Students design tiny, cheap, off-grid homes for others to copy

A prototype image of UBC Sustaingineering’s SMRT budget- and climate-friendly housing project.

Cara Chapman, an environmental engineering student at the University of British Columbia (UBC), says reading about climate change in the news can often feel "isolating and hopeless. Students might feel like there’s nothing they can do. 

But the passion project she’s part of at school has made her realize that this is far from the truth.

Every weekend, Chapman and a group of her peers gather at a grassy lot near UBC’s main campus — geared up in hard hats, vests, work boots and heavy gloves. 

They’re working hard to assemble a prototype structure that aims to tackle both climate change and the demand for affordable housing — the Sustainable Mobile Research Testbed (SMRT) —  a tiny home powered by renewable energies.

UBC Sustaingineering members gather at a lot near UBC’s main campus, where a shipping container full of tools is stationed, to build SMRT.

Isabella Ma, the technical lead of the building design team, explains that SMRT is “basically just like a smaller version of a home.” 

Built on a trailer bed and estimated to cost between $20,000 and $30,000, she says their tiny home with a sloped ceiling will have a main living area and a bathroom with space for a shower, toilet and sink.

The main area will serve as a combined living and kitchen space with room for a bed. The home measures about 2.4 metres in width and 6.7 metres in length — that’s the size of a short school bus. 

The tiny home will be capable of generating sufficient power to support basic amenities, such as running a mini fridge and hot plate. While a typical tiny home might use an HVAC system, their project will not have one, as the home will not be occupied and will function as a testbed.

SMRT is one of the current initiatives of UBC Sustaingineering, a clean energy technology design team co-captained by Chapman, made up of students from different disciplines. 

The group was created in 2014 by Martin Ordoñez, a professor in the UBC department of electrical and computer engineering.

Jade Henzie, an engineering student and the building design manager for the tiny home project, says it’s a community unlike any she’s been a part of before. 

"It's so cool to be working with so many people that care and are willing to put in the work to try and make change,” she said. 

What is SMRT? 

Tiny homes are often built with affordability in mind, as they are much cheaper to construct than traditional homes due to their smaller use of materials, says Ma. 

Across Canada, in cities like Winnipeg and Toronto, pilot programs featuring tiny homes have been built as a solution to the housing crisis, providing options for vulnerable populations and those priced out of the market. Design work is also in progress for a project to construct up to 80 tiny homes in Saint John. 

Ma says their tiny home will be different, because it will incorporate clean energy technologies. 

The home will be powered by a combination of solar panels, a small wind turbine and battery storage. Its water and drinking supply will come from a rainwater collection, filtration and storage system. The management of grey water disposal is not included within the scope of their project.

To ensure all systems are operating properly, the home will  also be fitted with a 3G-network remote monitoring system that tracks data like battery levels. 

According to Henzie, their tiny home on wheels is designed with the hope that it can eventually be placed anywhere in Canada or around the world, offering a way to escape the city.

The SMRT tiny home will be built on a trailer bed for mobility.

Can it help with climate change? 

Elie Azar, an associate professor at Carleton University specializing in sustainable buildings and communities, and not involved in the project, says that using renewable energy sources leads to reduced greenhouse gas releases.

At the same time, he says these tiny homes could also withstand the effects of extreme weather caused by global warming. 

“If you have a power outage, if you have an extreme event like a cold snap or heat wave that's impacting the grid — by being independent of the grid, you are increasing your adaptability to climate change,” said Azar. 

Educating the future 

Along with creating a tiny home, the SMRT team is also publishing a blueprint on how to build it. 

Henzie says it’ll be an online open-access guide that provides step-by-step instructions.  

“We just want to share our knowledge,” she said. 

“And we want to help other people.”  

Azar commends the students for their eagerness to share their learning experience and the construction process.

“That has a significant value for the future builders or the future students who want to develop similar homes,” said Azar. 

“Beyond the success of that particular home, the impact on society and the impact on education could be also very important and set the stage for future, even better solutions.”

Sustaingineering members are UBC students from different disciplines. Back Row (from left to right): Ellie Smith, Johan Gavin, Isabella Ma, Cara Chapman. Front Row (from left to right): Talia Lemieux, Josephine Sopotiuk, Kyle Wong, Veronica Ehrensperger.

The Sustainingeering team's busy school schedules mean they can only meet to work on the tiny home once a week, but they plan to finish the build within a year, having started construction in November 2024.

“I hope that this team inspires hope, because if a bunch of students can do it, so can the rest of the city, so can the rest of Canada, and the world,” said Chapman. 

— Catherine Zhu

The web version of this week's newsletter can be found here. Read old issues here. The CBC News climate page is here.

Check out our podcast and radio show. In our newest episode: Come along to Tunisia where climate change is forcing fishers to adapt their livelihoods. We hear how the warming waters of the Mediterranean Sea have meant an influx of invasive species and the loss of old ways of life. And we hear about a project helping communities organize into cooperatives and find new ways to survive. 

What On Earth drops new podcast episodes every Wednesday and Saturday. You can find them on your favourite podcast app, or on demand at CBC Listen. The radio show airs Sundays at 11 a.m. ET, 11:30 a.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador.

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Reader feedback

Last week, we shared a story about how students at Appleby College were cutting cafeteria food waste. In response, reader Michèle Andrews let us know that we had included a link to the wrong climate action program. Oops, our bad! Michèle is the co-founder and executive director of the Climate Action Accelerator Program, in which the Appleby students had participated. Our previous story is now corrected. 

The story also resonated with Code Clements, who used to occasionally drive a school bus. He points out that big shiny apples can look appealing to adults in the grocery store, but might be nearly impossible for a child to finish. “Ninety per cent of food waste on a school bus … was fruit, some apples with one or two bites.” His solution: Buy bagged apples, which tend to be smaller and cost less, to tackle the issue of food waste and school lunches. 

Write us at whatonearth@cbc.ca. (And feel free to send photos too!) We'd also love to hear about any New Year's resolutions you have to make your life a little greener.

The Big Picture: Seeing heat loss in homes

If your home feels cold, it may be losing heat through its roof and walls, raising your utility bills and potentially your greenhouse gas emissions. Handheld thermal cameras can help pinpoint areas to seal and draft-proof in individual homes. But Calgary-based MyHEAT can map heat loss in entire neighbourhoods, using thermal cameras mounted on planes. This map shows heat loss in a row of homes in Okotoks, Alta. Red areas are those losing the most heat and blue areas are losing the least. MyHeat uses the maps to give each home a heat loss rating, which utilities and governments can use to encourage homeowners to draft-proof and insulate their homes. A case study in Medicine Hat in 2018-19 showed the images and ratings encouraged people to participate in energy efficiency programs and reduce their energy use. So far, MyHeat says it has mapped more than five million homes in North America.

— Emily Chung