The houseboat hulls employ large diameter (42 X 48 inch; 107 X 122 cm.) steel pipes from natural gas transmission lines, designed for 10,000 p.s.i.The walls of the pipes are .25 to .375 inches (.64 - .95 cm.).The load-carrying capacity of a vessel is fixed by the volume of its hull times 62.4 lbs/cu ft. Of the houseboats in the bay, an estimated total average weight for the vessel is approximately 75,000 lbs (34,000 kg).These are generally assembled in winter on the ice and can expect to withstand 2 - 3 storms per season with wind velocities of 60 - 90 kph lasting 18 - 36 hours.
Solar has been the way to go for houseboats. Unfortunately, however, solar power is not enough to power a canoe, creatively rigged for moving day.
The specialized equipment which makes this possible (solar panels, inverter, genera- tor, wood stove) is about double the cost of conventional appliances (furnace and hot water heater). But, at the end of the month, my utili- ties cost about $250, compared to about $966 for an average household in NWT or Nunavut. There are behavioural changes, but my equip- ment paid for itself in less than a year. On water, the biggest hurdle is getting and responsibly disposing of water. Conventional households in NWT and Nunavut pay an aver- age of $409/month (42% of their utility bill for water and sewer services and about 125 times more than in southern Canada. Here, every drop of water is personally moved.Thus bath water becomes wash water for the floor; dish water becomes plant water.Where Health Canada recommends a minimum of 65 liters of water use per person per day, my daily bathing, cooking and cleaning only consumes about 20 liters of water (24 liters with laundry). Exciting new technologies in waste water cleansing and recycling may soon make this most challenging aspect of life easier. Why do it? Houseboat life requires about four hours of labour each week over the course of a year, which can be at minus 40, with strong winds, in the dark, with numb fingers (one resi - dent, when interviewed by Statistics Canada regarding her occupation stated it as hauling). Glorious days do not mean sitting back and counting your blessings, they are optimal work days! There are substantial lifestyle adaptations and real, life-threatening risks of drowning, chainsaw accidents or fire. In the end, it’s the freedom from a super-size world.The silence. Without looking up, you know whose dogs are barking and if they’re lonely, cold or just communing with the ravens.The independence. Weather, marine law and our own abilities are all that govern us. But mostly, it’s the awareness of water, with its perils and moods.And if the super-size world gets too close for comfort, we can always move!
Although moored in place by substantial anchoring systems, houseboats are actually very easy to move. And although houseboats are not motorized, on a calm day, just pulling on an anchor line can swivel a houseboat. Here, a houseboat is being pushed about a kilometre to the government dock.
Various facts and figures for this article have come from a number of CMHC publications: Utility Costs in Northern Communities, 2004 On-Site Wastewater Reclamation Systems for the North, About Your House, #2, 2001 Northern Water and Sewer Infrastructure Cost Study, 2004 Alternative Home Energy Sources for the North, 2004 Northern Micro-System Water Reuse Technology Assess- ments, 2004 Case Studies of Potential Applications of Innovative Resi- dential Water and Wastewater Technologies. January, 1999 Innovative Residential Water and Wastewater Manage- ment. September 1998 Evaluating the Performance of On-Site Sewage Disposal Systems, March 1998 An Application Guide for Water Reuse Systems, May 1997 Accelerating the Implementation of Innovative Water and Wastewater Treatment Management and Technology, Proceedings of the October 22, 1996 Workshop, CMHC National Office Ottawa Residential Water Conservation: A Review of Products, Processes and Practices. October 1991.
other references: City of Yellowknife, On-Site Waste Water Recycling in Cold Regions, 2000 Northern communities have adopted a standard of 90 liters per person per day as a minimum potable water supply. See Johnson, Ken, Sewage Treatment Systems in the Canadian North:Technologies and Case Studies, Cryofront Journal of Cold Region Technology (cryofront@ shaw.ca)
Aleta Fowler was trained in both archi- tecture and planning and works in ‘green community infrastructure’, most recently as the Northern Researcher for CMHC, and now as a Policy Advisor for Department of Indian and Northern Development. She lives off-grid on a houseboat with Boris.
On Site review 11
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Spring 2004
Architecture of the Circumpolar Region
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