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Plenty of tiny houses claim to be off-grid capable. This 308-square-foot THOW by Jobson Tiny Homes was engineered for it. Six 425-watt panels total 2,550 watts of solar, feeding a LiFePO4 battery bank of two 100-amp-hour (51-volt) batteries through a 3,500-watt OutBack inverter — enough to run genuine AC appliances rather than just lights and a laptop.
Water is the part most off-grid builds skip. Here, rain is collected from the gutters and run through a four-stage filtration process plus UV purification into 55 gallons of fresh storage, which means the house can generate its own supply instead of waiting on a fill-up. Insulation is high-efficiency spray foam, a Lunos HRV keeps conditioned air moving without dumping heat, and a 115V mini-split plus ceiling fan handle climate.
It sleeps six across a king primary loft, a queen loft, and a futon. The kitchen is unusually complete for a THOW: custom hardwood cabinets, a farmhouse sink, a 3-burner stove with a 21-inch gas oven, microwave, stainless range hood, and a 7.4 cu. ft. refrigerator/freezer. Walls are solid wood shiplap and the ceiling is an all-wood herringbone.
Editor’s note: this home was listed at $115,900 in Cedar Springs, Michigan in 2023 and has sold. We’ve kept the tour up as a reference on genuinely off-grid systems design. Current listings are below.
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308 Sq. Ft. THOW w/ Double Lofts Built For Off-Grid Life
The kitchen is awesome with a deep sink and an oven.
There’s an apartment-sized fridge and a mini microwave.
There’s oodles of kitchen storage.
And there’s even a spot to hang clothing.
There’s a smaller loft over the living space.
An IKEA table provides seating for 6!
A ladder goes up to the small loft.
You can fit a queen-sized bed up here.
The main loft has built-in storage for the headboard.
The divider wall also has added storage.
There’s a beautiful shower stall in the bathroom.
A rainfall shower head makes it extra luxurious.
There’s also a stacking washer and dryer in the bathroom.
The mini split box is on the end of the tiny house.
There’s propane storage.
Look at all that solar power!
Here’s a look at the electrical and solar system.
They built out onto the tongue for maximum space.
VIDEO: Off-Grid Jobson Tiny Home
Design Details
- Original asking price: $115,900 (2023, sold)
- Cedar Springs, Michigan
- Six 425 watt solar panels for a total 2,550 watts
- LiFePO4 battery system includes two 100-amp-hour (51 volt) batteries
- OutBack 3,500-watt inverter for your AC appliances
- Rain water is collected from gutters, cycles through a 4-stage filtration process plus UV purification for 55 gallons of fresh water.
- Sleeps 6 adults.
- Heating/AC with a 115 V Mini Split system, a ceiling fan, and high efficiency spray-foam insulation
- Lunos HRV affords conditioned air flow.
- LED lights throughout
- Walls are solid wood shiplap, and the ceiling is a gorgeous all wood herringbone.
- Flatscreen TV mount is provided
- Tile backsplash
- Custom hardwood cabinets, farmhouse sink, 3-burner stove, 21″ gas oven, microwave, stainless steel range hood, and a 7.4 cu.ft. refrigerator/freezer
- Bathroom has gas W&D, on-demand 12 L hot water heater, tile shower and backsplash, rain shower head, glass shower door, air head composting toilet, and plenty of storage.
- The primary loft is large enough for a king size bed. Features an egress skylight and windows for stargazing and has two roomy storage units.
- Built-in storage throughout with 20 soft-close, dovetailed drawers (full extension slides) that securely lock during travel
- 33 hardwood cabinet doors with plywood cabinets will house everything you need
- Maple real wood dining room table folds out to seat 8 and folds away into a side table.
- Chairs fold conveniently inside a second side table.
- Cabinets beneath futon house linens.
- The roomy outside garage gives 55 cu.ft. of storage PLUS houses all of the mechanicals including a surge protector.
What Makes This Genuinely Off-Grid
- Water is the real off-grid constraint, not power. Solar is now easy; rainwater catchment with four-stage filtration and UV is what actually lets a house sit somewhere with no services.
- Size the inverter to the appliances, not the panels. A 3,500-watt inverter is what allows a real oven and a mini-split, rather than a system that only keeps the lights on.
- An HRV solves the problem tight insulation creates. Spray foam seals a house so well that moisture and stale air build up; a heat-recovery ventilator exchanges air without throwing away the heat you paid for.
- LiFePO4 is the battery chemistry worth paying for. It tolerates deep discharge and lasts far longer than lead-acid, which matters when the bank is your only power.
- Sleeping six needs more than beds. Two lofts plus a futon only work because the kitchen, ventilation, and water systems were sized for that many people.
Learn More:
Looking for Tiny Houses Currently For Sale?
This Jobson sold in 2023. Off-grid-capable homes come through regularly — here’s what’s listed now.
Browse all current tiny houses for sale »
A few recent listings worth a look:
- The MoD: A 144 Sq Ft Teak Off-Grid Studio and Mobile ADU
- Moroccan-Inspired Tiny House with Rooftop Deck & Solar for Sale ($73K)
- Brand-New Custom Tiny House Built Like a House for Sale in Utah ($95K)
- Country Cottage: A 396 Sq Ft Park Model Tiny Home for Sale With 3 Acres
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Natalie C. McKee
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Absolutely every single part of this home is so perfect. Ideal use of space for microwave, cupboards and cabinets. Great backsplash. Kitchen, appliances, shower stall, very appropriately sized. Master loft quite lovely and with the skylight the loft is especially romantic, warm and cozy. AND that video couldn’t have been better. No incessant gabbing; showing only what I wanted to see and nothing that I didn’t want to. I give this home and video an AAA+++ plus, plus, plus.
For 115,000.00 they put in a composting toilet! I am too old to be cleaning that every day. Yes they do smell! I have been in a tiny house that had a composting toilet and the smell made me sick.
My sympathies, a very unfortunate experience. While that’s not the normal experience, it does occasionally happen probably due to either it not being a proper composting toilet or something was preventing it from working correctly, it’s something to watch out for as it is something that has to work right.
Remaining too wet, no waste separation, no fan, no proper air flow, none or insufficient cover material are examples of what would make it fail to work properly and cause odor issue. The DIY ones also tend to be more problematic for inexperienced users.
While there are different types of dry toilets, not all are actually composting. People just tend to use composting as a blanket term but it doesn’t always apply…
Great design ideas and features for a reasonable (by today’s standards) price.
Curious though: how can this be truly off-grid if the heating and cooling comes from a minisplit that would drain those two batteries in a matter of hours (would it not?). I thought a much bigger solar set up would be required for that.
At night but during the day the solar panels would be supplementing that power. While it’s a very energy efficient system at that high voltage. Also, depends on how much the mini split has to run but it’s efficient and a well insulated home shouldn’t need it to run long. YMMV… The propane system also means not everything needs to be electrically powered and you could have a propane generator as backup…
Oh, zoomed in on the batteries and see that they’re large rack system batteries. So 51.2v x 100Ah = about 5 kWh and 2 means it’s about 10 kWh of capacity… That’s pretty good capacity…
A 16 SEER 12,000 BTU uses 0.75 kWh of electricity every hour. If you run it for 8 hours per day, that is 6 kWh per day. Add, time it for use during the day, and you can keep the batteries charged and run the mini-split at the same time as it has over 2kWh of solar panels and the mini-split would be running on just 750 watts.
Actual use will vary depending on how much you need to cool, whether it’s running full out or only at a percentage, and how efficient the whole system is but unless you don’t manage the power well or deal with lack of sun for multiple days, it should suffice…