The ultimate secure home

[SFG75]

You have to check this house out. The folks that made this thing had horrible things happen to their wooden cabin, so they made the logical decision that the rest of us would do-and they built a steel-reinforced concrete underground home.


Here's some info about how they made the darn thing:

This dome home, a patented-steel reinforced concrete structure (properly called a thin-shell dome), was designed by structural engineers to withstand almost any natural or man-made disaster you can name. These buildings have withstood tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes - some measuring over 7.0 on the Richter scale - and in every case they have come away with no structural damage at all. Not only that, but a bomb shelter built with this exact type of construction, was tested at a U. S. military facility against an actual nuclear explosion simulated to be in the multi-kiloton range and was completely undamaged by the test. Amazingly, a burning candle inside the shelter was not even extinguished by the blast. Every other shelter tested in this trial sustained some measure of damage.

and for power..

Housed in a dedicated air-tight battery box (with a passive vent to the outside) are 24 two-volt lead acid batteries, each weighing approximately 220 pounds. This equates to over 2 ½ tons of lead acid! Configured in series, together they produce 48 volts. The inverters then convert this 48 volts into 120 volts, or when needed, 240 volts.

Outside, 16 Kyocera solar collector modules are mounted on two separate stands with 3-way trackers. They move imperceptively throughout the day, following the sun as it crosses the sky. This feature significantly increases the panels' efficiency, thereby decreasing the need to run the back-up generator and conserving it's fuel. About fifteen minutes after the sun sets, both sets of panels will realign themselves back to where they first "saw" the sun rise, and then wait all night for the following morning's sunrise.

An Onan propane generator will automatically start and stop to recharge the solar batteries whenever necessary. Housed in a separate room off the garage for soundproofness and security, this generator is considered by many to be one of the best generators on the market today. Rated at 11.5 Kw, a machine of this size is rarely seen in a residential setting.

Looks pretty spacious if you see the photos. Advantages listed-you won't be killed by the Spanish flu, SARS, terrorist attacks, or other disasters. I dont know that much about construction, but it goes for a decent price and looks like a comfy living place. My question-where's the humidor?

 

[Backslide]

man that house is bitchin I want one!!!!!!!!!!!!! :thumbs: :thumbs: :thumbs:

 

[1f1fan]

That house is sweet.

Maybe all of us can go in on this and make it a Cigar Pass vacation home!

 

[Matt R]

There's a couple guys who build those in our area, though not as complex on the electrical, etc. They just dig a hole in the side of a hill and build a house.

 

[TheBeast]

Just further proof that Lord of the Rings fans have gone too far. 400K to live like a hobbit. People thinkStar Trek and Star Wars fans are nuts. We have a new level of psycho-geek.

 

[bryan_h]

Thats cool, but i think 400k is a little much. I would rather have a normal looking house and have a panic room built in.

 

[Tony Bones]

Man, we just paid more than that for a "normal" house. I would gladly pay that for a gnome home. It would serve that rat-bastard, cigar stealing gnome of mine well.

:sign:

 

[cvmfour]

:0 Now that is a pimp house...

 

[smokers only]

Just further proof that Lord of the Rings fans have gone too far. 400K to live like a hobbit. People thinkStar Trek and Star Wars fans are nuts. We have a new level of psycho-geek.

Amen to that...

-matt

 

[Muley]

Just further proof that Lord of the Rings fans have gone too far.  400K to live like a hobbit.  People thinkStar Trek and Star Wars fans are nuts.  We have a new level of psycho-geek.

Amen to that...

-matt

yep,

all it needs is a nice round green door with a golden brass doorknob and it'd be the spittin image of Bag-end, but, I digress....

not enough windows - needs more sun, but other than that, it's great.

 

[SFG75]

I'd like to know how in the hell they test a structure against a 7.0 quake. How do you replicate and document that???

 

[stogieman]

Well, all I can say is if I had $400,000 to spend on a house like that, I could get an awsome house here on the Florida coast..... :thumbs:

 

[AVB]

I got to visit a family who bought an old missle silo and converted that, same idea oly it was much larger and could handle a 50 megaton strike a mile away.

 

[BigDaddyFink]

Kind of ironic that the seller had to let it go for such a "reduction" of value because of illness. Poetic justice if there ever was such a thing. :sign:

 

[usmce5]

I like it. :love: