What elements of an earthship do you think make the most sense for wider adoption? Special thanks to Privacy.com - go to privacy.com/mattferrell to get $5 free money! If you liked this video, be sure to watch Exploring Massless Energy Battery Breakthrough: th-cam.com/video/7rJf_n3bc0I/w-d-xo.html
The problem with these is, as with most green tech, the cost. As long as homes like these are out of the price range of the lower middle class and upper lower class, they’ll never become common enough to make the dent they need to make. I mean, earth ship proponents SAY it’s cheaper to build, but then you look at the actual bill/quote for making one as compared to just buying a conventional house on the market and you can see how the cost of entry keeps most of us out of the party.
Thank you Matt. I am planning on building an earthship out of concrete block and stone. Big fan of rockwool insulation. It will be first time I use comfort board under concrete floor. Usually use pink rigid foam insulation under concrete floor. The floor will steal thermal mass if not insulated good. Windows will be vertical. I have already driven down a point well and it flows. I have a ram pump to pump the water. Sewage is one of the expensive things I must deal with in karst area. Building old world masonry stove/heater. The only issue on code so far was d.c. instead of a.c. smoke detector. Going all d.c. for electric. The labor on a tire is way more than me to work to buy block and stone and lay them. 8x8x16 concrete block is only 1.25$ It takes me and another mason a month to build foundation and 160 feet of 8 foot basement wall. Looks like I will spend around 33,000 all together. 17,749$ so far for 10 acres, hand driven 2" well, ram pump, and gas. Icf and poured walls can be used to make earthships too. I am trying for r 35+ in walls and r 60 in roof. Windows and septic will be must expensive part. Above ground planter because seems easier. 6/12 mono sloped roof going from 6 feet to 18. I loose window space due to thick masonry walls but should give room for 14 foot tall plants going 2 stories of windows. Shape and size of windows effects price. 135$ for angle iron if using rectangular window per window. Arched windows cost more too. 17 windows plus 4 egres windows. Buying windows for an earthship is like buying sails for a sailboat the more education on subject I can get the better. The way most houses are built they are meant to cost you money every month.
Probably most of the concepts could be built with Insulated Concrete Forms. Even trying to reduce embodied energy and recycling by using things like ground up tires as agregate, this requires a lot less work and is conventional enough to get past building codes. The South Facing windows and Thermal Mass is good as well. If the Water is incorporated, water has 4 times as much thermal storage as concrete. Putting a cistern in the building could be a better long term heat storage. Building into the ground is also an excellent idea.
Ya what about Lava rocks they hold heat and dispatch it just as fast for there full of air and gases would make more sense in cooler places. So in summer to keep the heat off why don't they have the water go through the walls 1 to cool it for hot places 2 to heat up the water for other uses and or stores it for night time use as well
I like the concept of the "terrace" where plants can grow, all autonomous and working off waste water etc. I'm not a green thumb, but do enjoy a nice terrace to spend time in with some plants in it. Humans are just wired that way
@@KRYMauL And the blackwater leech fields can serve as food for animals like chicken and rabbits which to create manure for the plants which use greywater to grow food. But I do think they should add more greenhouse area to the passive houses, as well as maybe build the whole house inside a greenhouse or build a greenhouse around a house, to make it more energy efficient in colder areas, as many have done, and even to use concentrated solar (solar troughs or simply mirrors reflecting more light onto the house) to help even more with that. If there is plenty of space, even using fresnel-mirror walls to concentrate sunlight from a distance, would help a lot. The normal walls could have angled mirrors added to to reflect sunlight onto the house, and in far northern areas, it is possible to build 4-story-tall fresnel mirror walls, through which wind can blow, to reflect more sunlight onto houses or even greenhouses, allowing even places in the arctic circle to grow raspberries and wheat and corn. And it would also have minimal impact on the climate, since the light you concentrate on the greenhouses will be obtained by shading the place behind the fresnel mirror walls, as opposed to bringing external heat to the place. This would make the shaded areas better for freeze-drying produce, too, or to stockpile snow and ice for later use, in dry cold places. And it would make a lot of the previously uninhabitable places habitable. The same technology behind solar power plants which use concentrated solar, can be used to get solar heat and sunlight into well insulated places in the arctic, for example. If you only get a few months of heat per year, why not store it in the ground, by first insulating the ground well enough to not lose that heat non-intentionally. You can have very long soilcrete/dirtcrete fields with hollow thin tunnels running through them, and use hot air or that expensive liquid they use in solar troughs, to heat the cement to 300 degrees celsius, or use sand instead of soilcrete/dirtcrete and use bigger pipes, since air can go through the gaps in the sand, and heat the sand at 500 degrees celsius with hot air. You can then use that heat to generate power (through steam turbines), or to heat the place to more comfortable levels. And the orientation of the mirrors would not need to be changed nearly as often. If you want to go the extra step, you can even use hot air balloons to hold mirrors at a height of a kilometer or two above the ground, to get sunlight onto a settlement or farm when the ground itself gets no sunlight, and you can even use ground-based mirrors to move sunlight to places where it's needed. For example, you could use the same system of tethered hot air balloons holding mirrors to get sunlight from mirrors placed above the ground into the sea at a large distance, effectively cooling hot arid places like Sahara enough for water to not be lost immediately to the solar infrared radiation, use that water to grow plants, and use that heat to evaporate more water which to get onto the hot dry lands. At that scale, you could even use the concept of solar towers or solar chimneys, but turning them into solar pipes or solar tunnels instead, by getting seawater from far away from the coast, placing it into long greenhouses with concentrated solar evaporating water and then superheating steam, then funnel it into kilometers-long pipes, then use some of that high-pressure steam released it towards the sky in a hundred-meters (hundred-yards) tunnel, which would create updraft from the ground, which could be used to cool down the rest of the steam into drinking water, and part of energy of the updraft can be used by a ground-based vertical-axis wind turbine, to generate power, and store the water in heavily shaded areas, ideally walled-in areas, with limited circulation and insulation from the heat. Now that you can have water in very hot very dry areas, terraforming those places for high-density human habitation would not be difficult.
The tires are NOT packed with soil as soil contains organic material that rots. They're compacted with subsoil which is inorganic and never rots/shrinks. Great video though Matt! Glad you took this subject on
I pet sat at an earthship-ish house and loved it! The house was recessed into a hill, with the southern facing windows. Both summer and winter, whatever they made the walls and ceiling with, kept things comfortably cool. The interior was a modern home with high, curved ceilings. Years later I still think about this house and I would love to live in something similar!
As someone who has lived & helped build Earthship’s there are far more pros than cons. Living in one creates a very harmonious relationship with one’s self & the earth. It is a way of life. But beyond it all it goes back to balance your are reducing waste & consumption. Those two factors alone is what has caused so many issues in our environment world wide. Mike is one of the most incredible human beings I have ever met in my life. I’m so proud of what he’s done.
There is a male nurse here in Amarillo who did build his house out of old tires. He would work his shift, come home and change, go get the tire or tires he needed and go to the site and start packing the tires full of dirt and then stack them accordingly. He would do so many and then go back to the apartment and get some rest before his next shift and this went on for 2 years I think. He also built it into a hill to get the radiant energy off the dirt that surrounds 3 sides of his house. He has rain gutters that feed into a black tank with 4 kinds of water filters that make the water so clean he drinks it every day. The gutter system at the lowest point has a, what I call, a junk tube for like sticks and leaves can go to so it does not go into the water tank. The land is paid off and he basically lives rent free. He has 2 solar panels (then, some years back when I went there) and 1 battery, he does not leave things plugged in, if he needs to use them, then he plugs them in and when done unplugs the devices. He has a compost toilet and the house sits at a slight angle to catch the early morning sun in the winter to help heat the house and an overhang on the roof to keep the heat out in the summer. No propane, just an electric house
My mother made an Earthship after seeing the PBS special of Dennis Weaver's Earthship in the early '90s. Many hurdles (including fraud from a contractor) made the build take 10 years, but she is in it now and loves it. I helped with packing many of the tires. It does NOT take 45min-1hr to pack one tire. Maybe if you are counting the stucco and finishing, you might say that. With two people, one shoveling in dirt and one packing with a sledge, it takes maybe 5min-10min, maybe a bit more. It's been a lifetime ago when I did it so I could be wrong :-). We had a DIY-made pounder, a metal fence pole stuck in a flower pot that was then filled with cement. While filling and pounding the tire with the sledge around the edges, you used the bigger pounder to pack the middle and finish. It's extremely labor-intensive. It is an excellent workout if you are in shape (or want to get in shape). Also, off-gassing has always been a talking point, but my mom has had it tested (a few times I think) and there has never been a problem. My mom could not afford to make this completely off-grid with solar panels and whatnot, so it is mainly a seriously efficient house with HVAC and a gas fireplace. My mom is a cowgirl, and she loves the ruggedness of the home as well as the efficiency. Also, she is an artist, and as you can see in the video (linked below) there is a lot of room to make the design your own with this kind of house. Also, being in Florida means there is a ton of humidity, and the HVAC helps mitigate that. This video is when she had it mostly finished about 14yrs ago. Near the end of the video, you can see where it is not quite finished yet, and there are exposed tire walls. That is all finished now. I seriously love the concepts, but I would probably build one so modified (I live in UT) that it would not be considered Earthship anymore. Here is the video I made eons ago when my mom finished the main part, and we visited for Christmas. vimeo.com/6238648
My buddy owns one out in Utah. I’ll actually be staying there again next month and have enjoyed my past trips there in the past. He has a lemon tree inside and never runs the heat!
I'm thinking about building a traditional home, but with an attached large conservatory/greenhouse. Insulating the foundation and have a huge well insulated thermal mass to force air from the conservatory in through to heat it up. Adding cooling tubes in the ground like the earthship for a cold thermal mass. Then use these thermal masses to pre-heat/cool the air and mix it with outside air going to the heat recovery system of the house. Hopefully removing the need for air conditioning in the summer and helping heating up the house in the winter months. This has the added benefit of extending the months of the year you can be outside. A great party space, since weather isn't an issue and probably the most important part. Since I'm ginger it would be nice to not worry as much about sunscreen all the time, because of the UV protection glass can provide
I've always felt a bit iffy about the tires in the walls ever since I learnt what an eartship was. For a community so focused on healthy living I've always thought of that as a glaring flaw... but their impact on sustainable living has been notable, even though the inner circle is a little bit too hardcore for the most of us. I look at the earthship community a bit like pioneers that pushes the boundaries so others can follow in a safe manner
What is your beef with the tyres? They are inert and when consolidated into a wall with earth and render, will stay there as long as the house lasts, giving no outgassing (like stone kitchen benchtops do) and providing thermal mass !
I have a pile of 200 neatly stacked tires on my property awaiting collection for recycling. I walk past the tires daily and there is only one way to describe them. They stink! The outgassing, at least for exposed tires, is awful. If they are sealed from the living space then fine. Otherwise your home will constantly smell of rubber.
I get that they perform some kind of function, and used tires are an abundance in the united states, so it's cheap and provides structure... But it really goes against all my core beliefs to bury rubber like that... I don't know... It just feels wrong
The question is not _whether or not_ to use the tires. The question is _how_ to use them. Humanity has to figure out what to do with all those tires! Finding a solution is part of this project! If they off-gas, then figure out how to prevent it from seeping into the house. If this problem doesn't pique your curiosity, then I don't think you understand what this technique is about. Watch the Documentary "Garbage Warrior".
Just as an FYI for the Kinney earthship it was built in an area of the province that sees the largest percentage of sunlight in Canada, is one of the windiest areas and affected by Chinooks all winter giving it a very mild winter climate most years to operate in compared to the northern end of the province. I think having a solar/wind driven pump and geothermal heating/cooling system would be a far better option for most of the prairies than just relying on passive heating and cooling like the earthship does. A dehumidifier in an underground home can also outlet to the grey water system, preventing mould and providing a bit more water.
I wish in future we will see a lot more: Systems managing toilet water locally, turning it into usable fertilizer. Basically mini water treatment plant. Secondary water system re-using grey water (for toilet flushing mostly). Highly automated indoor gardens. Geothermal heating / energy. "Undecided with Matt Ferrell" episodes.
