VISION
PodHopping is the vision of Hein & Michelle le Roux. As passionate advocates for sustainability, they purchased a 5-acre property one-hour south of Kansas City and began dreaming of plans to create a contemporary off-grid retreat. Over two years, they brought this vision to reality, launching the Butterfly Pods in summer of 2024.
Long term, the goal is to create a network of pods, providing opportunities for people to experience and adopt an
environmentally conscious lifestyle. The pods will be situated in unique
locations that have excellent proximity to areas of outstanding natural beauty.
The siting of the pods encourages "podhoppers" to visit a particular area and
stay in multiple pods, maximizing their experience and their exposure to
the local attractions. One of our goals is to seek locations and tourist routes that include small
businesses that truly embrace aspects of sustainability and environmental
stewardship. The inherent concept is about connecting people back to nature and
local community while endorsing wellness and healthy living.
THE POD
POD is an acronym for Passive Ordinary Dwelling. Built to Passivhaus standards, using ordinary materials - the dwellings are robust at their core, but also renewable and recyclable in their skin. They have a low embodied carbon content with maximum use of timber allowing them to be highly durable over time. The pod has a conventional timber frame construction. The frame is sheathed and covered with an impermeable membrane, which is then covered with exterior continuous insulation. This approach is known as the "perfect wall" and mitigates thermal bridging, ensuring an airtight structure - the foundation of a passive house. The insulation is covered with UV resistant membrane and furred out to receive the cedar rain-screen cladding and air gap. Concealed gutters harvest rainwater through the rain-screen. The foundation design utilizes a steel helical screw pile system, with minimal impact on the underlying ground. This system allows the pod to be moved and mitigates the requirement for concrete and or complex waterproofing membranes. The roof is profiled metal sheeting with and air gap on insulation. All exterior windows and doors are tripled glazed systems in high performing fiber glass and aluminum frames.
TECHNOLOGY
The Butterfly Pods utilize a ground mount PV array (5.2kW + 3kW expansion on greenhouse). A utility building underneath the array houses an off-grid hybrid inverter and 300ah 48v LiFePo battery. This setup provides standard 120/240v electricity to the buildings. A backup 6kW propane generator ensures that the batteries can be charged when poor weather conditions prevent electricity production from the PV panels. A smaller 300w array with battery storage provides redundant power for water pumps. The pods capture rainwater and surface water which is treated and used for drinking and washing. The Butterfly Pods have 800 gallons of storage capacity. A sequence of filtration, reverse osmosis and UV treatment ensures safe drinking water. Depending on local building code, the pods can be equipped with flush toilets connected to public sewers or septic tanks. Some sites like the Butterfly Pods will have standalone lateral fields for sewage processing. Also, where necessary composting toilets could be used. Like the Butterfly Pods, other sites will also be fitted out with internet enabling Smart monitoring systems to be installed. With the use of Smart platforms like Home Assistant, all MEP systems can be monitored remotely and on site from tablets or smart phones.
