Anyone heard of Earthship?

[ll80]

I put this under Lifestyle, but really it could go under a number of forums.

Has anyone heard of this?

earthship.org
In a nutshell - sustainable living.

From the Website

An Earthship is a radically sustainable home made of recycled materials.

* Electricity is from the sun with solar panels and wind with wind modules.
* Water is caught on the roof from rain and snow melt.
* Sewage is treated on site in interior and external botanical planters.
* Heating and Cooling is from the sun and the earth.
* Food is grown inside and outside.

Earthships are constructed with recycled materials and perform as expected in any part of the world, in any climate and still provide you with what you need to survive.

It looks awesome.
Hubby and I are seriously looking into doing this when we build our own house.
There are some great looking homes on the site.

How great would it be to grow your own food inside your house ?

[Astrid]

Yes, have heard of these. They do look very interesting.

We are looking at rebuilding and will be taking in many sustainable concepts, just not the full earth ship.

[ll80]

I think Dh is thinking the same thing.
Though I have to admit when he came home and told me he wanted to build an earthship I did think perhaps he had gone a little nuts

[Nelle]

I would just like to live in something called an EarthShip.

[slyder]

Sounds awesome, with the possible exception of the name which makes me think of a drug lab.

[somewoman]

they did an earthship on an episode of grand designs a few years back - was awesome! Everything was recycled, reclaimed, renewable or double glazed - awesome house!

We're building at the moment, and going for solar passive and as sustainable a design as we could possibly get away with whilst using a volume builder. We would have loved to build truly green (although I don't think I could go for a composting toilet), it's just so hard to find builders willing to work with requested materials, and we don't have the time to do it ourselves...

An earthship or strawbale or rendered earth home would have been SO cool =) I would be so interested in watching your build progress if you go this route - please make sure you keep us updated!! =)

[Trillian]

Somewoman, I saw that same Grand Designs episode. It was fascinating to watch. There is an entire movement dedicated to building these homes and the labour is made up of people who are all building, or want to build, their own earthship. If you have people come and help you it is sort of expect that you will then go on and help someone else down the track, like a pooling of resources. The way they build them are so innovative. There is a family who live about 20km from us who are building one - a straw bale house - our DS's are friends and I can't wait to see it when it is finished. It will be completely off the grid when it is done.

[Astrid]

Strawbale seems to work on that cooperative thing as well. They hold "lessons" using a house that is currently being built so that you know what to do when you build yours. It helps them, helps you and when it is your turn to build then you have a "lesson" as your house. We dearly wish to build with strawbale. Trillian it would be great if you could get photos of that house.

[Trillian]

I'll remember that Astrid and send them to you. They were supposed to do it last year, but didn't get enough bales, so it was put off, but I think they may have sourced some from somewhere because their kids are back at school - they were homeschooling and she told me she would send them to school once building began because it would be too disruptive for the kids. I haven't seen her to ask though so I am only assuming. It was going to be a big house too - they have 6 kids and were going to make it big enough to fit them better.

[Cherished]

Yes I've heard about it and there are actually estates now built for sustainable living where they live like this, sound wonderful, I'd look into living in an estate like this in the future for sure.

[ll80]

Hardest part is finding a good block of land. Though I guess it depends on where you are looking.
DH wants to build into the side of a hill/mountain.
I wonder if we could get loan of the bat mobile, not very eco friendly or fuel efficient I suppose but I think a requirement if you're living in a cave.

[somewoman]

The side of a hill is ideal as the soil can very easily cover the back area of the house. The more "underground" a room is, the more it benefits from the ideal temperature of the soil. The cavemen really had it right!!

[Trillian]

There was another episode of Grand Designs where they built a brick arch over the house and then it was covered with dirt and grass. Not so much an earthship this one, but very very innovative.

[krysalyss]

We are going to be building a strawbale house. DH has done more research on it then I have but we are hoping to start later this year. We are only a small family and to start with it will be quite a small house but will be self-sufficient with composting toilet, tank water, solar etc. We got a good price on a block because it is a bit far from the power grid so the money we saved on the block will go to putting on solar. We are pretty excited but have to wait until I finish my work project due to time involved.

[somewoman]

Very brave going the composting toilet!!! We're building green, but not that green. I wish I had the guts!!

We would have loved to do blackwater recycling using a biolytix system, but got nix'd by our council. We are building in suburbia. South Australia doesn't even have an approved greywater system that we can use, although the house has been plumbed to separate grey from black so that we can install it easily when the time comes.

I hope that you ladies are all keen to share progress when you start your green builds. It is such an interesting topic, and definitely something that more people should be learning about

[krysalyss]

hi somewoman! It isn't that brave for us as we first found out about them when we saw one at a beautiful bed and breakfast place we went to and realised they are really nice and don't smell or anything. We also have one where we live now (my parents house) so it is kind of normal for us. But did have be thought about when designing the house as we had to elevate it a bit.

[somewoman]

Yes, I've seen a few during visits an various sustainable house days. They're quite amazing things, although still can't quite get myself there!! And they do tend to look like thrones (quite aptly as homeowners do tend to raise the loo and not the rest of the house!! I guess it is cheaper foundations that way, and less worry of injury from falling over guard rails.

Still braver than me!