Ill preface this post with the following:

We built this entire Tiny House from start to finish for $26,600NZD ($14,800 USD). That incudes the trailer and every single part that went into it (even the band-aids).

With a budget so tight, we had to make compromises. And let me tell you, I feel like every single part we compromised on failed. There is also a lot of things we did, that later we realized just wasn’t the way we should have done it. Lastly, there was a lot of self caused damage which I really cant blame on a particular product, but just poor excision.

The biggest issue we have faced, is the floor covering has basically disintegrated. We originally purchased and installed some imported ‘waterproof flooring’ made by Aquarius. It was essentially a plastic floor covered in a very thin veneer of wood. The product is a US manufactured flooring that we picked up here in bulk on clearance at a store, so the price was good at the time. But it has to be the most un-fit for purpose flooring I have every encountered in my life. On hot days with the sun coming through the windows, the floor would expand, crack, warp and eventually just started to completely disintegrate. It became so brittle that just walking on it would cause it to break.

The second shitty product on my shame list is this cheap ass solar regulator from AliExpress. DON’T BUY THIS. It claimed to be a 70amp solar regulator. It wasn’t. For those who don’t know a lot about solar regulators, they aren’t rated on the current they can pass through to your batteries. They are rated for the amount of energy they can absorb and dissipate when your batteries are full. So when your batteries are full, the energy from your solar panels needs to get dumped into heavy heatsinks so that your solar regulator doesn’t overcharge your batteries. Not only was it over charging my batteries causing sulfuric acid gas clouds in the Tiny House on hot days, it also eventually melted. Pulling it apart, it was entirely fuc*ing empty inside except for a circuit board 1/3 the size of the housing and no heatsinks.

The lights. Ow my goodness I have had issues with the lighting since day 1. I originally purchased these 200x200mm square ceiling lights because the advertisement told me they were 12 and 24v compatible. But what they actually were was 60volt lights with a step-up converter from 12/24v. Those converters all failed at different points. Some multiple times until I switched to a standard step-up module board with a heatsink to handle the heat dissipation. Many of the LED strips also failed due to heat. I still have these, because the 200x200mm square hole is just an impossible size to find a replacement. I think 2 of these lights I ended up gutting and replacing the inside with 24v LED strips. But these lights are one of my biggest regrets. I wish I had gone softer lighting, in more places such as wall lamps, floor lamps, localized lighting. Rather than big, bright, hot lights in the ceiling.

We actually replaced out all of the light switches with standard 240v switches, in case it was an issue with current being limited causing the excessive heat for the lights and converters. Sadly it didn’t help.

I killed some relays because apparently I didn’t understand how relays work. They aren’t rated for how much current you can pass through them 24/7 but rather arching amps.

I blew up 2 x 240v inverters with random mishaps. I never installed a ‘dropout’ or ‘changeover’ switch into the main 240v fuse panel. What that does is ensure that if you connect ‘shore’ power, the internal 240v inverter is switched off or disconnected from the circuit. I knew I needed one, but the $250+ to install one at the time was money better spent elsewhere. Well not once, but twice I managed to have an ‘inverter war’ by inadvertently connecting the Tiny House to the exterior inverter powering the water purifier whilst forgetting my internal 240v inverter was running. Thankfully. Both of these wars were ‘won’ by my 6000watt internal inverter and not the 1000watt Chinese inverters outside. Not an expensive lesson, but a lesson non-the less. I have since installed a change-over switch.

My gas alarm died. It went through 1 too many sulfuric acid clouds from when the solar regulator was failing.

Water pumps…. Water pumps… and water pumps. I have been through a grand total of 7 water pumps. Eventually we sorted the problem by matching the flow of the pump with the flow out of the taps in the Tiny House (4.5 liters per minute, instead of the larger 9 liters per minute of the old pumps). As the old pumps were overpowered and were constantly cycling on and off which killed the pressure switches in the pump. We also did away with the internal pressure switch and put it a more substantial inline pressure switch.

Lastly, we had a major water leak. Well, it was actually a minor water leak, but over a long period of time. Because, us being silly put the water pipes hidden away inside the walls. We didn’t notice it until nearly 6 months later. At which point the floor was becoming excessively wet in the kitchen area. We ended up having to cut away the internal wall coverings to find the issue. It was a tiny pin hole in the Chinese water piping we had ordered and installed.

Apart from that, we had some minor water leaking between the window and wall frames of a few windows. Nothing some silicone couldn’t fix. I think if the Tiny House was anywhere else this wouldn’t have been an issue. But we get severe winds and sideways rain at different points of the year.

I certainly could have built the doors a little better. They have never been great. The gaps were just too far apart and I ended up siliconing the unused door shut. Ill replace both doors with real ones at some point.

At some point Ill make a post of things we would have designed differently. Because after 2 years in the Tiny House, the answer is nearly everything…

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the update.