A Solar-Powered Amish Barndominium? Here’s What It Looks Like Inside (19 Photos)

Exterior of a solar-powered Amish barndominium in Millersburg, Indiana, with a covered front porch, two-tone metal siding, and a hitching post in the foreground — Amish-owned barndominium in Millersburg, Indiana (Elkhart County)

Jim Halverson sends along this week’s Amish home – and it’s quite a contrast to what we looked at last week.

Where that Maine Amish home without plumbing epitomized a plain Amish way of living, this week’s solar-powered barndominium in Millersburg, Indiana showcases an Amish lifestyle strikingly different – and you could certainly say more modern.

Now, these are still considered Old Order Amish – that is, horse-and-buggy-driving, plain-dressing Amish people. On that note, here’s one of the family’s buggies in the garage, along with laundry lines and bicycles.

The community we are looking at, in Elkhart and LaGrange Counties, is the third-largest in the country – and one of the most progressive in the horse-and-buggy Amish world.

The home description portrays a home that is technically “off grid” – but providing current to power built-in wall lighting like the one you see below:

Here’s the home description – unlike most homes we look at, this one is being offered at auction:

Auction! The price listed is the starting bid, not the buy it now price. Welcome to this classy bardominium with a separate horse barn and hay storage shed on 10 acres.

The description of the power setup sounds impressive:

Set up for off grid living with four large solar panels, a 6500-watt inverter, and two 100-amp lithium 48-volt batteries. There is no Nipsco electricity connected [Note: Nipsco is the name of a local gas and electric provider]. In floor heat is throughout, with separate zones in the living space and garage space.

Some Amish homes use inverters to convert the power collected in the batteries to household current, which can be used to power appliances, lighting, etc – while remaining technically “off the grid”. Here’s what the setup looks like in this home:

And here’s the rest of the brief description, alerting interested parties that they can check out the home at an open house. There are still two more of those to go, as of posting:

Pastures, a hay field, a garden shed and a garden round out the property. Attend one of the open houses on Tuesdays (March 17, 24, 31, Apr 7) from 3-5pm. PHONE BID AUCTION deadline is Tuesday, April 14th at 4pm.

So let’s have a look inside. And a spoiler alert: We’re not going to see any kerosene teardrop lamps or hand water pumps in the photos of this progressive home 🙂

Starting with the kitchen – while having a modern look, it actually features a fairly common hanging battery-powered light, not the built-in fixture we saw above.

From another angle we see a more modern – more so than a wood cookstove, anyway – gas stove, like you might see in an “English” home.

Pulling out from the kitchen space we can see it flows into the living room in an open floor plan layout. Now you see the built-in lighting fixture on the right.

Also, the overstuffed recliners and sofas, which are a standard in more progressive Amish homes (as opposed to wooden chairs and hickory rockers than might have a cushion on them for comfort, in plainer Amish homes).

They include a ground level floor plan so you can get a better sense of it:

If you look out the window to the left you can see one of the solar panel platforms.

Another thing that stands out in these more modern Amish homes are the color tones. Rather than the vibrant blues and purples seen in plainer Amish homes’ chair coverings, curtains, rag rugs, quilts and the like, here we have a more muted and modern palette.

And another angle of this space. While the other window view gave a peek at a decidedly modern direction, this one gives a glimpse of a symbol of Amish tradition – another buggy parked outside.

Now the bedroom. More modern accents. We do get a look from the side at the lighting – there appears to be a box which might be open-able. It’s possible a battery is placed in there.

Now the bathroom has an interesting lighting setup, something a bit different. While the fixture is built-in, this one clearly has what looks like a removable rechargeable battery that you plug right in. I wonder why they did this one that way, in comparison to what we saw in the living room and bedroom.

The place is listed as having just one bedroom, but there is a second bed on the upper level. This space has a bit more traditional look to it, and lacks the lighting we saw on the first floor.

“That’s not Amish!”

This home, in its interior furnishings and power setup, represents the way things have gone in some Amish communities.

The northern Indiana Amish, while having some more conservative churches among its 230+ districts, have long been one of the more materially progressive horse-and-buggy groups. And in this next photo, you can see this isn’t the only Amish home with solar in the neighborhood.

I expect a good number of people will take a look at this home and say “that’s not Amish” – and I get it. By the appearance and adoption of technology and modern styles, this home has little in common with the traditional, classic Amish farm homes.

At the same time, the Old Order Amish are a dynamic enough group that there is space for the very conservative manifestations and likewise the progressive ones – and a lot in-between.

There may come a time when a group that is this far along materially decides to discard the buggy, or hook themselves up to the grid. But that time is not here yet for this particular community.

So what about the price of this property – a one-bedroom barndominium, listed at 1,408 square feet, on 10 acres of land? Well, since it’s going up for auction, we don’t have a set price, though there is a starting bid.

The auction of this home takes place April 14th, and the minimum bid is $475,000. It’s listed by Leon D. Kramer and Jesse Riegsecker of Bright Star Real Estate Services LLC.