern.

The operational costs of a tiny house are certainly lower due to the size and they will require far less heat than the average house, but since they are usually mobile and only 8 and a half feet wide (to meet highway regulations), you won't find them with thick super-insulated walls. Cathedral ceilings are essential for headroom, so absent as well would be an attic with a thick fluffy blanket of cellulose insulation.

Being a mobile home they are exempt from the performance requirements of building codes, so on a per square foot basis your heating costs could be among the highest. A high-performance stationary house many times the size could easily be built to require less heat than a mobile tiny house. And in a perfect world, people would live in smaller stationary homes.

When tiny homes make sense:

为了降低微型住宅的运营成本，它需要利用城市提供的所有电力、水和污水处理设施。温哥华巷道房屋运动就是一个很好的例子，微型房屋被建在陆地上，而不是轮子上。

Vancouver has back lanes that run through the middle of many city blocks which city planners have encouraged using to increase urban density by building tiny houses in backyards. They allow homes as small as 280 square feet and as big as 900 square feet, depending on size of the existing lot. This was a pilot project that started in 2009 when the city issued 100 permits for laneway houses; the movement was so popular that there are now over 2,000 such houses and it continues to grow.

In the case of Vancouver where affordable housing is a major crisis and the land in question is already part of a deeded lot, the economics make great sense. Laneway houses are hot items for rental and they greatly increase property values. And a small home isn't as much of a concern in a rental market; there will be no shortage of people willing to live in a shoebox for a spell if it's within their budget.

所以小房子是有地方的，只是需要找到它们。一些城市正在降低他们的最低住房面积要求，并探索微型住宅的想法，不幸的是，大多数城市仍然有一些愚蠢的和随机选择的最小住房面积;正因为如此，大多数小房子都有轮子，必须随时准备移动，以避免违反规章制度。See here to findwhere Tiny Houses are Legal to park and live in.

Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU)is another cool name and concept within the tiny house category, but refers more to a bunk house or home office (Shedquarters is my favourite of the monikers).

When you remove plumbing from the equation, you'll usually have better luck getting a permit to build(or have delivered)an additional structure on a property. I have a home office that is 48 square feet and twenty feet from my house; it's close enough for power, wireless internet and a cordless phone. I just go to the house when I'm thirsty or I need to use the john. It's also just long enough to include a bed, so it can also double as a mini bunk house if the need arises. There was no room for an office in my house and this saves me from a regular commute. This is to remind readers that despite a critique of this trend, we firmly believe there are cases where it has serious value.

A somewhat related housing trend is happening in many cities where an investor will pick up a dilapidated single house for a good price, then tear it down and build a duplex in its place. This doubles density and the shared party wall cuts heating costs for both neighbours.

The profit motive drives this movement, so the economics are solid; to buy a tear down and only build a single tiny house on a city lot seems like a wasted opportunity to increase density and a very risky financial move if you ever want to sell. If you were to do that and put two or three tiny houses on it, you might as well press them together to save on building cost and heating. Your new collection of tiny houses would then be a called a row house, or as mentioned above, a semi-detached duplex.

When a tiny house is a bad idea:

Aside from their home size minimums, many cities have bylaws limiting the amount of time you can park a mobile home in a laneway, some as little as 24 hours. So you may need to break camp after not too long and take to the road again.

That begs the question, what are you going to use to move it? You won't be pulling it behind an electric car, that's for sure. Most likely you'll need a big honkin' truck that will drink an easy 16 litres per 100km. So despite the best of intentions in reducing home size and carbon emissions, tiny houses on wheels can force you into a diesel-fueled vagabond lifestyle staying one step ahead of the law (okay, just the bylaws).

Power, water and sewage - these can be the Achilles heels of tiny houses, at least the mobile ones. The options for waste are holding tanks and composting toilets. Both require maintenance and neither comes cheap. The options for potable water are rainwater storage and treatment or filling up somewhere, also costly or a hassle. The options for power are installing solar panels and batteries or finding a place to plug in, like an RV park. More cost, more hassle.

When a tiny house starts to lose its appeal:

From reading about some less than favourable experiences, it seems the romantic image and quality of life can sometimes be the first to go. A lot of tiny house dwellers have their fill of living in cramped quarters after a relatively short period of time, and the lack of privacy can weigh on even the closest of couples, not to mention the unnerving concept (at least to this guy) of raising kids in one. Family camping trips are great fun for a short period but in a tiny house it never ends.

