Solar Energy Mobile Home Improvements

By The Mother Earth News Editors
Published on September 1, 1985
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Turn to A Roof-Over Retrofit to find out how one family beautified their mobile home and reduced winter and summer energy costs as well.
Turn to A Roof-Over Retrofit to find out how one family beautified their mobile home and reduced winter and summer energy costs as well.
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Read about an $8.98-per-square foot solar collector that helps heat the home and provides dry storage, too.
Read about an $8.98-per-square foot solar collector that helps heat the home and provides dry storage, too.
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A functional greenhouse needn't be an expensive project, as an innovative New Mexico mobile home owner relates on The Greenhouse Solution.
A functional greenhouse needn't be an expensive project, as an innovative New Mexico mobile home owner relates on The Greenhouse Solution.
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The plenum box houses the controls.
The plenum box houses the controls.
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Woodstoves aren't limited to use in conventional houses . . . but see Woodstoves and Mobile Home Safety for scoop on safe installations before you buy.
Woodstoves aren't limited to use in conventional houses . . . but see Woodstoves and Mobile Home Safety for scoop on safe installations before you buy.
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Collector Panels and Collector Framework Plan View.
Collector Panels and Collector Framework Plan View.
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Collector Framework and Floor and Wiring Schematic and Window Plenum.
Collector Framework and Floor and Wiring Schematic and Window Plenum.

These solar energy mobile home improvements will make life in manufactured housing less costly by cutting back on heating bills. (See the solar energy photos and diagrams in the image gallery.)

The 1980 Census of Housing revealed that there were 4.1 million mobile homes in use in the United States. And the popularity of mobile homes has increased since then: They accounted for fully one-third of the single-family houses sold in this country in 1983. Unfortunately, thermal performance standards for such manufactured housing lag behind those of conventional site-built homes. This is despite federal legislation that charged the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) with establishing minimum energy-use requirements for homes built after June 15,1976. Sadder yet, about 75% of the mobile homes in use today were constructed prior to that date, and thus may not be bound by any standards whatsoever.

The plain truth is that mobile homes use, on the average, twice as much energy for heating and cooling as do new, comparably sized conventional homes. On the other hand, they are affordable at a time when conventional housing is priced out of the reach of many people, and–better yet–they lend themselves to a number of modifications or improvements that can narrow and even eliminate the energy-efficiency gap, while enhancing the structure’s appearance in the process. The following nine-page mini-manual illustrates these benefits by offering exciting examples of what some mobile home owners have done to better their lot.

Mother’s research department “mobilized” its forces to make solar energy mobile home improvements and produce a solar collector that cuts those winter heating bills!

Economy Solar . . . To Go!

You don’t have to live in a mobile home to appreciate an uncomplicated and affordable source of supplemental heat, but those who do will find our staff designed add-on solar collector especially attractive, for a couple of reasons. First, its construction is simple and compatible with most any site: It rests on a stacked-block foundation, feeds warm air and returns it through any available window opening, and needn’t be bolted to the house. It doesn’t use a chimney, pump, storage tank, or other complicated paraphernalia. Second, it provides a temperate, daylighted, protected shelter for storage or seed germination, a welcome bonus where space is at a premium.

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