This hi-tech tiny house is set in a field on Holmbush Farm with beautiful views over historic parkland and down towards a scenic pond. Behind are hundreds of acres of private woodland to explore including 3 charming lakes. The house is fully off-grid (except for mains water) and has a compost toilet. It is powered by 6kW of solar panels + batteries and enjoys 240v sockets, wifi, central heating, a hot shower, kettle, microwave, fridge, USB chargers - all free electricity. A unique experience!
The space
- The Setting -
The Olinda Tiny House sits in the middle of historic parkland on a working farm, high on a hill in the Sussex Weald AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty). You will be able to walk straight out of the door into hundreds of acres of beautiful private woodland which are yours to explore during your stay.
- Tiny House Layout -
Downstairs there is a kitchen, living room and walk-in shower with toilet.
Upstairs there are two half-height (105cm) bunk bedrooms, one at each end of the house, both with double beds and opening windows. This is a tiny house however, so remember it is not huge!
-Power-
You are off grid! (hooray :-) ) with up to 6kW of solar power on a bright sunny day, and a large battery bank. So even at night there is fully functioning 240v mains (for appliances up to ~3kW), with several plug sockets all over, many of which have USB charging sockets. So please DO bring your hairdryers, laptops, black & decker power tools, as they will all work.
There is also a tablet on the wall showing you your live power consumption, how much energy is left in the batteries, how much the sun is generating, how much electricity you have used today in ££ and so on. It is really quite fun to play with and watch.
- Cooking -
The kitchen is equipped with:
- Fold down dining table
- Fridge
- Microwave (800W)
- Portable Induction Hob
- Remoska Grande 4L electric pan
- Electric Kettle
- Toaster
- Nutribullet 600W blender
- French press / cafetière
*** Please note there is NO oven per se. (because it is a tiny house) but there a Remoska Grande 4L, a caravaners favourite, is effectively your oven and can be used to bake a cake, cook a stew, roast vegetables and so on.
Otherwise the towns of Crawley and Horsham are only a stone's throw away and we have a list of our recommended takeaways & restaurants we provide on the wall.
-Water-
The house is connected to mains water via a pipe across the field. Other than this it is entirely off grid.
-Shower-
There is a water tank in the roof with a low-power air-source heat pump which heats the water up to 55 deg. C, ready to be mixed for 38 deg. showers. So you can have a very decent hot shower for at least 20 mins. However you probably dont want to have a 20 minute shower yourself if there is someone else waiting in line behind you!
-Composting Toilet-
This off-grid house has a very comfortable porcelain toilet... upon which everybody needs to sit down....Yes everybody. No standing allowed! Even if you haven't used one before you will soon understand why. Solid waste falls down one hole into a box with a fan drawing air out of the bathroom over the solid waste 24/7, which eventually dehydrates it into compostable pellets.
The liquid waste from the toilet goes down a separate smaller hole and then joins the shower and sink waste on it's way down to a gravel reed bed in the field, where it is broken down as it passes through the reeds, ultimately being soaking away as clear water at the end.
For obvious reasons we ask that you preferably use the most organic soaps & shampoos you can find.
-Heating-
The house has an electric stove that heats the house from the Solar PV.
-Internet-
Wifi with 100+mbs FTTP connection.
Ethernet jacks in some rooms.
PLEASE NOTE:
This is a working farm, so there may be other people and animals in and around the field at different times. There maybe sheep, there may be tractors, there may be deer stalking activities, there may be people felling trees in the woods, and there is a flying club who sometimes use the field to fly model aeroplanes.
Guest access
There is a gravel car park at the edge of the field where the tiny house is located, but you will have to walk 100-200 yards through the field to get there. It is important to remember that this house is not just in someone's garden, like so many other shepherd's hut / tiny houses on AirBnB. This is obviously half the fun, (weather permitting!), and is what makes it a really very peaceful place to be and contemplate.
Other things to note
**This is a special experience**
Not only are you staying in the latest prototype of an environmentally friendly tiny house with all mod-cons, made from sustainable materials, designed by a world-renowned architect... but also you are lucky enough to be located in historic parkland, on a working farm, with [as our guests] access on foot to over 300 acres of our private woodland. Furthermore from here you can walk on either east to Buchan Country Park (open to the public & free) or the other way south to St. Leonard's Forest (owned by the Forestry Commission and also open to the public & free).
And even better than all of that you can walk 15 mins from the tiny house through the tranquil forest to the local gastropub, the Dragon in Colgate.
For all guests this will be a unique chance to see what it is actually like to live off-grid in the UK in comfort, leaving aside more rustic notions of what it is to be off grid, experiencing first hand how we might live more sustainably in future whilst retaining the modern standards of hygiene and comfort we have come to expect.
--Early Check-in / Late Checkout--
If there is no back-to-back booking before / after yours then there is usually no problem with early check-in or in particular late checkout. Guests are normally very welcome to stay all day on their final day, even encouraged to do so, providing there is no other booking following straight on. This is very often the case on Sundays. Why rush back to the big city at 10am when you are in beautiful countryside.
--Drones--
If you want to bring and fly a drone, this may well be possible, as there is plenty of space and great views to be had, but please enquire first.
--Foraging--
We are delighted for you to forage funghi and other plants during your stay if you know what to look for.
