You Can Power These New All-Electric Tiny Homes With Your Regular-Sized Home—or Even a Car
Cars are going all-electric, so why not tiny homes? That was the thinking of Dan Dobrowolski, founder of tiny-home builder Escape, a company that to date has created a Neutra-inspired prefab, portable sheds, and even a tiny home village in Florida that saw a surge in demand during the pandemic. Now, the company is taking its designs fully electric. "It’s the way forward," says Dobrowolski. "This is more important than ever."
The interiors of Escape’s new line of all-electric tiny homes are finished with white birch. The soft, light tones offer a fresh aesthetic that ties to nature.
The kitchen cabinetry is crafted from a mixture of hard maple and white birch, and the counters are a butcher block made of maple.
With sustainability top of mind, Dobrowolski and his team devised eESCAPE, a new line of all-electric tiny homes on wheels that can be powered with a standard wall socket, a solar setup, or an electric truck or car. The line’s three models include the eOne, the eVista, and the eVistaXL, which start at $43,600 and range in size from 200 to 350 square feet of living space.
Gray-stained wood siding mimics the look of yakisugi, and contrasts with the white birch interiors.
The all-electric tiny homes feature shelves and cabinets for storage.
Floating shelves offer additional storage and display space for the tiny homes, and generous windows create a feeling of spaciousness.
The three home designs, created by Architect Kelly Davis with a Scandi-modern aesthetic, are insulated with Greenguard gold-certified recycled materials, capped with steel roofs, and clad with sustainably grown rough-sawn wood siding with a dark stain. Inside, floor-to-ceiling white birch makes for bright, warm, and textured interiors. "We wanted them to reflect natural beauty, and to capture a greater sense of space," says Dobrowolski.
A sliding barn door in one of the units provides privacy or openness for the bedroom on the main floor.
The eESCAPE series features LED lighting and high-efficiency air conditioning and heat pumps.
According to Dobrowolski, the LED lighting for the interiors operates with minimal power. With high-efficiency air conditioning and heat pumps for heating and cooling, the homes are designed to withstand a variety of weather conditions.
Picture windows provide views from the living area, loft, and bedroom.
A large picture window in the kitchen of the eOne model floods the open-plan interior with natural light.
The eOne unit features an 11-foot-high ceiling and an eight-foot-long upper walkway that leads to a second loft area, while the floor plan for the eVista and the eVistaXL models were designed around a system of expansive windows that connect the tiny homes to the outdoors. "Light and openness is everything," Dobrowolski says. "They’re the key to designing small spaces."
In the same model, a staircase with integrated storage leads to an expansive loft area with generous glazing.
A secondary loft area in the eOne model offers additional living space.
When it comes to tiny home design and livability, Dobrowolski is as concerned with practicality as he is sustainability. "Given the transient nature of life these days, especially with the pandemic, it seems more important than ever that people are able to be mobile and simply move as needed," he says. "Sustainability is a no-brainer, but availability, flexibility, portability, and affordability can be a lifesaver."
Project Credits:
Architect of Record: Kelly Davis
Builder: Escape
Published
Last Updated
Stay up to Date on the Latest in Prefab Homes
From cozy cottages to large family houses, see how prefab continues to redefine the future of construction, building, and design.