Eco-friendly Clayton iHouse on sale, coming to a highbrow trailer park near you
By Laura June 
posted May 7th 2009 11:33AM
posted May 7th 2009 11:33AM
Clayton Homes, a US-based company which makes and sells manufactured (prefab) homes, is getting in on the i-naming game with their latest bit of construction. The iHouse is a prefabricated, customizable house that is so energy efficient that Clayton estimates it costs about $1 per day to cover all of its electricity and heating needs. The house makes use of solar panels, energy-efficient appliances, thick walls, heavy insulation, a rainwater-catching system, a tankless water heater, and dual flush toilets to meet its eco-friendly goals. The company, which sold about 30,000 manufactured homes last year, thinks that the iHouse could quickly come to represent about 10 percent of its business. Prototypes of the house -- which at around 1,000 square feet costs $140,000 completely furnished -- are popping up all over the US, and as of last Saturday, are officially on sale nationwide. One more photo after the break.
[Via Yahoo News]
[Via Yahoo News]
the interior shot is actually quite nice.
Why its an i-House ??
I guess its because its build in US.
I hate this i-f@ckng madness.
While I disapprove of your comment-jacking, I agree with the "i" prefix rant. The "i" should have died out already like "e" did.
Plus this thing is trying to personify itself as eco-friendly but when I think of an iName, I think of Apple, who has a history of being one of the worst companies for environmental impact. They've only just recently made product-line changes to become a bit more eco-friendly. Still far from a "green" company though.
@ Lars..
UnStuck your head out of your @ss and think something more than "i-something" and Apple..
I also agree that this kind of house should be the base for all houses exist today speaking from the eco-friendly side.
But WHY it has to be an "i-something" ?
F@cking i-sheep.
When will companies learn that we don't like auto playing music?
Probably about now, their site is down! Over their bandwidth maybe?
Auto music playing ETARDS!
140K will get you a real house in most places now.
I think they are embellishing on the $1 a day for heating/electricity. Unless it's in Hawaii.
Is it really that expensive to heat a trailer? They aren't that large in the first place.
It also depends on how well they are insulated.
I was just thinking the same thing and I am from Maui! This would do well in Hawaii but now I live in Brooklyn, would the $1 a day still be the quota? Acknowledging its form factor I must ask, Is this tornado proof?
140k will only get you like a studio in Hawiai lol
the condo i lived in already cost more than 350k
there's a price to pay to live in paradise. although we do have houses uses these solar panels.
Nobody cared to mention the cost of insurance against, say... Hurricanes. Tornados. Flooding. Or any mention of how well these can stand against those types of conditions. When will they make these out of that bendable self-healing concrete mentioned in an earlier post??
140K will not get you much of a house right now. It certainly won't get you added solar panels.
@bigd145,
the housing market is almost as low as it can go, if now isn't the time to buy a house, then there will never be a good time to buy a house from your perspective. Florida's probably the best place to buy real estate right now, massive mark downs on property values likely to head north relatively soon.
350K??? LOL!!
wow, i wish i could buy a condo for 350K. studios start at around 500k... 1beds 600+.
way to look down on people who don't live in paradise...
who knew that redneck trailers would be the home of the future?
All kidding aside, I love homes like this, just wish it weren't so pricey.
They start at 70k, the one pictured I believe is loaded.
Looks Hot!
You mean that the solar panels couldn't do one more dollar worth of electricity?
I thought from looking at their website two days ago that the 1 dollar a day estimate was without solar panels and it was 50 cents a day with the optional $13k panels.
I will take two.
Would you like them attached?
yes, get the double-wide.
IKEA cabinets?
I'm getting the feeling that this home is all about looking good for a few years, then the whole place will start to fall apart.
Just saying.
as opposed to other trailers, which are designed to last a long time?
My grandparents got one of these (not this exact model, but same deal) and it was actually amazingly nice. Prefab homes have come an incredibly long way.
