UNO Magazine: Big Future for Tiny Homes

The following story appeared in the most recent issue of the UNO Magazine, which highlighted the efforts being made by UNO alumni, faculty, staff and students to promote health and wellness. Read the magazine online as a Flipbook or download a PDF.

Apart from a slight difference in their bank accounts, Bing Chen and Elon Musk share plenty in common. A love for engineering, solar power and space, for instance. Both are inventors and patent holders. And both share a vision — a future filled with tiny, environmentally friendly houses.

Musk, who resides in a 20-foot x 20-foot home on the SpaceX campus in Boca Chica, Texas, envisions communities on Mars made up of similar tiny homes, Chen, a UNL engineering professor who teaches primarily at UNO, has a more down-to-earth vision.

With a rapidly growing population of people 65 and older, the nation is facing a rising shortage of homes for seniors who want to live near family and avoid relocating to a nursing home or assisted living center. That need, coupled with increasing environmental and energy concerns, points to a promising future for what Chen calls “grannie pods,” tiny, portable, self-sustaining houses furnished for aging parents and set up on a family member’s property.

“When it comes to improving the quality of life for seniors, there needs to be alternatives,” says Chen, who has taught in the University of Nebraska system since 1967. “There is a segment of the population that wants to have their parents close by in a safe, secure environment.”

Small, sustainable, portable homes that are fully compliant with the Americans’ With Disabilities Act will offer them that opportunity.

From vision to reality

Over the past two years, Chen, along with students from Metropolitan Community College, have taken the first steps to making his vision a reality. Earlier this year, this multidisciplinary team completed construction of a 400-square-foot prototype of a sustainable, ADA-compliant home that one day could be mass produced and easily transported almost anywhere in the country.

The construction students framed the home, created the floor, erected side walls, wired the home for electricity and installed heating, ventilation and air conditioning. The finished 20-foot x 20-foot home, which was built on MCC’s campus, will be moved on a flatbed trailer to a location near UNO’s Baxter Arena this coming spring.

Once at UNO, the house and its many high-tech features and furnishings will be rigorously tested by students and researchers representing a variety of specialties, including electrical and computer engineering, architecture, civil engineering and gerontology.

While Chen envisions small, sustainable houses such as this prototype serving as safe homes for seniors, he says they could fill many other needs, such as homes for retirees looking to downsize, shelters for the homeless and housing for disabled veterans.

Grant-funded

The prototype was funded with a $150,000 grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust Fund, a $30,000 grant from Omaha Public Power District and a $10,000 grant from the Metropolitan Utilities District. Among its many leading-edge features are hail-resistant solar panels from Taiwan, an insulated door built in Germany, and advanced energy-efficient windows from Colorado. The result is a living space that can be efficiently heated by an energy output equivalent to 16 birthday candles.

OPPD utility engineers shared their expertise to help contribute to the home’s energy efficiency. The UNO researchers will share their test results and findings with OPPD for use in other projects.

“When we built this building, it was meant to hit a home run out of the park when it came to thermal performance, energy efficiency and sustainability,” Chen says.

Water-conscious

In addition to the many energy-saving features, it is also equipped with cisterns and filters for collecting and converting rainwater into safe drinking water, a feature that Chen predicts will become increasingly important as large portions of the country struggle with water conservation.

Chen says he envisions a water recycling system that will one day repurpose water collected from sinks and showers for use irrigating gardens and flushing toilets.

Because these houses will be homes to an aging population, they also must be equipped with features that will make them safe for people with disabilities. UNO gerontology Professor Julie Boron and doctoral student Mollie George will conduct a range of tests to ensure the home is comfortable, convenient and secure.

This testing will include the effectiveness of automated windows, beds and appliances, “fall-and-call” technology that will automatically notify family and emergency medical personnel and even unlock the door for rescuers if the inhabitant falls and needs assistance.

A variety of floor coverings will also be tested for comfort and safety. Lighting schemes will be studied to determine their impact on mood and comfort level. Every detail, including the kitchen and bathroom cabinets, will be scrutinized to determine the best accessibility for people in wheelchairs.

Chen and the researchers will also conduct tests to simulate power outages to ensure the solar panels have collected and stored enough power to keep vital technology operating in the event of a power outage.

The prototype was intentionally built using high-end technology and energy-efficient materials. The end result is what Chen calls a “small house on steroids.” If a person chose to purchase the same-sized house equipped with the same technology, they could expect to pay $150,000, a price that is comparable to what some small houses are selling for on the West Coast.

The price of the house can be reduced by substituting features with lower-cost alternatives, Chen says. Unlike the expense of a nursing home or an assisted living center, the cost of a small sustainable home can be easily recouped by selling it and having it relocated when it is no longer needed.