Welcome to this new series! Earthship Biotecture has to be one of the least understood sustainable building and living models around. This is not least because they offer SO many benefits that it is hard to even know them all, let alone explain them all! Let it be said that an Earthship can stay at a comfortable climate at even -20 Celsius or 40 Celsius with no power requirements for heating or cooling systems. The systems of an earthship encounter the forces of nature, mainly the sun, rain, and wind, and funnels them into your home to provide everything you need to live comfortably with annual utility bills of around $200 or less.
So, welcome to my book! I have been inspired to write this book in sections, with you all, and once it is completed I will be compiling it into a single digital and paperback book available to all to learn and be inspired. So without further ado, here is the first part of my 101 reasons why Earthship are fuc!*ing awesome! I’m so curious to see if i start to run out of reasons before the end, or if they just keep coming... let's see!
1. Earthship Biotecture really is a movement
More than simply an approach to sustainable building. It is our answer to the capitalist system, and the only option for us to be able to step out of the rat race and just live our lives.
2. There is no other building model that can deliver a negative carbon footprint, even in hot or cold climates.
This is due to the incredible amount of thermal mass from the tyre walls, the 5 foot thick berm behind the house, a totally sealed building, a greenhouse on the front side to buffer the inside and outside temperatures, orienting the building south to pick up most solar gain, use of stable underground temperatures to cool incoming air in hot climates. The footprint becomes more negative as you reuse waste in the build, and use of renewable energies such as solar power that can feed back into the grid if you live near one.
3. Heat your living space just with your laptop or even body heat
Even your own body heat is enough to bring the room temperature up to 22 degrees, even on freezing cold nights.
4. Virtually No Bills, Period.
5. Virtually Zero maintenance.
Most systems are designed to be low tech, low maintenance with a long a lifespan as possible. They are also designed to run all by themselves. The most you need to do is open and close windows or curtains.
6. A solution to a global waste problem, car tyres.
There are billions of used car tyres stored in toxic dumps around the whole planet. Some of them are so big that you would literally look like a pin in a huge mountain. When these dumps catch fire, they cause a huge toxicity problem, and can not be put out. On the flip side, when a used tyre is used as a building brick as in Earthship Biotecture, you could not design a better brick suited to purpose, even if you spent 10 millions dollars trying to design one. It just so happens that car tyres make the absolute perfect building brick, and offer so many benefits... not least that they are also your earthquake resistant foundation, heating system, cooling system, are fireproof, and will last for thousands of years.
7. Can be built anywhere.
Earthships can be made using any kind of dirt or none compostable earth material. Earthships have been built with sand, sandy soil, clay rich soil, limestone, stones, and just about any other kind of dirt. If you can pound it into a tyre, it works!
8. Reliable Organic year round food production.
Earthships have botanical planter cells along the entire front of the home. These planters cells are part of the home, and protect the plants from the harsh outside climate. They tend to flourish and produce fruits and vegetables year round, and feed from waste grey water from the kitchen sink or shower and bath.
9. Overcome water scarcity in ANY place in the world
Earthship can cope with just 8 inches of rainfall a year, even with dry spells that can last months! Since earthships reuse water 4 or even 5 times, they are extremely resource efficient. Toilet flushing is done with second hand water after treatment in botanical cells, and enough water for year round use is ensured by sizing your cisterns to store enough to get you through your longest periods without rain. It is simple math, and cisterns are usually built underground behind the home and buried and protected out of site. Water caught and stored in this way will stay clean indefinitely, and is treated before use using water filters.
10. Becoming self sufficient and off-grid means you have true life long security for you and your family... for millenia to come!
It has been estimated that a tyre wall that has been plastered and sealed would last at least a few thousand years. There is almost no degradation of car tyres or compressed dirt, especially when they are thermally stable and screened from the air and light of the sun.
Ta Daa.. Damn that was easy.. I didn't even have to try yet.. I'm just getting going, that is a good sign.. but as I know so well, Earthships are so amazing that I'm sure im going to have no trouble finding another 91 reasons!
MUST WATCH VIDEOS
Earthship Underground House Tour- Sustainable and Net Zero Living...
Derek "Deek" Diedricksen visits an Earthship (the architectural brainchild of Michael Reynolds) in Taos, New Mexico. The particular model, like many others, features earth berm air intakes, a water recycling system for its grey water, and the luxury of two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and even a two car garage! Ashley Turin gives us a full out tour of this, one of the newest Earthship builds on the Taos compound. This sustainable and passive solar home just may give you a few ideas for your own future designs.
WATCH THIS TO SEE AND UNDERSTAND THE GLOBAL MODEL IN ACTION
WITH GREAT EXPLANATIONS
MEET A COUPLE WHO ARE NOW LIVING FREE. THIS VIDEO SAYS IT ALL!
