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Rooms and storage

This module turns the designed house shell into a working home that keeps running in a total blackout. It sets out which rooms an off-grid household needs, where each one goes and why, what furniture and fixed equipment goes in each, and how every room serves the power, water, food, medical, secure and comms systems.

Why it matters

A well-built off-grid shell can still fail its owners if the pump room is hard to reach, the pantry sits next to the stove, the batteries share a wall with a bedroom or a heavy dresser can fall on a child. Room planning is where the systems from every other module meet daily life. Getting adjacencies, storage, lighting and furniture right keeps energy use low, makes maintenance easy and keeps the family safe when no outside help is coming.

Room schedule, adjacency and escape routes (Plan)

1. Write a room schedule that includes every off-grid service room rooms-1
2. Plan adjacencies: which rooms sit next to which, and why rooms-2
3. Plan exit routes and escape openings room by room rooms-3

Service rooms, kitchen and pantry (Design)

1. Lay out the water and pump room rooms-4
2. Fit out the battery and inverter room rooms-5
3. Plan the utility and laundry room for low water and greywater rooms-6
4. Design the mudroom and boot room rooms-7
5. Lay out the workshop and tool storage rooms-8
6. Lay out the kitchen for off-grid cooking rooms-9
7. Add a food processing and preserving station rooms-10
8. Fit out the pantry and link to cold storage rooms-11

Resilience rooms, living rooms and bedrooms (Design)

1. Place the medical room or cupboard rooms-12
2. Place the safe room and secure store rooms-13
3. Set up the communications corner rooms-14
4. Furnish the family and media room rooms-15
5. Plan bedrooms and children's spaces rooms-16
6. Set up the home office and schooling area rooms-17

Storage, furniture and lighting (Install)

1. Plan storage: shelving loads, labelling and rotation rooms-18
2. Choose durable, repairable, multipurpose furniture rooms-19
3. Check fire safety of upholstered furniture and mattresses rooms-20
4. Anchor tall furniture and TVs to the walls rooms-21
5. Plan the lighting: daylight first, then low-energy LED rooms-22
6. Furnish for accessibility and ageing in place rooms-23

Emergency lighting, testing and review (Test)

1. Fit emergency lighting and test the exit routes rooms-24

Living with the rooms (Run)

1. Run a room-by-room blackout walk-through each year rooms-25

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