Not all the Ikea cabinets are rubbish, much like a lot of their products. If you take the time to really look at what they offer, there is a lot of decent quality stuff . . . . just there is a lot of really cheap, crappy stuff that college and university students buy that falls apart in no time at all.
I agree with Asha... I got a corner TV stand / entertainment center made out of real solid wood with a stained finish and it is very durable, well designed, and isn't that particleboard garbage that people buy from Walmart or Target. That said, it was one of their nicer models, not the cheapest thing there. Just avoid the cheapest thing you find at IKEA and you'll find good stuff.
Actually, Consumer Reports rates IKEA cabinets quite well in the mid-level price range.
"Clayton estimates it costs about $1 per day to cover all of its electricity and heating needs"... why do I doubt this in areas where winter time temperatures drop to -20 and below?
Well, there are just planning on global warming wiping those temps out "in the next five years", whenever that will be.
Funny, time goes by, and it's always "in the next five years."
-50 here, but it would be nice to give it a shot and see how it does. : )
Or, you can get a $30,000 mobile home that is larger and use the extra $90,000 pay your bills. Really, why would someone want a mobile home for $140,000? For that price it needs to be a 6-wide trailer!
I think manufactured homes and mobile homes are two different animals.
Where I come from $30,000 doesn't get you a whole lot of mobile home. Maybe a rusted out PoS with holes in the roof that are marketed as air conditioning. You can probably get something decent for just under $100k though. That's just a guess, I haven't really done a whole lot of research since I'm not in the market.
This 'looks' nice and the concept is solid, but I still have my preconceived notions on pre-fab that would make me hesitate to buy a home like this.
Manufactured homes are shipped to the site, assembled on-site, and sit on a foundation.
Mobile homes roll to the site, sit on wheels, and have to be registered @ the DMV.
You're confusing the issue, and why the price point is higher.
At our local fair last year I walked through a couple manufactured homes that they had set up. There have been some big improvements in quality and how they look. Anyway, the ones that I went through were between $75-$100k installed with basic fixtures. You provide land, hook-ups to power/water/sewer, and the slab. That was for homes about 1200 sqft.
For this home, you are paying probably a 30-40% premium but you are getting:
-- Fully furnished home with high efficiency appliances
-- Solar
-- Upgraded insulation and construction quality
For people who only need 1,000 sqft I could see this as a reasonably good deal assuming the quality is as good as they say it is.
More info, photos, and floor plans available per their site - http://www.claytonihouse.com/index.cfm
Thanks! That's the link that most appropriately goes with this article! I couldn't find the ihouse on the link provided in the article.
For $140k, this house better sustain hurricane force winds. Otherwise, being FULL furnished, it seems like a great deal
I would like to see how these units would hold up in Chicago. 140 grand for a house like this is a steal compared to a one bed room condo going for the same amount.
When you pay those prices in a place like Chicago you are paying for the real estate (the lot/footprint) not just the enclosure. So you'll be paying a lot more than $140K.
looks pretty cool, and does not seem that expensive XD
Poor roof design. Once those leaves clog the gutter, you will end up with massive amounts of water sitting on your roof and more than likely in your house.
I think the correct way to phrase that is:
Once those leaves clog the gutter, you will end up having to climb to the top of your roof and clean them.
Seriously, have you never seen a house with a flat roof before? They're not uncommon.
I have, but I've never seen a trailer park with raked leaves, let alone clean gutters.
"..but I've never seen a trailer park with raked leaves, let alone clean gutters."
Oh that comment was a win. LMAO
The roof design is part of the water catchment system.
make it bigger! This is a great concept, but it must be bigger! at least double-wide size. I'd seriously consider getting one of these, as I do happen to be in the market for a home. No trailer park for this guy though, there are plenty of empty lots here in town to drop one of these badboys on.
Looks like a house boat, but that's not a bad thing.
If it's being carried down the street during a flood? lol.
"which sold about 30,000 manufactured homes last year"
YEAH!... sure!