The tiny home movement has seen progressive adoption since the early 2000s, with 2020 being perhaps the best year for it. In other words, it’s the best year for GoSun to get into the tiny home business.
GoSun Inc. is a solar and renewable energy company based in Ohio, U.S., offering cooking, cooling, charging, and water purification devices working solely on solar power. This is their first tiny home and, as of last month, it’s available for pre-order (hat tip to New Atlas).
Solar power and tiny homes go hand in hand, especially since most people who buy these types of mobile homes do so first and foremost out of the desire to go off the grid – or at least be able to in theory. The appeal of a tiny home is that, once you get past the prohibitive price, you get a home you can tow wherever you want, plop down wherever you want, and live all by yourself (with or without family/friends) for as long as you can.
The GoSun Dream aims to check all these boxes: it’s small enough so you can tow it, it has solar panels and batteries, separate water tanks, and it’s built with quality materials. It might not allow you to live “fully” off solar power and go “completely” off the grid, as GoSun claims in the video below, but you will get a certain degree of autonomy.
Photo: GoSun
Plus, it’s a real cutie.
“Meet the GoSun Dream, a solar powered, off-grid, tiny house,” GoSun says. “Designed to be affordable, versatile, mobile and solar powered to help you live a more independent, healthy and resilient life, anywhere. Perfect for RV resorts, off-grid, studio, rental (i.e. AirBnB, VRBO) or vacation property.”
Most tiny homes use height as a means to compensate for the lack of space, building a bedroom, and optionally some storage space on the second “floor.” The Dream doesn’t do that, because GoSun wanted to keep the height down to avoid reducing the house’s movability. Instead, it uses a floating bed to solve the issue of cramped space.
This makes the Dream able to sleep four adults, despite its compact size (22 feet/6.7 m in total length, with an interior floor space of 195 square feet/18 square meters). Two people can sleep on the extendable couch in the living room, which is deployed once the table is tucked out of sight, and two on the queen-size bed operated by a lift on rails up and down. This saves space and maximizes double functionality for the space available – a must with all tiny or otherwise mobile homes.
Photo: GoSun
Access is done through the living room, where you find a couch with a table, serving as both a lounge area and dining area. Tuck the table away, and you can turn the couch into a bed. Above this hovers the bedroom, which is basically just the bed. As long as you’re not a toss and turner or particularly afraid of heights, you should be just fine once this thing is up in the air.
On the side is a spacious kitchen with everything you need to make dinner for all four occupants: a sink, cooktop, two-burner stove, oven, fridge, and freezer. To get to the bathroom, you go through the kitchen: here, you get a small shower, the tiniest sink, and a toilet, which can be either flushing or of the composting type, depending on where you plan to be using it most.
Further amplifying the impression of more available space is the offer of a complete GoSun bundle: the Dream comes with a variety of GoSun products made for outdoor use, such as the GoSun solar kitchen and water filtration system. The automatically retractable electric awning serves to create shelter from the sun and mild rain, so you can take the kitchen outdoor with you and thus not stink up the place with all manners of cooking odors.
Photo: GoSun
The Dream is powered by a 1.4kW solar PV array paired to a 4kWH Lithium-Ion energy storage battery, but you can opt to hook it up to the grid with a standard RV-style hookup. It comes with 40-gallon (150L) fresh water tank, a 25-gallon (95L) gray water tank and a 25-gallon (95L) black water tank, plus low flow faucets to save water. A mini-split air-conditioning unit provides heating and cooling.
The Dream is move-in ready, with GoSun saying they will be offering more details and exact specs as the production date nears. A certain level of customization will also be available, at a cost, of course. Right now, GoSun is taking pre-orders on the Dream with $500 refundable reservations, with a delivery date set tentatively for 2021. Pricing will range between $69,500 and $99,500, depending on the final configuration you opt for.
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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