I discovered Earthships and the whole concept of Self Sufficient living back in 2001. Since then my life has never been the same! For me it all started when I attended a lecture by the Inventor of Earthships, an American Architect called Michael Reynolds. Michael had taken all the ideas and concepts around self sufficient / sustainable building and living, and rolled them into one amazing building that he called an Earthship.
The thing that really caught my attention was that Earthships are a kind of eco perfection. Earthships are basically off the charts in terms of performance, strength, longevity and Carbon Footprint etc. But the thing that really caught my attention was all the other benefits. These Earthships perform so well, that even at -10 Degrees Celsius you can be comfortable without any additional heating. They keep you warm, and for free, and you don't even have to do anything. The same for cooling in hot climates! In fact, they look after all your basic needs by providing Solar Power, Solar Hot Water, Organic food grown in botanical cells inside the house. They harvest rainwater and store huge amounts of water behind the house for long droughts. Suddenly out of the blue, here was a totally new life option, whereI could build one of these Earthships and then be secure for the rest of my life. I could have all my survival and even comfort needs taken care of and for free. The world is an unpredictable place, and so to know that I could have all my basic needs met even if I ran out of money was very compelling.
After a 13 year long vision and mission to self build my own Earthship Biohome, I finally succeeded in 2012 with the completion of Earthship Karuna. I have posted here some basic and great info about the basic concepts of Earthships. There is a LOT more to say, and I will be talking and explaining more in future posts.
All the images below are my own pictures of Earthship Karuna that I have self built with a LOT of help! Much of the information is from various sources. This is a good article to understand the basics of Earthships.
If you like this post, Please Re-Steem this to help us get the word out! Even just one person who finds out about this can have their lives changed in such a positive way. Every view counts! ;-)
Enjoy!
1) SUSTAINABLE DOES NOT HAVE TO MEAN MEAN PRIMITIVE
When people hear about sustainable, off-the-grid living, they usually picture primitive homes divorced from the comforts of the 21st century. And rightfully so, as most sustainable solutions proposed until now have fit that description. Earthships, however, offer all of the comforts of modern homes and more. I’ll let this picture do the talking…
2) FREE ORGANIC FOOD GROWING INSIDE YOUR HOME FROM WASTE WATER
Each Earthship is outfitted with one or two greenhouses that grow crops year-round, no matter the climate. This means you can feed yourself with only the plants growing inside of your house using waste water from the kitchen sink. People live in Earthships on rainwater harvesting alone and in areas with only 9 inches of rainfall a year!
3) HIGHLY EFFICIENT MULTI USE WATER RECYCLING & CONSERVATION
Even the most arid of climates can provide enough water for daily use through only a rain-harvesting system. The entire roof of the Earthship funnels rain water to a cistern, which then pumps it to sinks and showers when required. That used ‘grey water’ is then pumped into the greenhouse to water the plants. After being cleaned by the plants, the water is pumped up into the bathrooms for use in the toilets. After being flushed, the now ‘black water’ is pumped to the exterior garden to give nutrients to non-edible plants.
4) PASSIVE SOLAR HEATING & COOLING IN EXTREME HEAT OR COLD WITH NO POWER
The most brilliant piece of engineering in the Earthship is their ability to sustain comfortable temperatures year round. Even in freezing cold or blistering hot climates, Earthships constantly hover around 70° Fahrenheight (22° Celsius). This phenomenon results from the solar heat being absorbed and stored by ‘thermal mass’ — or tires filled with dirt, which make up the structure of the Earthship. The thermal mass acts as a heat sink, releasing or absorbing heat it when the interior cools and heats up, respectively. The large greenhouse windows at the front of the house always face south to allow the sun to heat up the thermal mass throughout the daytime.
5) FREE ENERGY / NO BILLS
Solar panels on the roof and optional wind turbines provide the Earthship with all of the power it needs. As long as you’re not greedily chewing through electricity like a typical first-world human, you’ll never be short of power.