@Destiny Karst I think we should be composting our solid waste as well. We currently flush clean drinking water down our toilets. That is completely insane and unnecessary. And if we all had a biogas generator along side of our HVAC and water heaters and etc. we would be making our own fuel as well. It's possible to make units that will do this cleanly and safely. Instead I remember reading somewhere about how they want us to start drinking our processed black-water. It's amazing to me that this is even worth considering over processing our own solid waste.
@@vanderumd11 there’s also the option of reprocessing sewage into drinking-grade water, it was being trialled in Singapore a while ago, apparently tasted like basically nothing bc it was more or less distilled water. But I haven’t kept up with it so I don’t know if that programme is a success or if other nations are considering it or what.
I've visited and spent nights in them, in winter no less! It's fun to sip your coffee next to a banana tree (in perfect comfort) and look outside at the cold desert landscape. You show the early "showy" earthships here in the video, and they're not for everyone, but they are legit and they've gone through a lot of evolution - the newer ones really don't have that "wild hippy" look. The plans are there for more conventional integrations - actually, I think it would be AWESOME if you interviewed Mr. Reynolds. He's quite a character.
Been a key follower of Earthships and the Permaculture movements since their advent in the 1970's. Never had the chooch to do one myself though. Need lots of youth, energy, and commitment!
I was aware of the Earthship concept back in the 70's-and '80s when I was old enough my parents started taking us on vacations. We looked at many mostly out west in Nevada, Utah, California areas. My father ended up building an underground house. It was under 6 to 8feet of dirt that kept the house at 55F year-round. at almost 6800sq ft it was incredibly easy to heat. You only had to raise the temp about 15 degrees in the winter, even if it was below zero out. and summer it was natural air conditioning. We brought warm outside air in to bring up the temperature in the summer.
@@kaitlyn__L Yes I did like the Hobbit houses. I saw an eathship as it was called back in the 80's that was built out of inflated balloons and sprayed with a structural cement or something, and the house was a bunch of bubbles connecteted together. I did like the round hobit door.
9:26 - Used tires are utilized in the thermal-mass walls. By this stage they have done all the outgassing they are going to do and are basically inert.
My wife and I toured an earthship in the Taos community mentioned. And I got to visit one in Colorado built for Denis Weaver, a couple of decades ago. I was impressed by the technique, and performance. What was noted was the involvement in maintaining the systems, water, food, heating/ cooling, as in opening / closing windows, and valves, etc. so this makes for difficulties for some people that are not used to such things. Personally I love the idea, as I’ve actually lived in an off grid home in the Colorado mountains. This lifestyle is not for everyone, and should be entered with knowledge of sustainability. Imho earth ships are for adventurous, knowledgeable, physically able people that can enjoy out of the ordinary lifestyle.
I visited there as well. It was when Dennis had moved out of the house due to what they thought was the tires out gassing. I did notice a petroleum smell but not too bad. Did you notice anything like that?
Speaking of water… most of the Earthships in the colony near Taos are self-sufficient for water, or nearly so. The Taos mesa only gets seven inches of rainfall a year (it’s a proper desert). So they can be made extremely efficient!
Net zero Passive Houses can be built with Modular systems such as Build Smart for market rate or less. As you noted in your video Earthships can have issues with comfort. Add principles of grey water, and plants in the home for the Passive House, I think is the best of both worlds.
I think that's the only thing that these things have going for them. I honestly would love to have a garden in attached to my house, and maybe it could include a pond with some fish.
There is an excellent community around the building of earthships, with many being built by people who come to learn from experts, so all you need to do is feed and house for the time they live onsite. Not for everyone, for sure, but still mitigates the cost involved. As far as the off-gassing of tires, much of the issue involved in the breakdown of tires is in its exposure to sunlight and oxygen, both of which are essentially solved in the construction process. For those still on the fence, rammed earth walls are a viable alternative, and don't require the application of cob on the inside surface, though a waterproof membrane on the side that faces out toward the earthen berm may be necessary.
For real. There was a high school student in cali that won some kind of reward for coming up with a system eere homeowners can reuse washing machine grey eater for gardening. Cant wait to own a home someday and apply the practice.
Awesome video! I've been following this method of building for over ten years and I think it is a fantastic idea. One thing you did not mention in the video is that you need a certain type of soil to compact into the tires, one that is more sandy then loamy. I live in Manitoba, Canada, one of the most extreme climates on the planet. On one of the coldest winters on record in one hundred years (-50C), I visited an earth ship and the family told me that the internal temperature never dropped below 10C with no heat source. The owner told me they would just bake potatoes in the morning for breakfast to heat up the house. I think it was about 1200sq ft. Thanks for all the awesome content!
Love your content. This is a perfect cross-over opportunity for you and a bunch of my favorite TH-camrs... Kirsten and her family at FairConpanies and Dave at Just Have A Think. Keep up the excellent work!
Both of those are great channels. I wouldn't put this one up that high though. He has gained celebrity status because of his well researched subjects, but the continual laughing at his own lame jokes is pretty terrible.
Hi Matt! Love your videos! After studying houses for the purpose of building one myself, I found 2 concepts that I love. 1) The straw bale house 2) I call it the northern house, this being a home built in the arctic circle and is basically a giant greenhouse with a family mudhouse/ cobb house built in the middle. Both designs are cheap and efficient. I would love to see a presentation made by you on these subjects!
Thanks for going over these. Earth ships are super niche and I never thought it would get any coverage. I like how you go over both the pros and the cons.
Excellent video. I’m a student of the “Earthship Biotechture Academy” In Teos NM. It’s my hope to one day soon ; to bring this technology to Côté d’Ivoire Africa. I’m told that there’s a family group trying to grant me land to begin this important project.🖐🏿
@@Sagittarius-A-Star I’ve relocated from the USA in 2017 & I can see where the “Earthship inspired technology” Can help improve living conditions in the villages. If you would like to view some of my journey? Search Expat to Côté d’Ivoire Back To Kama.🖐🏿
I was thinking to go to the academy too at some point. Can you recommend it? I would like to build an Earthship in Europe one day. Are there other Europeans, and what is the sentiment for building there? Would love to hear your insights on these things! Thanks!
@@brokkoliomg6103 Hello & yes I highly recommend that you apply to the Earthship Academy. I further recommend that you purchase the books that you’ll need for personal reference. There’s a healthy diversity of people whom attend the Academy. You’ll feel right at home there. If you would like to view some of my journey? Search Expat to Côté d’Ivoire Back To Kama 🖐🏿 All the best to you 😃👍🏿🛸
@@AssanRaelian Thanks I will check it out. And how long does it take to complete the academy? Is it like a degree, three years or so? Or just like one year?
In the evolution of farmlife from on-the-land existence for most people, to small farms, hobby farms and backyard gardens, then come greenhouses and now all-combined Earthships. It's lifestyle satisfaction, and if the advice to financial investors is, "don't risk more than you are willing to lose", so it always is too, for working and living, don't go beyond with what you know or can find out. Which is why this research is valuable, thank you.
I LITERALLY lived down the road from the earthship community outside Taos. And had friends who were self building an earth ship there. Reynolds got mad at them because they wouldn't angle their front glass wall as is the nearly iconic look of an earth ship. They can get too hot angled as they are, sometimes even in the winter. Affecting not only comfort but possibly plant growth. Many of the other homes have sun shades on their front glass walls for that reason. So siting and these eventual issues definitely can be critical. My friends eventually finished the home and it was beautiful and functional.
Topical, thank you! One point of contention: dig deep enough and the soil is always a nice (relatively) warm temperature. It's not always practical, but it's always an option, even in Canada.
There's a lot of good ideas that going into building these which are essentially niche artistic endeavors. They absolutely will not be a good standard for most homes, but are a good inspiration and test bench for more efficient homes. Hopefully we'll see a lot more ideas like this in the future, where the goal is to use as little energy as possible to keep a home comfortable and safe.
@ThatGuy Makes Things That is not the goal for Earthships. A huge part of Earthships is to intentionally _use garbage_ as building materials! Esp. garbage that is one of humanity's worst waste problems. If this isn't interesting for the builder/owner, I would steer clear.
@@DarkMoonDroid the idea is obviously a hyper focus on sustainability, prominently using both recycled materials and renewable energy. I have a few major concerns though. Are the materials being used really the best use case for recycling that material? In one shot it looks like they're using aluminium cans, which should honestly just be reprocessed. Every gram of aluminium able to be reprocessed is one less gram that needs to be mined. Does the energy cost of this construction method offset it's use of recycled materials? If a lot more energy goes into making these houses, and/or more energy is used maintaining them (as there was some concerns addressed re: degradation in the video) then it would be more sustainable to just use new materials with a lower energy cost and longer lifespan. Worth noting that logging can be done sustainably and can technically be a carbon capture method if the supply chain uses renewable electricity.
@@cavemaneca concrete takes a lot of energy and releases a ton of CO2 to make, so any house that has it has a disadvantage to begin with. And yea, glass and aluminium can be recycled to oblivion, but at least the bottles supply light, like a window would do, and doesn't need to be made.
A good friend has an Earthship home. Totally off-grid. I've stayed there overnight. Extremely comfortable. He built his and his wife's 3 BR, 2 BA berm home for $17,000 in 2006. He had an abundance of solar pv, so after adding a few more batteries to his battery bank, and switching to LED lighting, he swapped out his propane range/oven and dryer for electric ones, and found he still had plenty of power to spare. After replacing his gas hot water with electric, he STILL had enough power to spare, so these days, his last 500 gallon load of propane is down to 430 gallons over more than a decade, primary feeding his outdoor grill and fire pit. He says he'll be dead before exhausting it.
Radon can be dealt with a good HVAC system, 2 ways, or even maybe create a ventilation that puts the house slightly over pressured, like in nuclear plants, to push the inside air outside, and prevent radon overdose in the air
I can imagine earthships being suitable as buffer zones for the deserted areas that are planned for reforestation. The houses can be benefited of the dry climate, the around areas could spare repurposed materials and the people that live there will be very motivated to contribute on the preservation and the expansion of the vegetation. Water and electric infrastructure is probably necessary but this is usually the case for an arrea that needs to be reforested, (at least will be someone there to take of the infrastructure).
That is actually a great idea. Building those earthships along the Sahara dessert would provide a place to not only dispose of a lot of junk like tires in a useful and mostly harmless way for the next decades, but would also provide housing and security for the people who have to leave there because of deforestation... I just don't know if we can restore the land fast enough so that they don't have to relocate nontheless.
@@midnight8341 Actually I was talking about reforestation, (but your concept applies here as well), when people are returning to a deserted land to try their luck again, with reforestation as a tool to return the vegetation in the area. I believe that we are talking for the same thing but in different concepts that are both useful to the society and the local vegetation. :)
Has anyone attempted to make an Earthship Apartment complex as a way to expand the Earthship idea in a way that could potentially reduce the construction cost via large scale development?
this is a good point, could make it feasible in the sense that you could cover several residences with single systems (like greywater). Every residence having their own system is appealing to individualists (like myself) but could be a big hassle for many. 4-6 apartments running on 1 system is less burden for each.
I think they're building a school in Haiti or somewhere, which looks different, and more large scale if you will. Dont know if it fits your demands though.
I think the water treatment to use it again... that should be a must in every home... Here (in Argentina) we use drinkable water to take a bath, to wash the dishes, to fill a pool, to flush the toilet... to everything... That was the thing that draw most of my attention in the video. Thanx for the good content as always!!!
I'm super interested in using alternative building materials to build a more energy efficient home. Could you do a video on some of the different types on the market today?
I remember years ago seeing a documentary on a home built with tires by Dennis Weaver the television actor (McCloud and Gunsmoke). He seemed ahead of the wave with the techniques and technologies that he was using to negate his carbon footprint before anyone even talked about their carbon footprints.
I converted a relatively new home to net zero and the cost appears to have been less than the numbers given for an Earthship. I live in the middle of the country, and even here, if you are within a city limit it would be a very hard sell to get many of the things show allowed. Net zero is that that hard, and could more easily be done with typical construction. I'm in the process of building a new home, and the plan is for it to also be net zero. This one should be easier since I was able to plan a few things in advance. My location allows me to live without a personal vehicle, but there are many restrictions on the house and even the builder. I like the idea of reused materials, but I'll stick with a location that allows me to ditch a car.
