Built mine in Canada. Love it. Most people who comment on Earthship videos have never been in one let alone built one. I have. I designed and built it myself with just my father for help. They are amazing but are more work than you'd think. They are hugely cost-effective, so long as you do all the labour yourself. My utilities (gas for cooking and backup generator) are about $125 a month. The downside is it took almost seven years to complete. If you can do it I highly recommend it.
@@Bio33-lg2bh People don't understand the density of energy in gas nor the limitations of solar. Induction heating works for some types of small scale cooking. It doesn't work for baking or any type of larger cooking needs. So unless you plan to eat like you live in a college dorm forever that's not a great solution. Running an electric oven is ridiculously inefficient. You need to have a 240v circuit which requires a MUCH larger inverter and larger wiring. On a cloudy day you could use all your available power cooking one meal. If you have clouds and rain for a week, your batteries are eventually going to run out, like it or not you're going to need a on demand base power source to recharge them. Thus a gas generator. No amount of green utopian thinking will change these facts. We can reduce gas use, we will NEVER get rid of it. Still better than 99.5% of houses.
I rebuilt an 1884 rowhouse in Pittsburgh. Took 10 years of work and dreaming about owning an earthship. Sold the place in Pittsburgh 5 years ago and bought an existing earthship compound here is Taos. Easier than building my own and more sustainable.( The greenest home is one that is already built.) Now there is a 3 family existing and restored home in Pittsburgh's Northside, and I have my dream earthship.
@@ancientdunlop I agree that an electric oven uses more energy than a gas stove. However natural gas has its own environmental problems. It might be better to increase the number of your solar panels and batteries so you can use an electric oven. It's not like an electric oven is used a lot. It may only be used 2 or 3 times a week for 3 hours at a time. So, a large enough solar panel system with a large enough battery should be able to meet your cooking needs. I've rarely seen 5 straight days of cloudy weather here in the US. If that's the case where you live in Canada, then I guess you are right.
@@Bio33-lg2bh I pay $60 a month to run a dryer, an oven and some small heaters. It would take more than 25 years of those bills to pay for enough solar capacity to offset them. The inverter alone would go from being $7000 to $12000. My emissions are tiny. There would be more pollution caused in the manufacturing of the solar panels. You have to find balance. A lot of the so called 'green' initiative has a dogmatic approach to cleaner living. They pretend that green energy has NO environmental cost and so should be used only. It is a lie. A big one. Anyone who has seen the effects of an EV battery fire should be very worried about that tech. House design and insulation has much more of a reduction impact than any clean tech solution. This is why Earthships are good. My running a gas generator as a backup in my yard to charge my batteries is hugely more efficient than the transmission loss from being connected to a power grid. People NEED to get over the 'Green Peace' vision of cleaner living, it's not only impossible, it's making the changes WAY HARDER. The avalanche of used green tech trash is coming in the next decade from green government policies, we'll see how they handle it. Or will they just cover it up.
Pumicecrete is by far the best building material on the planet Pumicecrete is a mixture of pumice cement and water mixed and poured into a set of reusable forms walls are poured from 12"to 24:" thick pumicecrete is fireproof termite proof rust rot and mold proof non toxic and has a high R value and good sound attenuation solid poured walls means no critters can live in your walls Pumicecrete can be built for a fraction of the cost and time and pumice is one of the few building materials that can go directly from the mine to the job site ready to use without any additional possessing and zero waste Google all the walls of my house are made of pumicecrete Take care Ray
I was very much into the idea of Earthships in the past. However the problems i kept hearing about them was with the water in the greenhouse they have humidity/condensation issues due to the temperature varying a lot between night and day. Also the tires when they break down emit harmful gases.
Makes sense! I think every house should be designed for the context and cooling/heating/ventilation should work in that specific location! Earthships can be an inspiration for this!
Tire breakdown is a myth. The tires are encased and kept dry, all the gassing was done during the life cycle of the tire on the road. Also if tires broke down like that we wouldn't have a global disposal problem for them.
If you take care of your earthship...it will take care of you! Not good for partial occupancy or vacations. Wonderful...if you take care of it. I have one built in 1996 and its almost perfect.
this is such an interesting concept and amazing for off-grid living aswell. But you didn't talk about the sewage system and how it works and filteration of the water. Also those holes that allow cold air inside feels a bit too open for my liking, I feel it's also gonna allows criters and crawling creatures a way into the home.
Haha fair enough - I presume they have some pretty strong filters on them to stop insects! The Earthship official website provides some detailed information about the design! Thanks for watching 🙏
You don't need to put toxic tires in your walls. Build rammed earth walls with no tires in them, easy, fast, cheap. Earthship are expensive to build and very, very labor intensive. And not one earthship ever built will ever produce enough food for one person let alone a family. David Easton on rammed earth is the best. If you haven't built one and don't live in one you shouldn't give advice on building technologies.
The tires eventually comes into contact with water and releases toxic compounds that are both present in the tire and breakdown products from aging of the material into the surrounding area where typically food is grown and can which can be breathed in. Building with tires is BANNED in most areas because of ground water contamination. It was a good intention of recycling waste; tires, that started it and unfortunately it is highly tied into the earth ship concept.
@@best1onearth , can you please tell us how tires in an Earthship would be toxic? Also, what is your experience in growing food with a greenhouse? And can you please tell us about your experience in staying in an Earthship and what your experience was when you helped build one?