6) FREEDOM & TRUE LONG TERM SECURITY
With all of your basic needs provided for and NO bills each month, you’re free! You don’t have to work a job you hate just to survive. So you can focus your time on doing what you love, and bettering the world around you. Imagine if the entire world was able to focus on doing extraordinary things instead of just making enough to get by. Imagine if even 10% of the world could do this. What would change?
7) LOW TECH TO BUILD WITH LITTLE TO NO EXPERIENCE, SUITABLE FOR SELF BUILD
At a recent Earthship conference in Toronto, Canada, a married couple in their forties shared about how they built a 3-story Earthship by themselves in 3 months. They had never built anything before in their lives and were able to build an Earthship with only the printed plans. They did not hire any help, nor did they use expensive equipment to make the job easier. If one man and one woman can do this in 3 months, anyone can do it.
8) CAN BE EXTREMELY CHEAP WHEN DONE MODESTLY
Earthships are exorbitantly cheaper than conventional houses. The most basic Earthships cost as little as $7000 (The Simple Survival model) with the most glamorous models costing $70,000 and up, depending on how flashy you want to be with your decorating. With these cost options, Earthships can fit the needs of everyone — from the least privileged to the most worldly.
9) MADE OF RECYCLED MATERIALS
Much of the materials used to build Earthships are recycled. For starters, the structure is built with used tires filled with dirt:
If there’s one thing we’re not short of on Earth, it’s used tires! There are tire dumps like the one pictured here in every country in the world. There are even places that will pay you by the tire to take them away. The walls (above the tires) are created by placing plastic and glass bottles in concrete. When the Earthship team was in Haiti after the earthquake, they employed local kids to both clean up the streets and provide all of the bottles required for building their Earthship. Plus, they look pretty sexy.
10) THINK DIFFERENT
The most powerful thing Earthships do is force people to think differently about how we live. If housing can be this awesome, and be beneficial to the environment, then what else can we change? What else can become more simple, cheaper and better at the same time? It’s time for us to re-think much of what we consider normal.
To see more about Earthship Karuna visit www.earthshipkaruna.net
To learn MUCH more please visit youtube.com and search for Earthship related movies.. There are MANY great ones out there. Here is part one of a fantastic movie called 'New Solutions'
WoW! Absolutely gorgeous brother!
This is absolutely amazing and inspiring! Mad props for all the hard work pounding dirt into the tires! With the power of community, anything is possible. Glad to have found you so I can follow your adventures. Here's to a free and abundant life for all!
Lovely! thanks for that uplifting comment!
Yes it is mad hard work .. but was also the most enjoyable times ever.
We all worked with the spirit of co-creation and joy most of the time!
Was amazing times.. i will write about them also.. many stories as im sure you can imagine
Where do you live? Have you thoguht about self building?
you flag me. your video all copyright. your photos all copyright. don't flag go on. note. you crazy dog.
I'm sure it was so rewarding and you'll never forget the amazing experience of building your own home.
I live in North Carolina. I definitely want to get into natural building. I've only taken a class on interior clay plaster but that made me fall in love with the process. I'd love to get my hands dirty on cob, strawbale, earthbricks and try a little bit of each. I also love the earthbag designs.
theres nothing like getting your hands dirty to learn!
I built without even having any classes.. these days we have so many resources it makes it so much easier to try things out
IM TOTALLY into earthbag also! Especially round ones with an earthbag roof..
IM promoting this with a tyre foundation right now.. Kind of an Earthship / Earthbag mashup.
Nice! So true that there are so many resources and videos online and often just getting your hands dirty and learning by doing makes a ton of sense. Certain fundamental knowledge like how to build a foundation and whatnot is the more intimidating stuff it seems.
I've heard of using rice hulls for the top layers of an earthbag dome because they are often very cheap to find and much lighter weight so it's easier to construct with.
Have you also seen the method of earthbag construction using the rolls of potato sack fabric instead of the sandbag material? I can find a video to show you. It's pretty neat!
GOOD news !!
Earthships don't need a foundation!
They have a tyre foundation so technically its very easy!