B Y, Matt talked several times about “Passive Home” PH standards. If you can build or have built a home as close to PH certification, even if you cannot meet the .06 blower door test, you will far exceed Net Zero standards with very little additional expense. Just eliminating thermal bridging in your structure will do wonders in sizing your HVAC requirements, thus saving expenses big time. It’s just not difficult to spend a little time on the structure to greatly improve it’s performance.
Handeeman! One of my fav channels. Great build channel where he has done a tiny house, work shop, rain water harvesting, ICF home. Always look forward to his videos.
Another top notch production. I think I am still tending toward the desire to build Passive, but I wonder if I can implement some of the water reuse/harvesting functionality of an Earthship...
Hi Matt, I also live in Wester, Ma. I love Earthships, and I looked-in to building one 3-years ago. All of the challenges you listed are exactly what stopped me from building one. Instead, I built a tiny-house, traditional building techniques, but SUPER energy efficient.
I want to use tires to build a large wall around my property. I can have it be vertical on the outside and more like a hill on the inside. Using modern compactors, it will take a few minutes, not hours per tire. Add a biodegradable lattice to the outside wall to allow vines to grow and put grass up the hill. Just a thought I had 🤷♂️
Sounds great if you have the room. Don't forget to put some kind of french drain at the bottom to channel the rain water away from the house and the wall.
I just discovered this channel. I've seen 2 videos so far and I can tell that I am going to get hooked on this content. My impression so far is that these videos are very informative, entertaining, well thought out, and well researched. I believe you are promoting a very positive cause in a world that needs it. Thank you for what you do, friend.
I've been interested in the idea of 3d printed earthships for a while. Since the main component seems to be soil and they are often half-buried it seems like it might be possible to have a vehicle sized 3d printing robot excavate an area to build a sewage system/ garden section and compact the adjacent area into a foundation. Use the remaining rock/clay/sand/plant materials to make a earthen mix that can be extruded out of a long arm printing head to build up walls and even the basic structure of the roof and water collection system. While it is building you could either have a wagon with the other supplies and a second robotic arm or a small group of construction workers placing things like plumbing, electrical, doors, and windows in as the robot prints around them. The tires, cans, and bottles seem kind of unnecessary and mostly decorative. Maybe a time-lapse camera and some other climate measuring equipment could be placed on the lot a year in advance to determine the best design for the home though it would be best to develop a few base models that allow the home owners a good amount of leeway in adjusting for changing climates. Probably tropic, desert, plains, mountain, and tundra that way the program can start with the basic design and tweak the angle of windows, thickness of walls, and a few other variables to fit the more precise location.
@@ApotheosisStone it’s about use of space. The point is you want the thermal mass in an earth ship. Filling random objects into a hole in the ground is wasting valued space. Plus we have to ship this stuff overseas a lot of the times
Any construction technique that uses less and produces more is a good deal to me. Big fan of all the sustainable focussed approaches. We have most of the technologies in place, we just start to implement them more.
depending on where you live. Building can be cheaper. Most of the materials are upcycled and free. The Land would be the most expansive part. But if you life in places like germany its impossible, because of regulations.
@@DrBernon I mean, some of these building codes are pretty stupid, but others are just to keep the average Joe safe. Like he said in the video, decomposing tires can release toxic fumes into the interior and moisture in the walls can make them brittle and cause mold to grow, whose spores can degrade your lungs if inhaled for a long period of time (like inside a home). There are soo many problems and dangers when building a house that no layman can just do it with junk without creating serious health risks. My brother is a master carpenter and he build his house basically himself with excavation, walls, floors and roof all done himself. But for everything else, like plumbing, heating, electrical wiring, windows, etc. he still had experts come to do it, because a) he wasn't allowed to do it and thus his house wouldn't have been insured otherwise and b) he knew it would just cause problems down the line if he tried to do it himself and since he's gonna pay for that house for the next 25-35 years, he's not gonna take any risks.
we do not separare greywater from blackwater sadly (where I live at least). But you can use washing hands water to flush, it is very cheap and simple solution.
It's definitely possible, but depends on what local requirements are. In the US it varies state by state. pioneerwatertanksamerica.com/is-it-illegal-to-collect-rainwater-in-your-state/
I supplied the first off grid system for a rammed earth home in Arkansas in 1998. Built from the ground up by an engineer from Texas. Out standing structure. Entire home runs off 1-150 watt solar panel 1- 450 watt wind generator and 8 trojan 105's. Wood heat, generator for ac only which they rarely need to use. Water capture he also designed was 8,000 gallons and the left over fed his pond at the bottom of the hill
Interesting breakdown of the elements of the Earthships, an interesting review! Earthships seems like a good way just not right to most of the population Yet, I think that most of the elements should be implemented in modern living , especially in urban building. Passive building principles for living buildings is possible by using the right materials and planning. While the rest of the elements - water recycling, sewage treatment, and even small energy generation and storage should be regional infrastructure and maybe even using our sewage to control more of the cooling of the city. Food production -well at least some of the vegetables can be grown and sold inside each neighborhoods minimizing transportation of goods and by that carbon foot print as those technologies already exits(local production)
I first heard of earthships when I was in high school, 2003-2005 ish and I was immediately in love! Ever since, Ive wanted to build one, but I also want to live in a city 🥲 reality hit me hard on the feasibility of being able to buy land in a city and build a new house on it. But I would love to incorporate the water reclamation system, greenhouse in the front, and other energy efficiency ideas in an earthship in my current place. Kinda retrofit everything. Hopefully I can save up and do that 😊
I am actually wondering how this fits with the opposite trend of stacking more people in taller buildings, for surface usage. Would something like this fit that trend to some degree?
It would be interesting to see a scaled up multilevel version. I guess it would require more non recycled structural materials though. I like the glass facing wall facing the sun and growth over the rear, if there were a built up area with the same design it could mean everyone would have a view of greenery!
From the way it looks, I don't think you can scale it up vertically, not unless you do at the side of a steep hill/mountain. Ofcourse you can use techniques from these eartship houses, just not everything.
I have always been facinated by these Earthship Homes. In fact my final for graduating a votech school with the AAS in CADD I was working towards included a full 3D model design for a project of my choice. This was back in 1998 (if memory serves me correctly) and one of the other teachers in a different program (Computer Programming) wanted an Earthship Home. So that is what I chose for my Final Project. I wish I was able to save all those plans and files, and I never found out when the guy retired if he took what I did to an engineer to actually have it built in New Mexico. But that was my first experience with alternate forms of building materials.
Earthships seem like an electric conversion car. Sure they can be great, but they're expensive, usually have big caveats, and take a lot of work. Compared to mass market EVs that are coming on the road now the converts seem quaint, but cool. In 150 years we're probably going to look back and cringe that we ever used clean water in our toilets. Assuming we actually survive that long.
It can be used as the replacement or melting for ceramics,shoes,wind turbine ,chairs,protect wall ,dish handler,p..Ror PVC ,Iron separated from the rabber used for many thing for making bopt and anding teeth to make new tyre
Please forgive me if I sound overly cynical here, but these are obviously, as you said, not something everyone can use. In fact, they seem like an artsy-fartsy feel good niche hobby for a tiny population of highly interested enthusiasts. We're not going to save money or practice good environmental stewardship on a country or global scale with these.
disagree. They bring a lot of new inputs and widen the horizon of our society on what is important on life and how living sustainably and off grid can work. They raise awareness and society benefits from this awareness in general
What you should talk about next is city design. A city designed not for cars but for people will reduce the number of cars (to be replaced with bikes). This is better for the environment, it even makes driving better as there are much fewer cars on the road. Go see the Not Just Bikes channel. He goes over how intelligent the planning is in the Netherlands... P.S. I too am fascinated with earth ships and will likely never live in one...
Some of the Earthship elements that could be added into a new home build would be the super insulation, possibly by being partially underground. Gaining even some heating and cooling passively due to orientation would be a help in many instances as well as solar and/or wind power for even some electrical needs. Gray water recycling definitely makes sense.
If you could afford to build one earth ships seem to be about perfect for most of rural Kansas, it gets just enough water that it isn't considered to be a dessert, but water is still a scarce resource that needs to be maximized, you are likely to be far enough from your neighbors that utilities can be cost prohibitive, the average temperature is comfortable so the ground temperature will be pleasent, and earthquakes are pretty much not an issue which means you don't need to modify the design to be earthquake tolerant.
That's outdated. Every state now allows you to collect rainwater. Only 13 states have any restrictions. 19 states allow it with no restrictions and 18 encourage people to harvest it.
PaleGhost is correct ... it's not illegal, but how much and what you can use it for have requirements around them. Here's a full list for the US: pioneerwatertanksamerica.com/is-it-illegal-to-collect-rainwater-in-your-state/
I was just thinking about my family homestead in Eastern Washington and how some of these ideas were used in the building of it over 130 years ago. The home had a southern facing sun porch across one side of the home. The northern side of the home was built into the hillside and had a built in root cellar that stayed cool all year long. The entryways to the home all had enclosed porches-airlocks if you want, that reduced the loss of heated or cooled air leaving the house. The vegetable garden was planted within steps of the kitchen for ease of access. And the original kitchen wastewater was piped out to the garden area and allowed to percolate through the soil then into the garden areas. These were all passive ideas to keep the home livable before the days of air conditioning. And saving water was just a standard behavior in arid areas. I am willing to bet that my great grandfather and his family would understand the concepts and ideas used in today’s earthships and support these ideas.
Good point, I'll go rent out a box house here in the states instead for 600 a month with the walls caving in and the nice deposit of mold behind the tub inside the city where thousands of cars run daily and the pavement spans for hundreds miles. Much healthier for my long term health imo.
@@Gone_Away_Again just like the cigarettes and alcohol being fed to us like candy and advertised like a new toy. Not to be that guy but if I was given the optiong to live in one of these i would take it in a heartbeat.
To answer your question: No. The tires get sealed on both sides and have no exposure to sunlight or oxygen. They’re made from materials not meant to rot away to begin with, and then are sealed up in a tomb with no access to the elements. Earthship homes will outlast all of us, and then some.
I have seen the earthship in Burntisland, Scotland. It is a demonstration of concept rather than a full house, but really fascinating, as the Scottish climate is much greyer and wetter than New Mexico. They adapted the ideas to match, for example the window surfaces are vertical not sloped to cope with the lower sunlight level. They also have the advantage of building in the site of an old watermill, and so converted the millrace into a mini hydroelectrc scheme.
Biggest issue with these is that they require space and are designed for a relatively stable climate. Still find them fascinating though. I love the 1970s, outdoors-brought-inside design.
One more challenge that limits earthships to a very niche market segment is that you need roads. Where there is a lot of space and few people, it might be possible to build a few earthships, but you need roads to bring the materials in and connect to anything else. Which means that you need cars. So, you need a car house (garage) too, and more solar panels or wind etc. to power the vehicle, ie. more technology. Now, all of that road network is space that is not useful for agriculture (although granted, there's not much of that in a desert) or wildlife, and has a maintenance cost - who pays? This means that earthships are fairly ecologically expensive. If you're going to provide housing for a LOT of people, it's much more eco-friendly to build denser communities in cities. Sadly.
I have fantasies about joining these guys and turning their desert into an oasis. I love the ideas of earthships but I wish they didn't look like they belong on tatooine.
A proper subsurface basement keeps relatively cool during summers and warm during winters. It does cost more as the structure needs protection from water seepage into the walls, extra power to pump out sewage and the cost of excavation to build it in. However, a subsurface living area can also serve other necessary purposes in times like war.
I'm planning on building my next house with SIREwall techniques. Structurally Insulated Rammed Earth. Basically dirt mixed with portland cement. 2 feet thick walls with 4 inches of foam insulation in the middle to provide a thermal break. I've read that they were able to keep houses in Phoenix during the summer at a comfortable temperature by running a swamp cooler for 4 hours a day.
Re: the outgassing of the tires, two things: 1) You’re building with used tires. Most of the outgassing that’s going to happen has already happened by time you’re building with them 2) You seal the tires (on both sides of the wall) to keep oxygen and sunlight out. Any offgassing that could potentially still happen doesn’t, bc the gasses are trapped inside the sealant HTH!