BE INSPIRED AND SEE THE TRUTH OF WHAT FREEDOM LOOKS LIKE!
Super Efficient Off-Grid Earthship Built for Early Retirement Plan
LEARN MORE ABOUT BIOTECTURE
Earthship Seminar Transcription Table Of Contents
SESSION 1
Part 1: The Global Model
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-101-learn-with-michael-reynolds-part-1
Part 2: Staying Cool: The Convection Engine
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-seminar-with-michael-reynolds-transcribed-part-2
Part 3: The Evolution of the Global Model Earthship:
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-seminar-with-michael-reynolds-part-3
Part 4: Heating your home with body heat in Norway, about permits in USA and Europe... How to get them fast
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt4-heating-your-home-with-body-heat-in-norway-about-permits-in-usa-and-europe-how-to-get-them
Part 5: How to Retrofit, Getting Permits, Tire Toxicity?
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-5-how-to-retrofit-getting-permits-tire-toxicity
Part 6: Bottle / Can Walls, Tyre Foundations / Snow Water
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-6-q-and-a-bottle-can-walls-tyre-foundations-snow-water
Part 7: Can you insure an earthship?, the double/triple greenhouse, the global model evolution + more
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-7-q-and-a-can-you-insure-an-earthship-the-double-triple-greenhouse-the-global-model
Part 8: Final: Year round fruiting trees, sizing greenhouses + more
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt-8-final-q-and-a-year-round-fruiting-trees-sizing-greenhouses-more
SESSION 2
Part 1: Water, how to size your roof, choosing the right materials for water catchment.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-1-water-how-to-size-your-roof-choosing-the-right-materials-for-water-catchment
Part 2: Cisterns, Filtering Water, Designing Down & Layered Thinking.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-2-cisterns-filtering-water-designing-down-and-layered-thinking
Part 3: Water! Be Self Sufficient Secure & Sustainable.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-3-water-be-self-sufficient-secure-and-sustainable
Part 4: Botanical Cells, Using Water 4 Times, Food Production.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-4-botanical-cells-using-water-4-times-food-production
Part 5 : The Solar Toilet, Making Mistakes and Evolving is Part of the Process.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-5-the-solar-toilet-making-mistakes-and-evolving-is-part-of-the-process
Part 6: Black Water Treatment In Any Climate, Food Production.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part6-black-water-treatment-in-any-climate-food-production
Part 7: Q&A: Water, Botanical Cells, Water Treatment
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-7-q-and-a-water-botanical-cells-water-treatment
Part 8: About Solar Power, Doing It Yourself? Solar Vs Wind.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part8-about-solar-power-doing-it-yourself-solar-vs-wind
Part 9: Solar Power: Designing Down, Making Smart Choices.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-9-solar-power-designing-down-making-smart-choices
Part 10: Decentralisation means security and self sufficiency
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-10-decentralisation-means-security-and-self-sufficiency
Part 11: Biotecture Is a movement
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-s2-p11-biotecture-is-a-movement
Part 12: Power Q&A: Batteries, Options, Power Choices.
@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-session-2-part-12-power-q-and-a-batteries-options-power-choices
Living off-grid in an Earthship home is about many things. It is not just an ethical choice or a building type choice, it is also a lifestyle choice. When you start to live off-grid, and self-sufficiently, you embark on a break out from the matrix/zeitgeist. You start to unplug yourself from the normal, dependent, vulnerable, and highly controlled way of life that many people are used to in cities and highly developed countries. When you are truly self-sufficient and out of debt you take away some of the main sources of stress: buying food, paying the bills, covering the mortgage or rent, and needing to work full-time to allow this to continue. We can also look at environmental issues and great need to build smarter and in a more connected way, especially in the face of climate change. Our global population is rising and with it the poverty level and inequality of wealth in all forms. To compound this issue, the cost of living is also hurtling up! We are moving toward a very unsafe and unsustainable future if we continue to build and live in the same way that we have been doing.
Did you know, I built four Earthships in India as well as being instrumental the creation of the first Earthship in the UK, Earthship Brighton. If you are also on this path and would like to read my story, I have recently published a book. It is not only a great story, but a valuable resource for you to learn from. I had no experience or training when I embarked on my mission, but managed to successfully build a gorgeous home called Earthship Karuna.
You can buy this book with Steem on the homesteaders co-op. Whilst you are there please do have a look at some of the other products as there are all kinds of great things there!
https://homesteaderscoop.com/product/earthship-chronicles-ebook/
If you don't have any Steem you can also buy the ebook and paperback on amazon.
http://mybook.to/Earthship-Chronicles
or
https://www.amazon.com/Earthship-Chronicles-sufficient-luxurious-experience-ebook/dp/B07MYCBXYB
@ecoTrain
Supporting People Who Help
Make The World A Better Place
Discover previous ecoTrain magazines at @ecoTrain
** Click Here To View Our Passenger Feed**