Self-Sufficient Homes in Spain: Long Quarantine Prep Guide

The Self-Sufficient Home Designed for Months of Isolation

A private well and a plot between 1,000 and 2,000 square meters. This is the foundation of any self-sufficient home project aimed at enduring months without stepping outside. The rest—greenhouse, livestock area, wind turbine, underground cold storage—is subject to nuance and debate. The stated goal: absolute privacy and avoiding unexpected visitors at any hour.

Two Houses, Perimeter Fence, and an External Reception Area

The initial design considers one or two dwellings on a fenced plot with areas planned for long confinement without external contact. The list includes an indoor-outdoor warehouse, vehicle parking, drone landing/takeoff zone, electric car charging point, and a reception area outside the house for non-residents. The idea is to handle all logistics without opening the front door. Some go further, proposing to combine two plots: one urban for living, and another adjacent but rural, dedicated to vegetable garden, fruit trees, and livestock. Productive, but left fallow until needed.

How Many Square Meters Are Really Needed?

Paper plans quickly clash with ground reality. The most repeated warning: it’s useless to draw the garden in a corner before knowing where the wind comes from, if there is a slope, or what soil exists at each point. Soil differences over three meters, it is argued, already change what should be planted. The starting figure —between 1,000 and 2,000 m²— falls short once greenhouse, fruit trees, and stables are added. Comparative models range from 1,000 m² for the smallest to two hectares for the most ambitious.

Another variable that conditions everything is the number of occupants. Self-sufficiency for two people is not calculated the same as for a large family, and this is where many projects fail. In the requirements section, water takes precedence over everything.

Canary Islands or Northwest: Water vs. Sun

Location divides opinions. The Canary Islands offer almost free sun and wind, with zero heating costs and energy self-sufficiency within reach. The problem is the other resource: very few estates have their own well and rainfall is low, so irrigation ends up depending on the municipal network and drinking water on bottles. In the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, the opposite happens: water is abundant, sun is scarce.

The dilemma, stated plainly: energy dependence with your own water supply, or energy self-sufficiency with external water? No one fully resolves it. What does repeat is that water for irrigation and animal consumption should never depend on pumping systems outside the estate's control.

Defense: From Hawthorn to Razor Wire

Here the tone rises. Some argue that without weapons or response capability, any isolated house is an easy target, while others counter that this only applies in other countries. Most messages avoid direct confrontation and advocate for so-called passive defense: staying sheltered, hindering access, and not counterattacking. A frequently cited model is the fortified farm, with one or two perimeter rings of barbed wire or razor wire, understanding that the gate is always the weak point.

Regulations cut many ideas. In some regions, any opaque closure above 1.50 meters that is not vegetative is prohibited, pushing towards hedges with thorny or abrasive foliage as natural barriers. In the food chapter, traps, alarms, and machetes disguised as agricultural tools are discussed, always on the edge of legality.

What to Plant When Space is Limited

The list of profitable crops is the most practical part. Jerusalem artichoke takes the lead: a sweet tuber with nearly 15% protein that, according to shared experiences, yields about 7 kilos with minimal maintenance, reseeds itself, grows up to three meters, serving as a living wall against wind and prying eyes. For summer, sweet potato and pumpkin, which last months without refrigeration. For winter, broad beans and other legumes, cabbages, and lettuces. Hydroponics, however, is discarded for producing flours: it is expensive and better reserved for other uses.

Passive Design That Saves the Rest

The other major line points to building as if energy were scarce. Burying much of the house, including an underground cold room for perishables, erecting a wind turbine that serves both electricity and water pumping. And, in parallel, the example of those who already live like this: an adobe house lost in a village in Castilla y León with 4 neighbors, fifteen minutes by car from the city, cool in summer and hard to heat in winter. Insulation without completely renouncing civilization appears again and again as the decisive factor. Inflated concrete domes cured in the sun are also recovered, a quick technique for those seeking cheap shelter.

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With these elements, it is reasonable to think that projects will continue to stall at the same point: regulations. The ideal plot does not exist, nor does the perfect location, so those waiting for definitive land may spend years looking at plans. Those who move sooner will have a garden, even if small, and a half-dug well. Those who wait until everything is calculated will probably keep waiting.