Earthships - the Perfect House

[Nathan Hale]

Totally off the grid.

- 100% solar with battery backup that provides power for up to two weeks without a drop of sun.

- Maintains 70F internal temperature w/o any heating or cooling system whatsoever (solar gain and passive geothermal)

- catchwater and cistern - requires 9 inches of rainfall per YEAR to provide adequate water for home use

- massive room for indoor plants (grow bananas in Alaska), as well as greywater and blackwater for large outdoor gardens.

- costs less and lasts longer than traditional housing

www.earthship.org

 

[zach]

If I could gather the money, then I would look into this.

Seriously, I love the idea.. even more than the earth homes.

 

[LittleLightShining]

I know 2 people that have earth ships. They're really pretty inexpensive to build. The first couple have gotten almost all of their materials for free.

 

[tmosley]

I will be building one myself starting in October, using a local company that has a device that extrudes large "megablocks" of compressed earth rather than rammed earth tires.

Start to finish, it should be done in two months and will only cost me about $50K for ~3600 sq ft. $60K when you include the solar panels.

BTW you can hook them up to the grid if you can't afford the extra expense. Mine is going to be in a semi-rural area, rather than out in the middle of nowhere like most of them are. If it works out, I'm going to try to promote it as an alternative for those who live in mobile homes, since they are so cheap to build.

 

[hawaiisb]

One of my longterm goals for my life is to travel the world and buy cheap land in random places that I enjoy and then build an earthship on them. This way when I retire I will have many places around the world where I can travel and stay, and I think it'll be a nice investment for my children.

 

[Mister Grieves]

I've always wondered about the red tape involved and how many hoops you'd have to jump through in most areas to build one of these. Do you have to relocate to New Mexico in order for these to be a viable plan?

 

[Nathan Hale]

I've always wondered about the red tape involved and how many hoops you'd have to jump through in most areas to build one of these. Do you have to relocate to New Mexico in order for these to be a viable plan?

Not really. The earthship people say they've built them in many states and foreign countries, and they claim to be able to deal with the regulatory burden as part of the package.

 

[Minarchy4Sale]

FUUUUUgly

 

[Aurelia]

Why would there be a regulatory burden--because you don't have to pay the city for the usual bills (water, electricity, etc).

They are kinda ugly from the outside, but man, the views from within could be gorgeous. If I lived in Alaska I'd live in one of these things--better than a concrete box, I think. However, I doubt whether they are natural disaster resistant, especially against earthquakes and hurricanes. God knows I would not stay in that thing during one.

 

[heavenlyboy34]

brilliant idea! I'll hold off for now, but I'm glad the OP brought this to my attention. ~hugs Nathan~

 

[TonySutton]

Be nice to see a libertarian or anarchist earthship village appear somewhere

 

[Acala]

Underground

Wish I had the resources to build an underground house.

 

[Kelly.]

sorry to bumpo an old topic,
but i wanted to drop little bit of info in here as i have recently been looking to a passvie solar home...

a few people in Colorado are using tire ales to build homes.
the term earthship refers to a specific home by the taos,nm guy, a better generic term would be 'passive solar rammed tire home'
here is a little info on tire bales:
http://www.touchtheearthranch.com/tirebales.htm

Tire-bales are "big rubber bricks". Place them in the wall with a large fork-lift, a hay-grapple, larger size skid-steer w/forks (3,000# tipping weight, minimum), or a backhoe. They're made in an hydraulic press, click to see the press exerting extreme forces to compress approximately 100 tires into a "brick" 2-1/2' x 5' x 4-1/2', weighing ~2,000#, wrapped with (5) .113" diameter steel wires pre-formed into square-knot ends which are hooked together when the press reaches it's compression capacity. The press is then released and the bale is completed. The bale is now the density of most wood, weighing in at roughly 50 pounds per cubic foot and containing only 5% air.

its like a earthship, without all the tire pounding, plus it removes 10x more tires then an earthship.
in most places they will just give you the tire bales for free, all you have to do is pay for them to be transported to the building site.
they dont require a foundation, stick like bricks and are a great source of thermal mass.

i am looking to build one of these as soon as i can get back to a area where land is cheaper,
im looking at this in order to have a energy independent, mortgage free (or a very small one) home. not to mention the food production that can take place in one of these

 

[moostraks]

I will be building one myself starting in October, using a local company that has a device that extrudes large "megablocks" of compressed earth rather than rammed earth tires.

Start to finish, it should be done in two months and will only cost me about $50K for ~3600 sq ft. $60K when you include the solar panels.