Nice! I guess I thought they still had a foundation underneath the tire walls. Very interesting to know!
i have seen that yes.. if you have good soil that is well stabilized that is a good option..
awesome work, thanks for sharing - very inspiring. :)
upvoted, resteemed and followed :)
great stuff! Have you ever thought about self building or living off grid?
I stayed in an off-grid house in portugal a few months ago and experienced the mixture of fund and hard work involved. I currently run a social network that facilitates healing, balancing and evolving at https://www.ureka.org and so I don't have much time left over for building houses...
However, I do have a polytunnel and grow food here to the extent that I can in Britain.
At some point I would love to build an earthship or something like it.
I have a few videos on earthships and permaculture on my site - plus some other bits for cal earth back when i was actually planning to build an ecodome. life events got me distracted though and i didn't get it done as I planned.
https://www.ureka.org/videos/watch/94975/need-to-build-a-low-cost-sustainable-home-the-simple-survival-earthship-walk-through
i seee! I was just recently helping in the Isle of Sheppey with UK;s first Domestic Earthship with fuill planning permission. That is a big costly project but a good one.
Im also promoting a kind of hybrid with Earthship & Earthbag! Earthbag is amazing and you can also make a roof with earthbags. THis make them SO much cheaper and easier to build!
Im hearing SO much about Portugal lately! My wife and I are thinking to relocate and were thinking of options. Right now im perched on the side of a mountain in India since 11 years! Id be interested to hear where in Portugal you were ,.. or also of any good communities you may know of!
Ill be writing a post of advice and tips for new self builders soon. It should be quite interesting for you!
best@
Oh ok - i thought there was at least one other earthship near Brighton, UK - but I have never been there, so maybe not.
Yes, Earthbags appear to be a cheaper option in many settings - a hybrid sounds like a good idea :)
I was in more or less the center of Portugal, in the mountains. It was actually not a great location since the structure was built on the wrong side of the valley by someone who didn't think closely enough about what he was doing ;)
Here's some photos of the house:
https://www.ureka.org/photos/album/87337/portugal-off-grid-living
I think Portugal is a great place to go now, since it is very low cost due to 'depressed economy' - but because of that you may have some difficulties finding some supplies in some places.
Since you are used to the heat of India, you might be fine towards the South of Portugal which often receives the hot air from Africa.
Thanks for resteeming :)
As humanity begins the long road to thinking about our collective futures with the concept of sustainability in mind - concepts like Earthships shall grow all the more compelling.
This is an impressive expose on the matter. Thank you for sharing.
One caveat. As these kinds of structures grow more popular - the supply of used tyres shall grow less abundant. Not any time soon - but it can definitely happen, especially if a next branch of Earthship design includes multiple-family unit designs (the equivalent of a small apartment block - taking it to the next step in economies of scale).
Thanks for the comment!
Did u know that tyres are one of the biggest waste problems in the world!?
There are billions of them . If we ever ran out that would be a miracle.. especially as we are generating them faster than we can store them!
http://pabloblazquez.photoshelter.com/image/I0000MZ7RmhbJbns
;-) no problem there!
Greetings @vingary
Could you kindly explain why you felt that this comment of mine was worthy of your flag? :c)
Since you are new I trust that you are simply still getting used to the interface? ^_^
Actually I notice that you are doing a 'lot' of flagging. Are you confused as to what flags are used for?
If not then I advise you to reconsider as Steemit is a platform where users think little of retaliatory flagging - and lower reputation users are a lot more susceptible. /:c)
I really enjoyed reading this. I would love to build an earthship home but I don't think my wife would ever go for it.
lol. That CAN be a problem.. Maybe she needs inspiring. Why dont you think she would go for it?
We moved from Houston to the country last summer and that was a leap for her. She is doing great and actually has more livestock than I do now. Baby steps I guess. I have talked to her about an earth bag home and she shut that down quick. I think she thinks that these alternative building methods are primitive and not suitable for our three kids (I know differently).
ahhh! yes right i see, thats what i thought!
Show her my post! the picture of this Earthship look pretty nice no? Hardly primative!
best of luck!
