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.
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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'