I have stayed in two earthships at the site outside of Taos. It was incredible how comfortable it was inside when it was below freezing outside. I have not visited in summer, and I have some doubts about how well the cooling tubes work. I know cooling tubes work but the tubes on the earthships are short and I am not sure they would have the needed surface area to cool the air much before the air enters the dwelling. If I ever make it back to Taos in summertime I intend to learn firsthand.
I've always liked the idea of not wasting what we have, reuse and turn for example old cans or bottles into raw materials. Having one of these super efficient houses would be really cool... but im unsure of the viability of it. Cheers to the people who arent afraid of trying it out and doing all the hard work!
I agree with most of your points. However the 50 inches of rainfall comment I thought missed the concept. It is more needed in a low rainfall region as reuse of the water decreases the overall incoming water requirements. Even if you haul in some of your water there would be a reduction in the amount needed. Remember that there is 0.6 gallon of water per square foot per inch of rain, so a 2000 square foot home would yield 1,200 gallons for every inch of rain. Reuse of grey water would be a big benefit to cities as it would not only reduce the water they need to provide, it also reduces the amount of sewage they have to treat. Rainwater collection also reduces the amount of storm water runoff the city has to treat, so some cities are actually starting to make some collection mandatory.
Live in Brazil, building one for myself, a partial design. 3 Acres of woods, will provide me with A LOT of food and building materials, abundant sunlight and 9 months of reliable rain. I recommend that to everyone.
I feel like subscribers of your Channel would already know more about earthships than you put in this video. I enjoy when you put out new technology videos especially dealing with energy storage and generation
I like the idea of kits. In a kit, one gets the materials and plans (video instruction!) to build and install a particular system: gray water recovery, water collection, solar power collection, battery storage, heat exchangers, water heaters, raised gardens, vertical gardens... I also like the idea of "calculators". A calculator can take information you give it about your home, environment, utility bills, and budget and then recommend a kit that comes closest to meeting your needs. For example, a gardening calculator would take into consideration local weather, sun exposure, and space and then recommend kits that will help you best use available time, space, and resources. In short, I'd like the knowledge tools that help me make the right choices and the materials and plans to turn those choices into reality - one small project at a time.
I think the best building way is to start with a concrete skeleton because it causes no more harm after it is casted and lives forever. Then for the wrapping, you can choose the walls, insulation and cladding that you want. The added bonus is that concrete is pretty flexible to work with if you want some changes made and could be produced with renewable energy. Besides that the wolf can’t blow it away.
There are videos by someone trained in Taos that was working on humidity issues and building in Florida. I've also seen a retired contractor use bails of shredded tires instead of packing with earth to reduce labor requirements.
I have been intrigued with earthships for years. I like your addressing the cold climate issue and the cost to build. It bothers me that there aren't many outside of the desert as far as I know.
Condensation can be a significant issue. In moister climates, the cool ground can cause moisture to condense on the walls leading to mold/mildew/moisture issues. There are ways to deal with this, installing a dehumidifier or air conditioner being the big obvious one, but that generally brings up a list of additional complications one has to deal with. In fairness, effectively dealing with moisture is a big challenge in all building designs not just earthships.
I think a mixed approach is needed. Take a normal passive house, add a slanted greenhouse or a very large window-wall or set of window walls or sun-rooms and use a dark-colored floor to store heat, and add a lot more insulation on the sides not facing the sun, and maybe use plastic tubes cut in half for landscaping with grey-water and for landscaping plants as leech fields with black water. And all those plants can also be directly ate by animals like chicken or rabbits, whose manure can be used to fertilize the plants intended for human consumption. Also, for very cold places, there are already plenty of cases of houses built inside greenhouses, or houses which had greenhouses build around them, and using concentrated solar (solar troughs, for example, or simply using mirrors to get more sunlight reflected onto the house) can also provide heat and daylight to help with that. Even without mirrors, some greenhouses built in cold regions can make the climate 3 zones warmer, and using concentrated solar heating can probably increase that to 5 zones, at the price of higher costs.
I like the idea, but another way to minimize your footprint is to purchase a country house from an elderly person who can no longer commit to the maintenance. Then you can work slowly to upgrade it to be more energy efficient. That is the strategy that I took and while it does take an initial purchase price; you get the right house and you've got a great base to start with. Thanks for the vidoe, I enjoyed it.
For heating you need insulation here since the ground temperature here is around 65F. Here in mn it was shown you want at least a R2 from any thermal mass to the outside or you will end up increasing the heating load as the cold temperatures cools that thermal mass.
I have loved the Earthship concept ever since I discovered it years ago. I would not do the tire walls, and there would have to be changes to make sure it meets regulations, but I want to build one. Unfortunately, the cost of land and construction is so high right now that it is little more than a pipe dream.
Been researching this technology for decades and love the whole concept. But, comparing Earthship construction costs with passive energy construction is apples and oranges. The latter doesn't harvest, recycle, store, purify, and irrigate with rainwater, nor produce nutritious foods in a desert. I've also designed my own pseudo-earthship home, using 20 ft diameter monolithic domes, connected together, with bathrooms and walkthrough storage closet 'tunnels'. Granted, 4 inch thick of concrete isn't environmentally copacetic, but it's only 7 cu yards per dome and can easily be sprayed on as shotcrete, within a few hours per dome, and requiring only a 4 man crew. Hey, I'm an old man. it would kill me to beat a thousand tires full of dirt. Otherwise, I'll be using 6" diameter geothermal tubing for convection HVAC, plus passive solar heated hydronic PEX tubing in the floor slabs. Bermed soil provides thermal mass + vegetation provides evaporative cooling on the exterior. The combined configuration and materials minimizes electrical demand and off grid power equipment. The entire site will be underlaid with pond liner providing rainwater runoff into a swale and cistern for hydroponic irrigation of a greenhouse, just incase my well ever goes dry from the receding water table in my area. Thanks for asking. :-)
Great explanation. I too have been fascinated by these homes. I never quite grasped the water reuse process until your video and I feel there is still more to it. Great video as always Matt.
You post this a day after I binged a few documentaries on Earthships and bermed earth houses. I'm glad you covered it. I find cob houses more charming, but I like the concept of any passive house using natural and recycled materials. You covered the cons a bit better than the other videos. The other films I watch put effort selling the affordability gained from up-cycled materials, so seeing your cost estimate was an eye-opener. It makes sense though considering the labor you mentioned, as well as all the dirt and concrete. I also watched a video from the guy in Arizona collecting his own water too, so it felt as if you browsed through my history, haha.
Some, or many earth ships don't use any concrete at all. It depends on the area you build, and the speed at which you need to build it as to whether you use concrete or not.
Actually they’ve also demonstrated (via certified state lab testing) zero contamination from growing food plants/trees with black water, not just gray water. The soil organisms and oxygenation from the root systems in the planters purify both gray and black waste sufficiently as long as it is completely contained beneath a couple feet of soil. The septic tank is only required in states that haven’t yet recognized the extraordinary power of the planter system, and most states actually care more about the dangers of gray water. Many Earthships have only used an overflow leach field to direct any excess water in the system to outdoor plants.
Many small towns and cities in Latin America, where I have been many times, live with the environment. They stay cool and warm with very simple methods that have been used in those towns for ages. One simple example is one I saw in Colombia a few months ago and that is almost everywhere in 3-story apartments. An air shaft connects from the first apartment's floor through its roof to the second and third apartment and connects with the third apartment's roof. It allows the hot air to escape through the third floor apartment's roof, sort of like a chimney, while cool air comes in through every apartment window and door. It is basically like an elevator shaft with a garden at the bottom, first floor apartment, and ends in a covered, chimney like roof, so that rain doesn't get in. At the third floor roof, there is often a terrace where you can sit and drink coffee at any time, though some times only the third floor has access to this part. I was in the first floor apartment and while you can hear people talking in the second and sometimes the third floors, the place stayed cool all day long without the need for air conditioning. The only thing I would add to the system would be an air extractor (if that is the name?) like the ones we have on American roofs to circulate the air in attics, since sometimes the breeze dies out. We can also live like that. Let's re-discover our roots and live simpler lives when and where possible.
To me, the aspect of an earth ship that I think we should look at and integrate into our modern homes is: 1) the use of how energy and air circulates in our homes. 2) the water system. Having our water used to it's maximum ability. I've done research into homes from long ago that use wind towers to cool their homes.
my dad was a huge fan of all these ideas, and Earthships ...since the early 80's he kept loads of books around, visited/helped on builds, and we talked a lot about sustainable ideas before he passed. the ICF buildings i'm planning utilize earthtubes (10' underground air ducts that absorb the soil's steady-state temp) to feed the ERV (energy recovery ventilation) system with ~62f temp air year-round, instead of only being used for cooling in-conjunction with the stack-effect (as you describe in the vid). this should dramatically increase their efficiency, as the temp delta between the living space & incoming fresh air is minimal. they could also be routed through the exchange half of mini-split heating/cooling systems, giving the heat-pump more temperate air to pull/dissipate heat with (again, higher efficiency). not aware that either of those have ever been done before, so i'm pretty excited to test the concepts.
There is a school in California. A central core is the library. Surrounding that irate classrooms. Out side dart is piled up against reinforced concrete walls which make up the structure of the school. Each room has an exterior door, glass mostly. Skylights provide daylight in room and the library. This school has existed
One thing worth mentioning is that kitchen sink water should actually be treated as black water. Bathroom sinks and the rest are fine but the oil, grease and food scrap build up from a kitchen sink can greatly complicate a grey water system.
Adopting an earth-ship plan as a community garden to provide local produce during the winter would be interesting to see adopted into a city architecture plan. It would be a great research spot to see what effects VOC's from tires in the walls to absorb heat have on the plants and graywater. It would be something that may provide new filtration systems for water or food for expecting mothers and prevent birth defects, still births, or developmental problems.
Matt. I used to build these with him in the early 1990s. You shoukd take a week and go rent one of the rental units in Taos in the "greater world" community. I remeber the day he bought the 1000acres. He boughtvus all dinner and said he was cash poor but land rich! You should stay in one. There is no more calming sleep you will get. Its like an isolation chamber. Your superinsulated active home can not compare to the experience. My wife and i stay in one a few years ago on a cross country vacation. I love you channel and i am a Cleantech Invement Banker (not as sexy as it sounds). Saying you wouldnt want one before you actually spend a nightbor two is....well lets just say i HAD to comment. I love you channel. Not sure you will ever see this. There are many in Canada. The tires cannot breakdown....they are completely sealed with dirt. The materials in your hypersealed home probably offgass or breakdown more than any used bald tire sealed behind inches of dirt and plaster. Many are ugly AF, but the ones for rent in Taos at the greater world are very good looking.
What elements of an earthship do you think make the most sense for wider adoption? Special thanks to Privacy.com - go to privacy.com/mattferrell to get $5 free money!
If you liked this video, be sure to watch Exploring Massless Energy Battery Breakthrough: th-cam.com/video/7rJf_n3bc0I/w-d-xo.html
The problem with these is, as with most green tech, the cost. As long as homes like these are out of the price range of the lower middle class and upper lower class, they’ll never become common enough to make the dent they need to make.
I mean, earth ship proponents SAY it’s cheaper to build, but then you look at the actual bill/quote for making one as compared to just buying a conventional house on the market and you can see how the cost of entry keeps most of us out of the party.
Do they pass the building code? Or will the government come and knock your house down to protect you unless you live somewhere out of reach?
Thank you Matt. I am planning on building an earthship out of concrete block and stone. Big fan of rockwool insulation. It will be first time I use comfort board under concrete floor. Usually use pink rigid foam insulation under concrete floor. The floor will steal thermal mass if not insulated good. Windows will be vertical. I have already driven down a point well and it flows. I have a ram pump to pump the water. Sewage is one of the expensive things I must deal with in karst area. Building old world masonry stove/heater. The only issue on code so far was d.c. instead of a.c. smoke detector. Going all d.c. for electric. The labor on a tire is way more than me to work to buy block and stone and lay them. 8x8x16 concrete block is only 1.25$ It takes me and another mason a month to build foundation and 160 feet of 8 foot basement wall. Looks like I will spend around 33,000 all together. 17,749$ so far for 10 acres, hand driven 2" well, ram pump, and gas. Icf and poured walls can be used to make earthships too. I am trying for r 35+ in walls and r 60 in roof. Windows and septic will be must expensive part. Above ground planter because seems easier. 6/12 mono sloped roof going from 6 feet to 18. I loose window space due to thick masonry walls but should give room for 14 foot tall plants going 2 stories of windows. Shape and size of windows effects price. 135$ for angle iron if using rectangular window per window. Arched windows cost more too. 17 windows plus 4 egres windows. Buying windows for an earthship is like buying sails for a sailboat the more education on subject I can get the better. The way most houses are built they are meant to cost you money every month.