BTW you can hook them up to the grid if you can't afford the extra expense. Mine is going to be in a semi-rural area, rather than out in the middle of nowhere like most of them are. If it works out, I'm going to try to promote it as an alternative for those who live in mobile homes, since they are so cheap to build.

Did you ever build yours? I would love to see the pictures if you did!

 

[Krugerrand]

Wish I had the resources to build an underground house.

I think underground housing can have huge advantages.

 

[Bruehound]

I did very serious research on the Earthsips and for my climate in humid Louisiana they are not a good fit plus all the code enforcement nightmares of an unconventional structure(not that I am a fan of bldg codes in any way) and you also have to consider insurability and resale and these things are just too "out there".

I decided to build a net zero house and incorporate super insulation strategies. R39 walls, R79 ceilings with super tight envelope. 5.2 kW solar on the roof.

I am using a pre-fabricated steel stud panelized kit(customized) which embeds the studs into the slab and the entire structure is unified by exterior cement substrate. The company that makes these uses this system in hurricane zones so it should be appropriate for our region. We break ground next week.

 

[Kelly.]

^^^^
did you research the cost of building an earthship?

are you planning to use passive solar at all?

i am in the planning stages of building a home, and i am interested in all ideas.
any idea of what the house you are building will cost per sq ft?

 

[Bruehound]

^^^^
did you research the cost of building an earthship?

are you planning to use passive solar at all?

i am in the planning stages of building a home, and i am interested in all ideas.
any idea of what the house you are building will cost per sq ft?

Yes and the labor cost of an Earthship brings it up to near conventional construction unless you want to pound dirt into 1000's of tires yourself which sounds tempting but in the real world that idea would be dripping with regret--in my case anyway.

Yes we are going passive solar and will have no traditional HVAC. Simulations we have run show our total annual need for supplemental heat is 82kW...basically if we need to add heat to the home, we make a piece of toast. In Louisiana our main design concerns were cooling and humidity. So we will have a highly reflective super insulated building with an ultra high effciency de-humidifier so we can keep our AC setpoint up around 82. That and ceiling fans which lower your real feel comfort temp by about 3-4 degrees.

Construction costs in our case will be up near $90/sq ft but we are using alot of high performance materials and that also includes solar PV and solar hot water systems(which are 80% subsidized in Louisiana BTW). The company that makes and designs the pre-fabricated steel framing kits has some priced as low as $8000.

I don't want to spam for that company here in a public forum so PM if you want contact info for them.

 

[Kelly.]

I have been researching earthships in an attempt to build a version that isnt as labor intensive as tire pounding.

i stumbled across a website, talking about using the "tire bales" instead of pounding tires. the bales are free, just need to pay to have them delivered to the site.

I have a question for anyone that has read the books micheal reynolds has written?
i see that vol 3 was published in '93, and just by looking at some of the newer homes, i can tell alot has been updated in the design.
so im wondering if it is worth it to buy the earthship books? i dont feel like buying all 3 books ($75 after shipping) if there is no knowledge newer then 1993 in them.

i have been doing alot of reading on passive solar design also....

i dont plan on running grey water directly to the 'greenhouse' planters, but i plan to water with grey water in a standard greenhouse/thermal buffer that most newer earthships used.
i plan to collect rain water and store in cisterns, but plan to have another water supply as well.

so is it a waste of time for me to buy the books? would just buying the most recent book help?
any advice is appreciated.


fyi, here are some links to "passive solar tire homes" (earthships is a term that only MR can use, unless you pay him $1 per sq ft on any home called a earthship)

http://www.tirebalehouse.com/
http://www.hagartirebales.com/
http://www.touchtheearthranch.com/tirebales.htm (this is the guy in
black forests site. he built a earthship, improved on it for CO and
now helps people design them with tire bales, since they are less work
then pounding tires.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/213073520PPrEXo

here are some search links:
http://www.google.com/search?source...tnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tire+bale+construction&aq=0&aqi=g4&aql=f&oq=tire+bale+&gs_rfai=

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tire+bale+house&aq=1&aqi=g4&aql=f&oq=tire+bale+&gs_rfai=

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=tire+bale+home&aq=1&aqi=g2&aql=f&oq=tire+bale+h&gs_rfai=

 

[Kelly.]

also, if you want to see what the insides of a earthship looks like, without the drive to taos, check this site out.

the realtor does a video walk through of all of the toas homes.
anyone interested in building a version of these, will get alot of questions answered, just by watching the videos.

http://www.taosearthships.com/