Ha! I already sent her the link. The pictures are great, very beautiful home!
Lets see what she says then!
Maybe push the no bills thing.. that sometimes helps
Fantastic..... if i will earn enough to buy a small piece of land, i wan't it !
YES! happy to hear!
i will be posting a good article soon with advice for self builders so watch out for that!
Great !
This is very fascinating stuff! My wife and I have thought about yurt living for some time, but just have not made the transition yet, and seems a bit more difficult to manage through the winter. Maybe Earthships is the better alternative. I'll be watching for your next post. Thanks for sharing.
yes yurts are really hard work in the winter. At the very least you are finding wood and stocking the fire all the time. With Earthship you can just put your feet up and enjoy!
yes, more to come! ')
Fascinating, @eco-alex, thanks for sharing! Access to land could be a challenge for people in some countries, but the resources to build the houses themselves are inexpensive, as you say. Look forward to hearing more from you. Upvoted, followed and resteemed.
thank u .. I'm based in india since the last 11 years.. Its a good place to build and learn cheaply and also they are very receptive to this kind of thing here.
India is amazing in many ways,, but i especially love how access to land works here. Most of India is really Government land (known as B-Memo Land).. You can basically do what you want on it. You run the risk of being moved on, but mostly people live and are able to just do what they need to survive without problems.. I cant imagine trying that in many places..
Ah, South Africa, my home...land is not a straightforward issue here😢. Interesting how the Indian government has unlocked land "ownership" - this must have had a beneficial effect on economic growth...?
Well, you can't own B-Memo land but you can have your name on it// i THINK, don;t quote me on that!
It's all a bit of a grey area but bottom line is people are protected a bit..
Interesting - maybe the financial value of land ownership could be rethought....
I like this idea but what happens to heavy metals in the waste? If you eat tuna you are going to excrete a lot of mercury. You have lead in all kinds of (super) foods (ask Mike Adams the Health Ranger)
Well. the toilet water is never put into the planters in my house. some people do use it outdoors..
if you use the right plants you can deal with any poisons..
personally i dont eat much meat or fish so its not an issue for me
Well while I can understand the motivation nog eating meat or fish might be even a bigger health hazard. I know this from personal experience and I investigated and asked so many questions that I was kicked out of a raw diet facebook group!
well everyone is different. Some people NEEd meat more than others.. Many can be really very healthy on pure vegan diets.
It seems so doesn't it?
yup! im 80% or more veg.. When i feel like meat i eat more! It doesnt have to be one thing or another. .
Do what makes you happy :)
But I do wonder since heavy metals tend to bio accumulate you don't want them to recycle. I wonder who might know more about this and I don't think Mike Adams will read my posts.. hmm I am going to try anyway!
its very hard with fish.. at least MEat and veggies you can test and control.
You can buy fish that is tested and certified to be mercury free.
You can eat chlorella with fish, it binds mercury the best, according to Mike Adams, but also strawberries and citrus fibers. You have to eat meat to detoxify; Dr. Terry Wahls MD, Dr. Christopher Shade PhD.
interesting. I wonder if spirulina does the same. We can get good Spirulina around here, but not chlorella.
Why do you say you have to eat meat to detoxify?
Well ask Mike.
I don't say it, but the experts I mentioned do :) The first is a doctor with MS who was a vegetarian and the second is a detox expert with his own company. Both great people who I admire very much.
Blessings! :)
you flag me. your video all copyright. your photos all copyright. don't flag go on. note. you crazy dog.
Hey brother, new follower and fellow earthship lover here. I really want to build one of these one day but I live in Florida and its supper humid down here...Do you know how earth ships perform in extremely humid areas?
Hello Hewett! Well you do have to be REAL careful especially if you have the botanical cells going.. Basically it is all about good ventilation.. you cant have enough openable skylights and vents, and even blow out fans to assist.. Cooling tubes will also help a bit..
BEST of luck to you!
you flag me. your video all copyright. your photos all copyright. don't flag go on. note. you crazy dog.