Probably most of the concepts could be built with Insulated Concrete Forms. Even trying to reduce embodied energy and recycling by using things like ground up tires as agregate, this requires a lot less work and is conventional enough to get past building codes.
The South Facing windows and Thermal Mass is good as well.
If the Water is incorporated, water has 4 times as much thermal storage as concrete. Putting a cistern in the building could be a better long term heat storage.
Building into the ground is also an excellent idea.
Ya what about Lava rocks they hold heat and dispatch it just as fast for there full of air and gases would make more sense in cooler places.
So in summer to keep the heat off why don't they have the water go through the walls 1 to cool it for hot places 2 to heat up the water for other uses and or stores it for night time use as well
Even if you're not building an Earthship, using some of the concepts seems really beneficial.
I think the idea of reusing grey water for a garden is a great idea, although I'd probably opt for geothermal heating.
I like the concept of the "terrace" where plants can grow, all autonomous and working off waste water etc.
I'm not a green thumb, but do enjoy a nice terrace to spend time in with some plants in it. Humans are just wired that way
@@skaltura I agree using some of these technologies to give an atmosphere to your house looks awesome.
@@KRYMauL And the blackwater leech fields can serve as food for animals like chicken and rabbits which to create manure for the plants which use greywater to grow food. But I do think they should add more greenhouse area to the passive houses, as well as maybe build the whole house inside a greenhouse or build a greenhouse around a house, to make it more energy efficient in colder areas, as many have done, and even to use concentrated solar (solar troughs or simply mirrors reflecting more light onto the house) to help even more with that.
If there is plenty of space, even using fresnel-mirror walls to concentrate sunlight from a distance, would help a lot. The normal walls could have angled mirrors added to to reflect sunlight onto the house, and in far northern areas, it is possible to build 4-story-tall fresnel mirror walls, through which wind can blow, to reflect more sunlight onto houses or even greenhouses, allowing even places in the arctic circle to grow raspberries and wheat and corn. And it would also have minimal impact on the climate, since the light you concentrate on the greenhouses will be obtained by shading the place behind the fresnel mirror walls, as opposed to bringing external heat to the place. This would make the shaded areas better for freeze-drying produce, too, or to stockpile snow and ice for later use, in dry cold places. And it would make a lot of the previously uninhabitable places habitable.
The same technology behind solar power plants which use concentrated solar, can be used to get solar heat and sunlight into well insulated places in the arctic, for example. If you only get a few months of heat per year, why not store it in the ground, by first insulating the ground well enough to not lose that heat non-intentionally. You can have very long soilcrete/dirtcrete fields with hollow thin tunnels running through them, and use hot air or that expensive liquid they use in solar troughs, to heat the cement to 300 degrees celsius, or use sand instead of soilcrete/dirtcrete and use bigger pipes, since air can go through the gaps in the sand, and heat the sand at 500 degrees celsius with hot air. You can then use that heat to generate power (through steam turbines), or to heat the place to more comfortable levels. And the orientation of the mirrors would not need to be changed nearly as often.
If you want to go the extra step, you can even use hot air balloons to hold mirrors at a height of a kilometer or two above the ground, to get sunlight onto a settlement or farm when the ground itself gets no sunlight, and you can even use ground-based mirrors to move sunlight to places where it's needed. For example, you could use the same system of tethered hot air balloons holding mirrors to get sunlight from mirrors placed above the ground into the sea at a large distance, effectively cooling hot arid places like Sahara enough for water to not be lost immediately to the solar infrared radiation, use that water to grow plants, and use that heat to evaporate more water which to get onto the hot dry lands.
At that scale, you could even use the concept of solar towers or solar chimneys, but turning them into solar pipes or solar tunnels instead, by getting seawater from far away from the coast, placing it into long greenhouses with concentrated solar evaporating water and then superheating steam, then funnel it into kilometers-long pipes, then use some of that high-pressure steam released it towards the sky in a hundred-meters (hundred-yards) tunnel, which would create updraft from the ground, which could be used to cool down the rest of the steam into drinking water, and part of energy of the updraft can be used by a ground-based vertical-axis wind turbine, to generate power, and store the water in heavily shaded areas, ideally walled-in areas, with limited circulation and insulation from the heat. Now that you can have water in very hot very dry areas, terraforming those places for high-density human habitation would not be difficult.
@@skaltura Check my other replies to this thread. I don't want to repeat myself, and copying the message would shadow-ban the comments.
The tires are NOT packed with soil as soil contains organic material that rots. They're compacted with subsoil which is inorganic and never rots/shrinks. Great video though Matt! Glad you took this subject on
Good call out.
Yes, well said for the uneducated, in the ways of Earthships !
I was looking for this comment.
Isn't tires release a hazardous substances under sun?
@@ilkarusei yes..that's why they're sealed with plaster.
I pet sat at an earthship-ish house and loved it! The house was recessed into a hill, with the southern facing windows. Both summer and winter, whatever they made the walls and ceiling with, kept things comfortably cool. The interior was a modern home with high, curved ceilings. Years later I still think about this house and I would love to live in something similar!
As someone who has lived & helped build Earthship’s there are far more pros than cons. Living in one creates a very harmonious relationship with one’s self & the earth. It is a way of life. But beyond it all it goes back to balance your are reducing waste & consumption. Those two factors alone is what has caused so many issues in our environment world wide. Mike is one of the most incredible human beings I have ever met in my life. I’m so proud of what he’s done.
There is a male nurse here in Amarillo who did build his house out of old tires. He would work his shift, come home and change, go get the tire or tires he needed and go to the site and start packing the tires full of dirt and then stack them accordingly. He would do so many and then go back to the apartment and get some rest before his next shift and this went on for 2 years I think. He also built it into a hill to get the radiant energy off the dirt that surrounds 3 sides of his house. He has rain gutters that feed into a black tank with 4 kinds of water filters that make the water so clean he drinks it every day. The gutter system at the lowest point has a, what I call, a junk tube for like sticks and leaves can go to so it does not go into the water tank. The land is paid off and he basically lives rent free. He has 2 solar panels (then, some years back when I went there) and 1 battery, he does not leave things plugged in, if he needs to use them, then he plugs them in and when done unplugs the devices. He has a compost toilet and the house sits at a slight angle to catch the early morning sun in the winter to help heat the house and an overhang on the roof to keep the heat out in the summer. No propane, just an electric house
Sounds wonderful
An amazingly well-balanced look at Earthships. They are awesome, but as you point out, not perfect or for everywhere/everyone.
Thanks for watching! Appreciate it.
Hey wait a minute, this isn't an animal fact!
@@charlesrichard7715
We should burn them
I just wonder if those used tires emit VOC's. It is a great use for them if they do not.
@@ghazman6141 in the video it says that the tires emit toxic chemicals as they break down in the sun.
My mother made an Earthship after seeing the PBS special of Dennis Weaver's Earthship in the early '90s. Many hurdles (including fraud from a contractor) made the build take 10 years, but she is in it now and loves it. I helped with packing many of the tires. It does NOT take 45min-1hr to pack one tire. Maybe if you are counting the stucco and finishing, you might say that. With two people, one shoveling in dirt and one packing with a sledge, it takes maybe 5min-10min, maybe a bit more. It's been a lifetime ago when I did it so I could be wrong :-). We had a DIY-made pounder, a metal fence pole stuck in a flower pot that was then filled with cement. While filling and pounding the tire with the sledge around the edges, you used the bigger pounder to pack the middle and finish. It's extremely labor-intensive. It is an excellent workout if you are in shape (or want to get in shape). Also, off-gassing has always been a talking point, but my mom has had it tested (a few times I think) and there has never been a problem.
My mom could not afford to make this completely off-grid with solar panels and whatnot, so it is mainly a seriously efficient house with HVAC and a gas fireplace. My mom is a cowgirl, and she loves the ruggedness of the home as well as the efficiency. Also, she is an artist, and as you can see in the video (linked below) there is a lot of room to make the design your own with this kind of house. Also, being in Florida means there is a ton of humidity, and the HVAC helps mitigate that.
This video is when she had it mostly finished about 14yrs ago. Near the end of the video, you can see where it is not quite finished yet, and there are exposed tire walls. That is all finished now. I seriously love the concepts, but I would probably build one so modified (I live in UT) that it would not be considered Earthship anymore.
Here is the video I made eons ago when my mom finished the main part, and we visited for Christmas.
vimeo.com/6238648
My buddy owns one out in Utah. I’ll actually be staying there again next month and have enjoyed my past trips there in the past. He has a lemon tree inside and never runs the heat!
Fantastic, and aren't you lucky.! Must be very efficient; well aspected, I guess.
I live in Utah as well. Is he in southern Utah, or a part of the state that gets colder in the winter?
@@Eyes0penNoFear we were snowmobiling out the back door so definitely cold.
It's in a desert but near elevation.
I'm thinking about building a traditional home, but with an attached large conservatory/greenhouse.
Insulating the foundation and have a huge well insulated thermal mass to force air from the conservatory in through to heat it up.
Adding cooling tubes in the ground like the earthship for a cold thermal mass.
Then use these thermal masses to pre-heat/cool the air and mix it with outside air going to the heat recovery system of the house. Hopefully removing the need for air conditioning in the summer and helping heating up the house in the winter months.
This has the added benefit of extending the months of the year you can be outside. A great party space, since weather isn't an issue and probably the most important part. Since I'm ginger it would be nice to not worry as much about sunscreen all the time, because of the UV protection glass can provide
I've always felt a bit iffy about the tires in the walls ever since I learnt what an eartship was. For a community so focused on healthy living I've always thought of that as a glaring flaw... but their impact on sustainable living has been notable, even though the inner circle is a little bit too hardcore for the most of us. I look at the earthship community a bit like pioneers that pushes the boundaries so others can follow in a safe manner
What is your beef with the tyres? They are inert and when consolidated into a wall with earth and render, will stay there as long as the house lasts, giving no outgassing (like stone kitchen benchtops do) and providing thermal mass !
I have a pile of 200 neatly stacked tires on my property awaiting collection for recycling. I walk past the tires daily and there is only one way to describe them. They stink! The outgassing, at least for exposed tires, is awful. If they are sealed from the living space then fine. Otherwise your home will constantly smell of rubber.
I get that they perform some kind of function, and used tires are an abundance in the united states, so it's cheap and provides structure... But it really goes against all my core beliefs to bury rubber like that... I don't know... It just feels wrong
The question is not _whether or not_ to use the tires.
The question is _how_ to use them.
Humanity has to figure out what to do with all those tires! Finding a solution is part of this project! If they off-gas, then figure out how to prevent it from seeping into the house. If this problem doesn't pique your curiosity, then I don't think you understand what this technique is about.
Watch the Documentary "Garbage Warrior".
@@ckafam yes if they are buried you wouldn’t smell them. The sun breaks them down faster
Just as an FYI for the Kinney earthship it was built in an area of the province that sees the largest percentage of sunlight in Canada, is one of the windiest areas and affected by Chinooks all winter giving it a very mild winter climate most years to operate in compared to the northern end of the province.
I think having a solar/wind driven pump and geothermal heating/cooling system would be a far better option for most of the prairies than just relying on passive heating and cooling like the earthship does. A dehumidifier in an underground home can also outlet to the grey water system, preventing mould and providing a bit more water.
I wish in future we will see a lot more:
Systems managing toilet water locally, turning it into usable fertilizer. Basically mini water treatment plant.
Secondary water system re-using grey water (for toilet flushing mostly).
Highly automated indoor gardens.
Geothermal heating / energy.