As a society we don't tend to stay put in one place the way previous generations did, though the odds of that happening go up a bit when people design and build their own dream homes. But can you really stick it out in a tiny home? When you build one, do you envision yourself staying in it forever?

设计一栋你打算住到咽下最后一口气的房子，必须考虑到随着年龄增长而减少的行动能力。如果你的房子设计得能让你住在同一层，你可能会有更好的机会成功。一所房子的主层有完整的浴室和卧室，因此不需要楼梯，而且很难看到一个小房子里典型的阁楼卧室适合老年人。这就把转售价值问题重新纳入了考虑范围。

我们可能都记得手机是如何变得越来越小，直到它们开始变得越来越大的，所以如果你被一个房子的大小(或手机)困住了，但现在不是流行的，你可能很难找到一个买家，当你想要脱手它。

在大多数情况下，我们在这里谈论的是一个定制的休闲车辆，模仿正常的房子的外观，使它比一个没有空气动力学，你不得不偶尔油漆和重新瓦。

A fleeting thought just came to mind as I wrote that - how well do shingles hold up when faced with a constant 100 km wind? If I were at highway speeds heading into a strong headwind I'd probably be watching my rear view mirror to see if I was leaving my own asphalt on the asphalt. Rolling down the highway with a gable roof and front porch is really hard not to see as a trend destined to pass.

What a tiny house needs:

首先，它们需要再大一点。在你生命中的某个时刻，你会想要有一个朋友在你身边，在浴缸里伸伸懒腰，或者不爬梯子就上床睡觉。想尽办法把房子的面积从目前1900平方英尺的平均面积上削减下来，但要现实一点，也许在你购买或建造房子之前先试着住在这样的空间里。一对极简主义的夫妇可以在400或500平方英尺内满足他们的所有需求，但比这小得多的房子可能会让你在某种程度上想要什么。

Storage is another big issue; if you don't have room for all your stuff, where does it end up? In a storage unit for the rest of your life at 100 bucks a month? Christmas decorations, bikes, cross country skis, high school yearbooks and Zeppelin LPs have to go somewhere.

If you built or are planning to build a tiny house, you'll either have or need tools. Where do they go when you're done? Your house may be small but it will still need the normal maintenance a house needs, requiring a tool collection a bit more extensive than a multi-head screwdriver and a hammer.

其实，小房子最需要的是有一个配套的小屋。这可能需要与您的区域市政当局进行一些谈判，甚至是一些小的差异，但您肯定可以建造比全国平均水平更小的建筑，可能比您的市政当局最初表示的更小，如果您投入一些魅力和努力来说服他们的话。这一运动无疑引发了关于适当住房面积的辩论，并迫使当地政界人士重新思考住房和分区政策。

Basements are not usually figured into square footage, so if you want to downsize, try skipping the basement and build a small house on aslab-on-gradewhere everything is on one floor including beds, baths, mechanical room and storage.

Before anyone goes away with hurt feelings, remember that we think building small is a great idea, and innovative buildings always inspire greatness in others, so a tip of the hat to tiny-house builders and dwellers. They are rolling billboards reminding the rest of us that we may not 'need' as much space and stuff as we think we do. So good on ya. They just shouldn't be mistaken for being the silver bullet to solve housing issues.

Tiny house desires and potential solutions:

• If you want to reduce your carbon footprint, buy a condo.
• If you want a compact lifestyle, buy an even smaller condo.
• If you want to live in a small, off-grid house, build a small, off grid-house. Build it as small as you can comfortably and legally get away with, and put it on a well-insulatedslab-on-gradeinstead of wheels.
• If you want to cruise the highway with your home in tow, don't reinvent the wheel, buy an RV. They are designed for exactly for this purpose - compact living space with wind-resistant exterior surfaces and the best possible aerodynamics for fuel efficiency given what they are.
• If you want to pull something down the highway that looks and feels like a real house then get out there and do it. They aren't so bad an idea that you should thwart your dreams and live an unfulfilled life.
• And finally...if you are a nomadic hermit and reasonably skilled carpenter with a lot of scrap building materials and an unused trailer chassis, you've got tiny house written all over you. In the words of Darth Vader, "it is your destiny".