Tiny Houses in East Texas Have a Big Environmental Impact
It makes sense that those who own tiny homes use less energy, but just how much less is pretty amazing. If you could slash your bills in half, would you move to a tiny home?
Researcher Maria Saxton surveyed 80 people who moved from a full-sized home to a tiny home and started doing the math.
The NY Post said she calculated the homeowners' "ecological footprints, or how much space they need to sustain their current behavior, including housing, transportation, food, goods, and services."
She found that living in a tiny home reduces energy consumption by 45%, and has a big impact on "wasteful behavior" in general. The downsizers generally eat "less energy-intensive food products and adopt more environmentally-conscious eating habits, such as eating more locally and growing more of their own food.” They also drive more fuel-efficient cars, recycle more, and buy less stuff. If you have a tiny home there's less room to put clothes, toys, and electronics, and that keeps some tiny homeowners from buying things that aren't absolutely necessary. Tablets and laptops fit just fine, but a 65-inch flat screen, well, not so much. And living in a tiny house would force us to whittle down our shoe collections for sure.
Pratt Homes builds tiny houses in Tyler, and they say on their website they keep 17 tiny homes in stock. It's a quicker process than other home-building experiences. The Tiny House Outlet is another option, and they've got a showroom just east of Tyler off Hwy 31 E.
I would have a hard time fitting three kids, two dogs, two cats, and a fish into a tiny house, but I do have a single guy friend that lives in a tiny home in Canton and loves it. He's a pilot so he travels a lot and he just wants a place to relax when he's not flying out of DFW. He's got a huge yard and he spends a lot of his time outside and considers that liveable space too. It's a great setup if you've got the lifestyle for it.
And you can save huge amounts of money, not only on a mortgage but on all of the other monthly bills too. That's exactly why the tiny house movement will likely keep growing.