"Undecided with Matt Ferrell" episodes.
@Destiny Karst
I think we should be composting our solid waste as well.
We currently flush clean drinking water down our toilets.
That is completely insane and unnecessary.
And if we all had a biogas generator along side of our HVAC and water heaters and etc. we would be making our own fuel as well.
It's possible to make units that will do this cleanly and safely.
Instead I remember reading somewhere about how they want us to start drinking our processed black-water.
It's amazing to me that this is even worth considering over processing our own solid waste.
@Destiny Karst california needs heavy desalination plants for their water to refill areas.
@@vanderumd11 there’s also the option of reprocessing sewage into drinking-grade water, it was being trialled in Singapore a while ago, apparently tasted like basically nothing bc it was more or less distilled water. But I haven’t kept up with it so I don’t know if that programme is a success or if other nations are considering it or what.
Now obtain all of these in highly dense Urban environments.
The first part isn't too far off from what most septic tanks do(they are also really easy to adapt into a methane digestor)
I've visited and spent nights in them, in winter no less! It's fun to sip your coffee next to a banana tree (in perfect comfort) and look outside at the cold desert landscape. You show the early "showy" earthships here in the video, and they're not for everyone, but they are legit and they've gone through a lot of evolution - the newer ones really don't have that "wild hippy" look. The plans are there for more conventional integrations - actually, I think it would be AWESOME if you interviewed Mr. Reynolds. He's quite a character.
I think if you add a greenhouse to a passive home you'd actually have a very nice home.
Been a key follower of Earthships and the Permaculture movements since their advent in the 1970's. Never had the chooch to do one myself though. Need lots of youth, energy, and commitment!
I was aware of the Earthship concept back in the 70's-and '80s when I was old enough my parents started taking us on vacations. We looked at many mostly out west in Nevada, Utah, California areas. My father ended up building an underground house. It was under 6 to 8feet of dirt that kept the house at 55F year-round. at almost 6800sq ft it was incredibly easy to heat. You only had to raise the temp about 15 degrees in the winter, even if it was below zero out. and summer it was natural air conditioning. We brought warm outside air in to bring up the temperature in the summer.
Awesome!
The hobbits had the right idea, it seems.
@@kaitlyn__L Yes I did like the Hobbit houses. I saw an eathship as it was called back in the 80's that was built out of inflated balloons and sprayed with a structural cement or something, and the house was a bunch of bubbles connecteted together. I did like the round hobit door.
9:26 - Used tires are utilized in the thermal-mass walls. By this stage they have done all the outgassing they are going to do and are basically inert.
My wife and I toured an earthship in the Taos community mentioned. And I got to visit one in Colorado built for Denis Weaver, a couple of decades ago. I was impressed by the technique, and performance. What was noted was the involvement in maintaining the systems, water, food, heating/ cooling, as in opening / closing windows, and valves, etc. so this makes for difficulties for some people that are not used to such things. Personally I love the idea, as I’ve actually lived in an off grid home in the Colorado mountains. This lifestyle is not for everyone, and should be entered with knowledge of sustainability.
Imho earth ships are for adventurous, knowledgeable, physically able people that can enjoy out of the ordinary lifestyle.
I visited there as well. It was when Dennis had moved out of the house due to what they thought was the tires out gassing. I did notice a petroleum smell but not too bad. Did you notice anything like that?
Speaking of water… most of the Earthships in the colony near Taos are self-sufficient for water, or nearly so. The Taos mesa only gets seven inches of rainfall a year (it’s a proper desert). So they can be made extremely efficient!
Net zero Passive Houses can be built with Modular systems such as Build Smart for market rate or less.
As you noted in your video Earthships can have issues with comfort.
Add principles of grey water, and plants in the home for the Passive House, I think is the best of both worlds.
I think that's the only thing that these things have going for them. I honestly would love to have a garden in attached to my house, and maybe it could include a pond with some fish.
There is an excellent community around the building of earthships, with many being built by people who come to learn from experts, so all you need to do is feed and house for the time they live onsite. Not for everyone, for sure, but still mitigates the cost involved.
As far as the off-gassing of tires, much of the issue involved in the breakdown of tires is in its exposure to sunlight and oxygen, both of which are essentially solved in the construction process. For those still on the fence, rammed earth walls are a viable alternative, and don't require the application of cob on the inside surface, though a waterproof membrane on the side that faces out toward the earthen berm may be necessary.
Thank you!
I like the water distribution aspect as well as the energy saving of an earth ship. Hopefully this can be adapted to a more common use in the future..
For real. There was a high school student in cali that won some kind of reward for coming up with a system eere homeowners can reuse washing machine grey eater for gardening. Cant wait to own a home someday and apply the practice.
Awesome video! I've been following this method of building for over ten years and I think it is a fantastic idea. One thing you did not mention in the video is that you need a certain type of soil to compact into the tires, one that is more sandy then loamy.
I live in Manitoba, Canada, one of the most extreme climates on the planet. On one of the coldest winters on record in one hundred years (-50C), I visited an earth ship and the family told me that the internal temperature never dropped below 10C with no heat source. The owner told me they would just bake potatoes in the morning for breakfast to heat up the house. I think it was about 1200sq ft.
Thanks for all the awesome content!
Love your content. This is a perfect cross-over opportunity for you and a bunch of my favorite TH-camrs... Kirsten and her family at FairConpanies and Dave at Just Have A Think. Keep up the excellent work!
Both of those are great channels. I wouldn't put this one up that high though. He has gained celebrity status because of his well researched subjects, but the continual laughing at his own lame jokes is pretty terrible.
Hi Matt!
Love your videos!
After studying houses for the purpose of building one myself, I found 2 concepts that I love.
1) The straw bale house
2) I call it the northern house, this being a home built in the arctic circle and is basically a giant greenhouse with a family mudhouse/ cobb house built in the middle.
Both designs are cheap and efficient.
I would love to see a presentation made by you on these subjects!
Thanks for going over these. Earth ships are super niche and I never thought it would get any coverage. I like how you go over both the pros and the cons.
Better to implement the best features of earth ship into modern houses and reduce consumption and increasing efficiency in every aspect of a house.
Excellent video. I’m a student of the “Earthship Biotechture Academy” In Teos NM. It’s my hope to one day soon ; to bring this technology to Côté d’Ivoire Africa. I’m told that there’s a family group trying to grant me land to begin this important project.🖐🏿
Good luck!
20 years ago I could not go to work in your country because it was considered too dangerous.
@@Sagittarius-A-Star I’ve relocated from the USA in 2017 & I can see where the “Earthship inspired technology” Can help improve living conditions in the villages. If you would like to view some of my journey? Search Expat to Côté d’Ivoire Back To Kama.🖐🏿
I was thinking to go to the academy too at some point. Can you recommend it? I would like to build an Earthship in Europe one day. Are there other Europeans, and what is the sentiment for building there?
Would love to hear your insights on these things! Thanks!
@@brokkoliomg6103 Hello & yes I highly recommend that you apply to the Earthship Academy. I further recommend that you purchase the books that you’ll need for personal reference. There’s a healthy diversity of people whom attend the Academy. You’ll feel right at home there. If you would like to view some of my journey? Search Expat to Côté d’Ivoire Back To Kama 🖐🏿 All the best to you 😃👍🏿🛸
@@AssanRaelian Thanks I will check it out.
And how long does it take to complete the academy? Is it like a degree, three years or so? Or just like one year?
In the evolution of farmlife from on-the-land existence for most people, to small farms, hobby farms and backyard gardens, then come greenhouses and now all-combined Earthships. It's lifestyle satisfaction, and if the advice to financial investors is, "don't risk more than you are willing to lose", so it always is too, for working and living, don't go beyond with what you know or can find out.
Which is why this research is valuable, thank you.
I LITERALLY lived down the road from the earthship community outside Taos. And had friends who were self building an earth ship there. Reynolds got mad at them because they wouldn't angle their front glass wall as is the nearly iconic look of an earth ship. They can get too hot angled as they are, sometimes even in the winter. Affecting not only comfort but possibly plant growth.
Many of the other homes have sun shades on their front glass walls for that reason. So siting and these eventual issues definitely can be critical.
My friends eventually finished the home and it was beautiful and functional.
Topical, thank you! One point of contention: dig deep enough and the soil is always a nice (relatively) warm temperature. It's not always practical, but it's always an option, even in Canada.
There's a lot of good ideas that going into building these which are essentially niche artistic endeavors. They absolutely will not be a good standard for most homes, but are a good inspiration and test bench for more efficient homes. Hopefully we'll see a lot more ideas like this in the future, where the goal is to use as little energy as possible to keep a home comfortable and safe.
agenda 2030
@@theyredistortingyourrhthym126 Whatever that means!!!
@ThatGuy Makes Things
That is not the goal for Earthships.
A huge part of Earthships is to intentionally _use garbage_ as building materials! Esp. garbage that is one of humanity's worst waste problems. If this isn't interesting for the builder/owner, I would steer clear.
@@DarkMoonDroid the idea is obviously a hyper focus on sustainability, prominently using both recycled materials and renewable energy. I have a few major concerns though.
Are the materials being used really the best use case for recycling that material? In one shot it looks like they're using aluminium cans, which should honestly just be reprocessed. Every gram of aluminium able to be reprocessed is one less gram that needs to be mined.
Does the energy cost of this construction method offset it's use of recycled materials? If a lot more energy goes into making these houses, and/or more energy is used maintaining them (as there was some concerns addressed re: degradation in the video) then it would be more sustainable to just use new materials with a lower energy cost and longer lifespan. Worth noting that logging can be done sustainably and can technically be a carbon capture method if the supply chain uses renewable electricity.
@@cavemaneca concrete takes a lot of energy and releases a ton of CO2 to make, so any house that has it has a disadvantage to begin with.
And yea, glass and aluminium can be recycled to oblivion, but at least the bottles supply light, like a window would do, and doesn't need to be made.
A good friend has an Earthship home. Totally off-grid. I've stayed there overnight. Extremely comfortable. He built his and his wife's 3 BR, 2 BA berm home for $17,000 in 2006. He had an abundance of solar pv, so after adding a few more batteries to his battery bank, and switching to LED lighting, he swapped out his propane range/oven and dryer for electric ones, and found he still had plenty of power to spare. After replacing his gas hot water with electric, he STILL had enough power to spare, so these days, his last 500 gallon load of propane is down to 430 gallons over more than a decade, primary feeding his outdoor grill and fire pit. He says he'll be dead before exhausting it.
That design might need a strong radon mitigation system?
@@HylanderSB the ground
Depends on the area. Around me it would 100% be needed.
Good call out.
Would it be worse than any other basement?
Radon can be dealt with a good HVAC system, 2 ways, or even maybe create a ventilation that puts the house slightly over pressured, like in nuclear plants, to push the inside air outside, and prevent radon overdose in the air
I can imagine earthships being suitable as buffer zones for the deserted areas that are planned for reforestation. The houses can be benefited of the dry climate, the around areas could spare repurposed materials and the people that live there will be very motivated to contribute on the preservation and the expansion of the vegetation. Water and electric infrastructure is probably necessary but this is usually the case for an arrea that needs to be reforested, (at least will be someone there to take of the infrastructure).
That is actually a great idea. Building those earthships along the Sahara dessert would provide a place to not only dispose of a lot of junk like tires in a useful and mostly harmless way for the next decades, but would also provide housing and security for the people who have to leave there because of deforestation... I just don't know if we can restore the land fast enough so that they don't have to relocate nontheless.
@@midnight8341 Actually I was talking about reforestation, (but your concept applies here as well), when people are returning to a deserted land to try their luck again, with reforestation as a tool to return the vegetation in the area.
I believe that we are talking for the same thing but in different concepts that are both useful to the society and the local vegetation. :)
Has anyone attempted to make an Earthship Apartment complex as a way to expand the Earthship idea in a way that could potentially reduce the construction cost via large scale development?
Haven't come across anything. If anyone knows, drop a comment!
I think the main advantages come from all the added mass. That’s not really compatible when you are building more than one story.
this is a good point, could make it feasible in the sense that you could cover several residences with single systems (like greywater). Every residence having their own system is appealing to individualists (like myself) but could be a big hassle for many. 4-6 apartments running on 1 system is less burden for each.
