In late September of 2017, I asked Western Professors Imran Sheikh and Charlie Barnhart out for over beers at the Bellingham institution, Elizabeth Station. Hoping to pick their brains about micro-grids and small scale energy systems I pestered them with many questions that began with, “What if..?” What resulted from that two hour conversation and my frantic napkin scribbling, however, was a proposal to launch the first ever tiny house built with Western Washington University.
My focus at Western is to gather as much practical knowledge of the energy field as possible, and to return to my hometown of Port Townsend, WA to use it there. This being said, the notion of school work as exercises in hypothetical situations has never sat right with me. It was clear then that when I was asked to design a zero net energy house in a class I wanted to make sure I’d do something with the result.
Thankfully, I knew I wasn’t alone in this thought and when the idea came along that maybe we could construct a real house I quickly contacted fellow energy student, Stella Tsitsiragos. We were already researching how Western could utilize more solar power on its campus, and when I shared the idea of designing a tiny house through the university she was immediately on board.
After much talk throughout the fall of 2017 with questions like, “Are we really doing this?”, we decided to establish our inaugural core team of Project ZNETH. Professor Imran Sheikh enlisted as our project’s faculty adviser and happens to already be an experienced tiny home designer from his days at UC Berkeley’s THIMBY (Tiny House In My Backyard).
At this point, our other key team members are, of course, Stella Tsitsiragos, who just graduated from Western with her Bachelor of Arts in Energy Policy and Management. She will likely be returning to Western soon as a graduate student and plans on utilizing Project ZNETH as a key aspect of her research upon her return. Patrick Shive, another notable undergraduate with the Institute for Energy Studies at Western has joined our team. He’s currently wrapping up an internship with the City of Bellingham and is sure to use that education in our work here.
All in all, the story is just getting started with Project ZNETH. Check back with us any time to find more stories about the first ever tiny house constructed with Western Washington University.
-Kellen
