For years, people told me reflectix insulation wouldn't work. They told me that it wouldn't work in my camper van, and then I lived in it for six years, and then they told me it wouldn't work in this cabin. And I've been in here for over a year. Of course, that includes uh summer, winter, and we're working on another summer now. It's been perfectly comfortable. Just about every time I show the inside of the cabin, I get a comment that says, "Why isn't it insulated?" And I understand where that's coming from, but it is insulated. And today, I wanted to show you guys exactly how I insulated the cabin. I wanted to show you guys why I chose one of the cheapest insulation options out there, what actually happens after living with it.

And I'm not saying Reflectix is the very best insulation available. But after living with it for seven years, I know it works. I built this cabin the way that would be possible. I wanted something that was affordable, something that wouldn't be extremely complicated, something that I could piece together over time. And having ex Hey little buddy. Having extremely affordable insulation that worked made a lot of sense. I spent a lot of time with my grandpa up at his cabin when I was a little boy and I like the look of a cabin and I just couldn't even imagine building this cabin with this greatl looking second grade wood and not well and then just covering it up inside with drywall or something.

put up insulation and then cover it. That didn't make sense to me. I still haven't finished a lot of little nooks and crannies on the cabin. But that's that's the insulation right there. It's called reflectix. So, the first thing I did was put up the paneling on the walls here. This is just 2x8 and there's gaps. It doesn't matter. In fact, that's good for the expanding wood. The black, you can see black back there. That's the rainwater barrier. So, there's just the paneling, then the barrier, then the reflectix insulation, and then siding, which is just this wood going the opposite direction on the outside. That's why it makes a lot of sense when people say, "Why isn't the cabin insulated?" Cuz it doesn't look like it is.

To be clear, the correct way to install reflectix is to leave an air gap of at least 1 in. And while I did that on the floor joists by insulating the bottom of the joist and the top of the joist, which I don't regret doing at all because it helps keep the floor warmer. A good way to do that in the walls would be to put down ribs of wood and then sheet over top of them and then maybe even more ribs of wood and then the siding. And that would give you a one-inch gap on both sides. It would make it more effective, but it costs a lot more money. And that's why I didn't do that. I lived in this camper van for six years, and the only thing between it and the freezing temperatures outside was reflectix.

And you know, people constantly told me that reflectix would not work. And you know, specifically be because I had already built the camper van before I came out. They were saying it wouldn't work in the cabin, [laughter] but I lived in the camper van for so long knowing it worked perfectly fine. And that's why I I actually insulated the roof of the shop and the cabin with reflectix. If you're thinking about survival backpacking, you'll usually have some kind of a first aid kit and maybe an emergency blanket. And emergency blankens blankets are a radiant barrier. So you lay in it and the heat reflects back to your body. And that's how reflectix works.

It's a radiant barrier. Now, imagine that you place that emergency blanket on posts a foot above your body and there's wind blowing through. It wouldn't work nearly as well as if you wrap it around your body and close in the heat so it can't escape. And that's one of the the key things that makes reflectix work really well is to prevent air exchange. So, in the camper van, an example, you don't want you don't want holes and areas for the air to come in and out and exchange too much. And the same applies for your cabin. You know, you want to caulk the corners, seal any gaps. You can scrape that out later, [snorts] but you want to seal the gaps so air can't exchange.

And so once you heat the air inside the cabin when it's cold, that air stays inside and it's easier to maintain the efficiency of the heat. And likewise, when the sun beats down on the roof, it reflects away from the cabin. And by putting the windows on the north side of the cabin, the sun can't beat in and heat the cabin in the summertime, which for me is the dramatic part of the season. If it's 97 or 105, I don't want sun beating in through the windows, they can just hit this back side of the cabin and bounce away pretty well and it keeps it nice and cool and it's like sitting in the shade basically, only better. The same thing applies for the Russian stove over there.

It creates a significant amount of heat and that heat hits the walls and bounces back. It doesn't leak out through cracks much. It's reflected back in and so it holds that heat inside the cabin. In fact, I've never had a point throughout the year that I can't efficiently heat or cool the place to the exact temperature that I want to maintain. So, if you think about it, before I built this cabin, it all started with what I knew I could and couldn't do. And it's very similar to the four-step system I've put in place, which is freely available on my website. It helps you find a county that's friendly that you can build in. Helps you land uh locate land that's in that county.

It helps you do due diligence so you don't get land that's a dud and then you can build your frugal homestead. It's all freely available on the website. And if you want depth, you can pick up the frugal off-grid path. And if you do, I'll see you live on the 20th. And in that live Q&A, I can help you walk through your specific situation together. So, all the little things add up. And you can see the sun is beating in the windows or trying to. And these windows, I don't even have to cover them because the sun gets past those windows pretty quick, but it allows a lot of light into the cabin. And in the summertime, you know, for about a week, it gets up around 97.

I think 105 might be the hottest it's been in the six years I've been out here. And that lasts, you know, for about a week of days, it'll be up around there. And then for a nice few months, maybe it's around 90 or so. Uh, and then in the winter time, zero is not uncommon. And there's there's about a week where it's around zero, maybe negative five or something like that. And I would say it's honestly colder for for a larger part of the year than it is hot. That's just how the desert high desert can work, especially at night. Um, you know, up until just recently, it was like 40 44 degrees in the morning. It might have been close to that, but no, no, it was warmer this morning.

So, so we're into June and it's finally not super cold outside. Like, I haven't done the uh I haven't sealed the intake on my farm truck because I just haven't want to been out I haven't wanted to be out there when it's 40°, especially when it's been closer to 90 in the daytime. I have two of these mini splits. This one leaked though. I even had a company come out and fix it and recharge it and it leaked again. So, I've only had the one uh heat pump running up in the bedroom there. And let's see. It's okay. So, as far as air conditioning goes, just that one alone will keep the place completely comfortable year round. No problem. It was nice having another down here just for those few days that it was really, really hot.

You could just pop it on and and be even cooler. But even with this one down, this one handles the air conditioning side of things no problem. It handles the heat side of things for most of the year. You know, it's it's good enough if well, it's always perfectly comfortable up there, but if you come downstairs in the morning, you know, and it's 0 degrees outside, it's cold down here. And that's why having the the masonry heater is nice. I can just load fire in that thing and it keeps it plenty warm. It's easy to get it too warm in here. Uh but it's also easy to keep it perfect in here with that thing. If you just I just light a fairly decent fire every few hours or so and then of course overnight I I probably go the whole eight hours and then just light one in the morning.

It keeps it perfectly comfortable in here. And even if you just put a diesel air heater down here that does the same. I had that for the first while and it it also is perfectly capable of keeping it comfortable in here. What I'm saying is Reflectix is not the very best insulation on the market, but it is about the cheapest effective option that has done just fine for me for seven years. It's not ideal for a luxury cabin or for somebody building in Alaska, but it is ideal for somebody building a practical, frugal homestead.