That would make it more into an arcology, than an apartment complex.
I think they're building a school in Haiti or somewhere, which looks different, and more large scale if you will. Dont know if it fits your demands though.
I think the water treatment to use it again... that should be a must in every home... Here (in Argentina) we use drinkable water to take a bath, to wash the dishes, to fill a pool, to flush the toilet... to everything... That was the thing that draw most of my attention in the video. Thanx for the good content as always!!!
I'm super interested in using alternative building materials to build a more energy efficient home. Could you do a video on some of the different types on the market today?
I remember years ago seeing a documentary on a home built with tires by Dennis Weaver the television actor (McCloud and Gunsmoke). He seemed ahead of the wave with the techniques and technologies that he was using to negate his carbon footprint before anyone even talked about their carbon footprints.
I converted a relatively new home to net zero and the cost appears to have been less than the numbers given for an Earthship. I live in the middle of the country, and even here, if you are within a city limit it would be a very hard sell to get many of the things show allowed. Net zero is that that hard, and could more easily be done with typical construction. I'm in the process of building a new home, and the plan is for it to also be net zero. This one should be easier since I was able to plan a few things in advance. My location allows me to live without a personal vehicle, but there are many restrictions on the house and even the builder. I like the idea of reused materials, but I'll stick with a location that allows me to ditch a car.
Thanks for sharing!
B Y,
Matt talked several times about “Passive Home” PH standards. If you can build or have built a home as close to PH certification, even if you cannot meet the .06 blower door test, you will far exceed Net Zero standards with very little additional expense. Just eliminating thermal bridging in your structure will do wonders in sizing your HVAC requirements, thus saving expenses big time. It’s just not difficult to spend a little time on the structure to greatly improve it’s performance.
Handeeman! One of my fav channels. Great build channel where he has done a tiny house, work shop, rain water harvesting, ICF home. Always look forward to his videos.
Another top notch production. I think I am still tending toward the desire to build Passive, but I wonder if I can implement some of the water reuse/harvesting functionality of an Earthship...
Hi Matt, I also live in Wester, Ma. I love Earthships, and I looked-in to building one 3-years ago. All of the challenges you listed are exactly what stopped me from building one.
Instead, I built a tiny-house, traditional building techniques, but SUPER energy efficient.
I want to use tires to build a large wall around my property. I can have it be vertical on the outside and more like a hill on the inside. Using modern compactors, it will take a few minutes, not hours per tire. Add a biodegradable lattice to the outside wall to allow vines to grow and put grass up the hill. Just a thought I had 🤷♂️
Sounds great if you have the room. Don't forget to put some kind of french drain at the bottom to channel the rain water away from the house and the wall.
@@y0nd3r I currently have 15 acres, I am trying to acquire an additional 30
@@MasterKnight2K lucky you. Wish we all had that kind of money.
@@y0nd3r I’m not lucky at all
@@MasterKnight2K okay, I'm sitting over here with zero acres but you're not lucky. Right then. Carry on.
I just discovered this channel. I've seen 2 videos so far and I can tell that I am going to get hooked on this content. My impression so far is that these videos are very informative, entertaining, well thought out, and well researched. I believe you are promoting a very positive cause in a world that needs it. Thank you for what you do, friend.
I've been interested in the idea of 3d printed earthships for a while. Since the main component seems to be soil and they are often half-buried it seems like it might be possible to have a vehicle sized 3d printing robot excavate an area to build a sewage system/ garden section and compact the adjacent area into a foundation. Use the remaining rock/clay/sand/plant materials to make a earthen mix that can be extruded out of a long arm printing head to build up walls and even the basic structure of the roof and water collection system. While it is building you could either have a wagon with the other supplies and a second robotic arm or a small group of construction workers placing things like plumbing, electrical, doors, and windows in as the robot prints around them. The tires, cans, and bottles seem kind of unnecessary and mostly decorative. Maybe a time-lapse camera and some other climate measuring equipment could be placed on the lot a year in advance to determine the best design for the home though it would be best to develop a few base models that allow the home owners a good amount of leeway in adjusting for changing climates. Probably tropic, desert, plains, mountain, and tundra that way the program can start with the basic design and tweak the angle of windows, thickness of walls, and a few other variables to fit the more precise location.
We want the cans, tires and things to be used to keep them from just taking space in the dumps.
@@vanderumd11 Isn't encasing them in the dirt of an earthship pretty much the same thing as burring them in a landfill?
@@ApotheosisStone it’s about use of space. The point is you want the thermal mass in an earth ship. Filling random objects into a hole in the ground is wasting valued space. Plus we have to ship this stuff overseas a lot of the times
@@vanderumd11 Adding cans and bottles adds insulation, not thermal mass.
Any construction technique that uses less and produces more is a good deal to me. Big fan of all the sustainable focussed approaches. We have most of the technologies in place, we just start to implement them more.
Imagine actually living in a timeline where I could afford buying a home, let alone building one myself.
just wait a couple of years for supply to catch up after Covid and stop only looking for a home in major costline cities and you wont have a problem.
depending on where you live. Building can be cheaper. Most of the materials are upcycled and free. The Land would be the most expansive part. But if you life in places like germany its impossible, because of regulations.
#crypto
That would be a timeline without stupid building codes. Blame your politicians.
@@DrBernon I mean, some of these building codes are pretty stupid, but others are just to keep the average Joe safe. Like he said in the video, decomposing tires can release toxic fumes into the interior and moisture in the walls can make them brittle and cause mold to grow, whose spores can degrade your lungs if inhaled for a long period of time (like inside a home). There are soo many problems and dangers when building a house that no layman can just do it with junk without creating serious health risks.
My brother is a master carpenter and he build his house basically himself with excavation, walls, floors and roof all done himself. But for everything else, like plumbing, heating, electrical wiring, windows, etc. he still had experts come to do it, because a) he wasn't allowed to do it and thus his house wouldn't have been insured otherwise and b) he knew it would just cause problems down the line if he tried to do it himself and since he's gonna pay for that house for the next 25-35 years, he's not gonna take any risks.
stayed in an earthship for a month and it was amazing! spouse and I are planning to build our own in the future.
The water system is the most interesting part. Rather than in a home can we implement grey water use in a city?
we do not separare greywater from blackwater sadly (where I live at least). But you can use washing hands water to flush, it is very cheap and simple solution.
It's definitely possible, but depends on what local requirements are. In the US it varies state by state. pioneerwatertanksamerica.com/is-it-illegal-to-collect-rainwater-in-your-state/
I supplied the first off grid system for a rammed earth home in Arkansas in 1998. Built from the ground up by an engineer from Texas. Out standing structure. Entire home runs off 1-150 watt solar panel 1- 450 watt wind generator and 8 trojan 105's. Wood heat, generator for ac only which they rarely need to use. Water capture he also designed was 8,000 gallons and the left over fed his pond at the bottom of the hill
I hope someday to build and live in something like an earthship, though heavily modified for the Appalachian mountains.
I hope you get to develop that some day and show us how it's done!
👏👏👏👏👏🙌
This concept is sooooo freaking cool!!
I thought it was cool that in Star Wars Luke's house on Tatooine was underground even-though power seemed easy and cheap.
Interestingly those scenes were shot at a hotel, and the building was designed specifically for that purpose.
I love the internet community. We can talk to people all across the globe share ideas and its AMAZING 😁
Interesting breakdown of the elements of the Earthships, an interesting review!
Earthships seems like a good way just not right to most of the population
Yet, I think that most of the elements should be implemented in modern living , especially in urban building.
Passive building principles for living buildings is possible by using the right materials and planning.
While the rest of the elements - water recycling, sewage treatment, and even small energy generation and storage should be regional infrastructure and maybe even using our sewage to control more of the cooling of the city.
Food production -well at least some of the vegetables can be grown and sold inside each neighborhoods minimizing transportation of goods and by that carbon foot print as those technologies already exits(local production)
Local Neighborhood Farm Co-ops.
Goods or services traded for goods or services.
Like the Amish except with cell phones.
I first heard of earthships when I was in high school, 2003-2005 ish and I was immediately in love! Ever since, Ive wanted to build one, but I also want to live in a city 🥲 reality hit me hard on the feasibility of being able to buy land in a city and build a new house on it. But I would love to incorporate the water reclamation system, greenhouse in the front, and other energy efficiency ideas in an earthship in my current place. Kinda retrofit everything. Hopefully I can save up and do that 😊
I am actually wondering how this fits with the opposite trend of stacking more people in taller buildings, for surface usage. Would something like this fit that trend to some degree?
It would be interesting to see a scaled up multilevel version. I guess it would require more non recycled structural materials though. I like the glass facing wall facing the sun and growth over the rear, if there were a built up area with the same design it could mean everyone would have a view of greenery!
Good question. I haven't seen any examples like that.
From the way it looks, I don't think you can scale it up vertically, not unless you do at the side of a steep hill/mountain. Ofcourse you can use techniques from these eartship houses, just not everything.
@@MDP1702 agreed
I have always been facinated by these Earthship Homes. In fact my final for graduating a votech school with the AAS in CADD I was working towards included a full 3D model design for a project of my choice. This was back in 1998 (if memory serves me correctly) and one of the other teachers in a different program (Computer Programming) wanted an Earthship Home. So that is what I chose for my Final Project. I wish I was able to save all those plans and files, and I never found out when the guy retired if he took what I did to an engineer to actually have it built in New Mexico. But that was my first experience with alternate forms of building materials.
Earthships seem like an electric conversion car. Sure they can be great, but they're expensive, usually have big caveats, and take a lot of work. Compared to mass market EVs that are coming on the road now the converts seem quaint, but cool.
In 150 years we're probably going to look back and cringe that we ever used clean water in our toilets. Assuming we actually survive that long.
One of my favourite things. Is watching a clean stream, or river. Doing, what water, was meant to do.
It can be used as the replacement or melting for ceramics,shoes,wind turbine ,chairs,protect wall ,dish handler,p..Ror PVC ,Iron separated from the rabber used for many thing for making bopt and anding teeth to make new tyre
Please forgive me if I sound overly cynical here, but these are obviously, as you said, not something everyone can use. In fact, they seem like an artsy-fartsy feel good niche hobby for a tiny population of highly interested enthusiasts. We're not going to save money or practice good environmental stewardship on a country or global scale with these.
when did he try to say we would?
disagree. They bring a lot of new inputs and widen the horizon of our society on what is important on life and how living sustainably and off grid can work. They raise awareness and society benefits from this awareness in general
many of this we could (and will) turn into a standard (greywater, solar, passive houses). That will (or at least could) have impact globally.
Especially not stewardship, rainwater collection is illegal in some places.
@@leandersearle5094 really! That seems a bit backwards
What you should talk about next is city design. A city designed not for cars but for people will reduce the number of cars (to be replaced with bikes). This is better for the environment, it even makes driving better as there are much fewer cars on the road. Go see the Not Just Bikes channel. He goes over how intelligent the planning is in the Netherlands... P.S. I too am fascinated with earth ships and will likely never live in one...
Some of the Earthship elements that could be added into a new home build would be the super insulation, possibly by being partially underground. Gaining even some heating and cooling passively due to orientation would be a help in many instances as well as solar and/or wind power for even some electrical needs. Gray water recycling definitely makes sense.
If you could afford to build one earth ships seem to be about perfect for most of rural Kansas, it gets just enough water that it isn't considered to be a dessert, but water is still a scarce resource that needs to be maximized, you are likely to be far enough from your neighbors that utilities can be cost prohibitive, the average temperature is comfortable so the ground temperature will be pleasent, and earthquakes are pretty much not an issue which means you don't need to modify the design to be earthquake tolerant.
I love this concept but unfortunately, collecting rain water is illegal in many states and counties.
That's outdated. Every state now allows you to collect rainwater. Only 13 states have any restrictions. 19 states allow it with no restrictions and 18 encourage people to harvest it.
@@PaleGhost69 Plus most of the states with restrictions simply prohibit you from collecting massive amounts in holding ponds or the like.
PaleGhost is correct ... it's not illegal, but how much and what you can use it for have requirements around them. Here's a full list for the US: pioneerwatertanksamerica.com/is-it-illegal-to-collect-rainwater-in-your-state/
@@UndecidedMF thank you!
