self-sufficient home in Thailand
I just came back from visiting the home of a Scottish guy who built his own home in central Thailand. It is on about 100 acres of land at the foot of a mountain and is almost totally self-sufficient. The guy built the house using only day laborers which earn here the equivalent of less than 5 dollars a day.
It is a 2 story concrete and brick structure with a raised front porch under which is a huge water tank. All of the water he uses all year comes from rainwater collected during the rainy season. The water is collected from rain gutters onroof and goes into tanks under porch and then pumped to a 2 story pump tower. The excess is stored in 2 stone cisterns. There are 3 pvc pipes above ground which run back to the house. Two pipes are above ground and hot water comes from these pipes as they are heated by sun. He has electric generators but now is tapped into public electric service supplied by forestry department, in return for him letting them use his land for ranger station. he has pigs and chickens and a fish pond and grows all his own vegetables, and has 3 satellite tv dishes. Besides his own house he has a small house on the land for caretaker's family who help with farm. Excluding the land, he says the whole operation cost about 35,000 dollars in US money. Plus he makes money selling cassava, corn and other vegetables he grows.
