One man's Connecticut home has no electricity, heating, air-conditioning, running water, or even conventional walls. He's made a structure of hay and stucco his home for 20 years, and his meager lifestyle causes little or no harm to the environment.
Small-scale living is the way for David Brown of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. He's spent 20 years living in a one room building made completely of hay and stucco, and has saved a fortune on electricity and gas costs. His lifestyle is generously aided by food donations from the local townspeople to feed the chickens on his organic farm. And while he admits that not everyone can live the way he does, he wishes they could.
"A highly efficient wood stove heats his home. He keeps his food chilled in a root cellar. Tiny amounts of propane power a reading lamp and a stove. He once had running water, but his well became silted, and he now fills jugs with water when visiting friends."
"The walls are hay bales 18 inches thick, providing massive insulation that helps the house, with its stucco exterior, retain heat in winter and repel it in summer."
FULL STORY: A baleful of simplicity: Hay house is fuel-efficient
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