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'Going Green,' Literally, in an Eco-Friendly Motor Home
Green Technology Featured Articles
August 06, 2012

'Going Green,' Literally, in an Eco-Friendly Motor Home

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

In an era of high unemployment and expensive prices at the pump, sales of many motor homes have stalled. Year-over-year motor home registrations edged down 4.2 percent in May while sales were up 2.1 percent for the first five months, according to the latest report from Statistical Surveys Inc., a reporting service based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.


However, 28-year-old Laird Herbert of Whitehouse in Alaska’s Yukon Territory is selling just as many motor homes as he makes. To date, that’s been almost three. 

If you love luxurious amenities and don’t need much space, one of these may be for you. The Leaf Version.2 is a sleek, wooden home, measuring just 215 square feet that is built to withstand severe weather conditions and mounted on a trailer base.

Speaking to Tiny House Listings, Laird explained, “This is my second tiny home that I have built. I lived in one full-time for a year over the winter and sold it last spring.… [I] have lived in the Yukon for the past five [years]. I am pretty happy puttering away building things. I’d much rather do this then sit in a cubicle! My passion is actually the design, that’s what I enjoy the most. So I’m diving into it full-time (hopefully) and will be building two more this summer (one for myself and another to sell), under Leaf House, which is my new company— named after the famed Leaf House on Hornby Island [British Columbia, Canada], which is where I spent my summers as a kid.”

The home has been constructed using Forest Stewardship Certified (FSC) timber, recycled materials, natural finishes and eco-friendly building products. It comprises many self-sustaining elements— including a:

  • Composting toilet
  • Propane tankless hot water system
  • Propane GE range and half fridge
  • Ecoheat electric baseboards
  • LED and halogen lighting
  • 35-gallon (132-liter) water storage unit.

The interior features a living area with sofa bed, raised sleeping quarters, fully functional kitchen, bathroom with a compact bathtub and an open dining area.

Leaf Version.2 is currently on sale for a little over $43,000 at Tiny House Listings. If it’s not quite your style, or you’d like to rent a tiny house before buying one, there are other homes on the site—with and without wheels—that may meet your needs.

Also, Sanford, North Carolina-based Homes by Vanderbuilt is offering a line of prefabricated homes that it has called Xtreme Green Homes. The houses feature many appliances that exceed Energy Star standards and involve a series of cost-saving designs to help the homeowner cut back on energy costs. In fact, the company's products have even allowed homeowners to take advantage of tax credits that reward citizens for taking part in green initiatives.




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Edited by Brooke Neuman


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