I was just thinking about my family homestead in Eastern Washington and how some of these ideas were used in the building of it over 130 years ago. The home had a southern facing sun porch across one side of the home. The northern side of the home was built into the hillside and had a built in root cellar that stayed cool all year long. The entryways to the home all had enclosed porches-airlocks if you want, that reduced the loss of heated or cooled air leaving the house. The vegetable garden was planted within steps of the kitchen for ease of access. And the original kitchen wastewater was piped out to the garden area and allowed to percolate through the soil then into the garden areas. These were all passive ideas to keep the home livable before the days of air conditioning. And saving water was just a standard behavior in arid areas. I am willing to bet that my great grandfather and his family would understand the concepts and ideas used in today’s earthships and support these ideas.
Wouldn't tire rubber rot over time? Seems like those walls have a built-in design flaw right there.
Good point, I'll go rent out a box house here in the states instead for 600 a month with the walls caving in and the nice deposit of mold behind the tub inside the city where thousands of cars run daily and the pavement spans for hundreds miles. Much healthier for my long term health imo.
@@Gone_Away_Again just like the cigarettes and alcohol being fed to us like candy and advertised like a new toy. Not to be that guy but if I was given the optiong to live in one of these i would take it in a heartbeat.
To answer your question:
No. The tires get sealed on both sides and have no exposure to sunlight or oxygen. They’re made from materials not meant to rot away to begin with, and then are sealed up in a tomb with no access to the elements. Earthship homes will outlast all of us, and then some.
I have seen the earthship in Burntisland, Scotland. It is a demonstration of concept rather than a full house, but really fascinating, as the Scottish climate is much greyer and wetter than New Mexico. They adapted the ideas to match, for example the window surfaces are vertical not sloped to cope with the lower sunlight level. They also have the advantage of building in the site of an old watermill, and so converted the millrace into a mini hydroelectrc scheme.
Earthships have a few serious problems. The first one is mold.
sry you mentioned this in video already
👍
Dehumidifier
@@theuglykwan waste of energy, the idea of climate neutral easy house if it got dehumidifier
Biggest issue with these is that they require space and are designed for a relatively stable climate. Still find them fascinating though. I love the 1970s, outdoors-brought-inside design.
One more challenge that limits earthships to a very niche market segment is that you need roads. Where there is a lot of space and few people, it might be possible to build a few earthships, but you need roads to bring the materials in and connect to anything else. Which means that you need cars. So, you need a car house (garage) too, and more solar panels or wind etc. to power the vehicle, ie. more technology. Now, all of that road network is space that is not useful for agriculture (although granted, there's not much of that in a desert) or wildlife, and has a maintenance cost - who pays? This means that earthships are fairly ecologically expensive. If you're going to provide housing for a LOT of people, it's much more eco-friendly to build denser communities in cities. Sadly.
I have fantasies about joining these guys and turning their desert into an oasis. I love the ideas of earthships but I wish they didn't look like they belong on tatooine.
I believe that's part of the appeal.
@@uramalakia Idk I like the cold climate earthship aesthetic better
Some of them really do look like they belong in Star Wars. But it's possible to make them look like pretty much anything you want.
A proper subsurface basement keeps relatively cool during summers and warm during winters. It does cost more as the structure needs protection from water seepage into the walls, extra power to pump out sewage and the cost of excavation to build it in. However, a subsurface living area can also serve other necessary purposes in times like war.
I'm planning on building my next house with SIREwall techniques. Structurally Insulated Rammed Earth. Basically dirt mixed with portland cement. 2 feet thick walls with 4 inches of foam insulation in the middle to provide a thermal break. I've read that they were able to keep houses in Phoenix during the summer at a comfortable temperature by running a swamp cooler for 4 hours a day.
Re: the outgassing of the tires, two things:
1) You’re building with used tires. Most of the outgassing that’s going to happen has already happened by time you’re building with them
2) You seal the tires (on both sides of the wall) to keep oxygen and sunlight out. Any offgassing that could potentially still happen doesn’t, bc the gasses are trapped inside the sealant
HTH!
I have stayed in two earthships at the site outside of Taos. It was incredible how comfortable it was inside when it was below freezing outside. I have not visited in summer, and I have some doubts about how well the cooling tubes work. I know cooling tubes work but the tubes on the earthships are short and I am not sure they would have the needed surface area to cool the air much before the air enters the dwelling. If I ever make it back to Taos in summertime I intend to learn firsthand.
I've always liked the idea of not wasting what we have, reuse and turn for example old cans or bottles into raw materials. Having one of these super efficient houses would be really cool... but im unsure of the viability of it. Cheers to the people who arent afraid of trying it out and doing all the hard work!
I agree with most of your points. However the 50 inches of rainfall comment I thought missed the concept. It is more needed in a low rainfall region as reuse of the water decreases the overall incoming water requirements. Even if you haul in some of your water there would be a reduction in the amount needed. Remember that there is 0.6 gallon of water per square foot per inch of rain, so a 2000 square foot home would yield 1,200 gallons for every inch of rain. Reuse of grey water would be a big benefit to cities as it would not only reduce the water they need to provide, it also reduces the amount of sewage they have to treat. Rainwater collection also reduces the amount of storm water runoff the city has to treat, so some cities are actually starting to make some collection mandatory.
Live in Brazil, building one for myself, a partial design. 3 Acres of woods, will provide me with A LOT of food and building materials, abundant sunlight and 9 months of reliable rain. I recommend that to everyone.
I feel like subscribers of your Channel would already know more about earthships than you put in this video. I enjoy when you put out new technology videos especially dealing with energy storage and generation
I like the idea of kits. In a kit, one gets the materials and plans (video instruction!) to build and install a particular system: gray water recovery, water collection, solar power collection, battery storage, heat exchangers, water heaters, raised gardens, vertical gardens...
I also like the idea of "calculators". A calculator can take information you give it about your home, environment, utility bills, and budget and then recommend a kit that comes closest to meeting your needs. For example, a gardening calculator would take into consideration local weather, sun exposure, and space and then recommend kits that will help you best use available time, space, and resources.
In short, I'd like the knowledge tools that help me make the right choices and the materials and plans to turn those choices into reality - one small project at a time.
I think the best building way is to start with a concrete skeleton because it causes no more harm after it is casted and lives forever. Then for the wrapping, you can choose the walls, insulation and cladding that you want. The added bonus is that concrete is pretty flexible to work with if you want some changes made and could be produced with renewable energy. Besides that the wolf can’t blow it away.
There are videos by someone trained in Taos that was working on humidity issues and building in Florida. I've also seen a retired contractor use bails of shredded tires instead of packing with earth to reduce labor requirements.
I have been intrigued with earthships for years. I like your addressing the cold climate issue and the cost to build. It bothers me that there aren't many outside of the desert as far as I know.
Condensation can be a significant issue. In moister climates, the cool ground can cause moisture to condense on the walls leading to mold/mildew/moisture issues. There are ways to deal with this, installing a dehumidifier or air conditioner being the big obvious one, but that generally brings up a list of additional complications one has to deal with. In fairness, effectively dealing with moisture is a big challenge in all building designs not just earthships.
I think a mixed approach is needed. Take a normal passive house, add a slanted greenhouse or a very large window-wall or set of window walls or sun-rooms and use a dark-colored floor to store heat, and add a lot more insulation on the sides not facing the sun, and maybe use plastic tubes cut in half for landscaping with grey-water and for landscaping plants as leech fields with black water. And all those plants can also be directly ate by animals like chicken or rabbits, whose manure can be used to fertilize the plants intended for human consumption. Also, for very cold places, there are already plenty of cases of houses built inside greenhouses, or houses which had greenhouses build around them, and using concentrated solar (solar troughs, for example, or simply using mirrors to get more sunlight reflected onto the house) can also provide heat and daylight to help with that. Even without mirrors, some greenhouses built in cold regions can make the climate 3 zones warmer, and using concentrated solar heating can probably increase that to 5 zones, at the price of higher costs.
I like the idea, but another way to minimize your footprint is to purchase a country house from an elderly person who can no longer commit to the maintenance. Then you can work slowly to upgrade it to be more energy efficient. That is the strategy that I took and while it does take an initial purchase price; you get the right house and you've got a great base to start with. Thanks for the vidoe, I enjoyed it.
For heating you need insulation here since the ground temperature here is around 65F. Here in mn it was shown you want at least a R2 from any thermal mass to the outside or you will end up increasing the heating load as the cold temperatures cools that thermal mass.
I have loved the Earthship concept ever since I discovered it years ago. I would not do the tire walls, and there would have to be changes to make sure it meets regulations, but I want to build one. Unfortunately, the cost of land and construction is so high right now that it is little more than a pipe dream.
I would like an underground home with design elements brought in from the Earth ship style. They seem to build those just fine without tires.
Been researching this technology for decades and love the whole concept. But, comparing Earthship construction costs with passive energy construction is apples and oranges. The latter doesn't harvest, recycle, store, purify, and irrigate with rainwater, nor produce nutritious foods in a desert.
I've also designed my own pseudo-earthship home, using 20 ft diameter monolithic domes, connected together, with bathrooms and walkthrough storage closet 'tunnels'. Granted, 4 inch thick of concrete isn't environmentally copacetic, but it's only 7 cu yards per dome and can easily be sprayed on as shotcrete, within a few hours per dome, and requiring only a 4 man crew. Hey, I'm an old man. it would kill me to beat a thousand tires full of dirt.
Otherwise, I'll be using 6" diameter geothermal tubing for convection HVAC, plus passive solar heated hydronic PEX tubing in the floor slabs.
Bermed soil provides thermal mass + vegetation provides evaporative cooling on the exterior.
The combined configuration and materials minimizes electrical demand and off grid power equipment.
The entire site will be underlaid with pond liner providing rainwater runoff into a swale and cistern for hydroponic irrigation of a greenhouse, just incase my well ever goes dry from the receding water table in my area.
Thanks for asking. :-)
Great explanation. I too have been fascinated by these homes. I never quite grasped the water reuse process until your video and I feel there is still more to it. Great video as always Matt.
You post this a day after I binged a few documentaries on Earthships and bermed earth houses. I'm glad you covered it.
I find cob houses more charming, but I like the concept of any passive house using natural and recycled materials. You covered the cons a bit better than the other videos. The other films I watch put effort selling the affordability gained from up-cycled materials, so seeing your cost estimate was an eye-opener. It makes sense though considering the labor you mentioned, as well as all the dirt and concrete.
I also watched a video from the guy in Arizona collecting his own water too, so it felt as if you browsed through my history, haha.
Some, or many earth ships don't use any concrete at all. It depends on the area you build, and the speed at which you need to build it as to whether you use concrete or not.
Actually they’ve also demonstrated (via certified state lab testing) zero contamination from growing food plants/trees with black water, not just gray water. The soil organisms and oxygenation from the root systems in the planters purify both gray and black waste sufficiently as long as it is completely contained beneath a couple feet of soil. The septic tank is only required in states that haven’t yet recognized the extraordinary power of the planter system, and most states actually care more about the dangers of gray water. Many Earthships have only used an overflow leach field to direct any excess water in the system to outdoor plants.
Many small towns and cities in Latin America, where I have been many times, live with the environment. They stay cool and warm with very simple methods that have been used in those towns for ages. One simple example is one I saw in Colombia a few months ago and that is almost everywhere in 3-story apartments. An air shaft connects from the first apartment's floor through its roof to the second and third apartment and connects with the third apartment's roof. It allows the hot air to escape through the third floor apartment's roof, sort of like a chimney, while cool air comes in through every apartment window and door. It is basically like an elevator shaft with a garden at the bottom, first floor apartment, and ends in a covered, chimney like roof, so that rain doesn't get in. At the third floor roof, there is often a terrace where you can sit and drink coffee at any time, though some times only the third floor has access to this part. I was in the first floor apartment and while you can hear people talking in the second and sometimes the third floors, the place stayed cool all day long without the need for air conditioning. The only thing I would add to the system would be an air extractor (if that is the name?) like the ones we have on American roofs to circulate the air in attics, since sometimes the breeze dies out. We can also live like that. Let's re-discover our roots and live simpler lives when and where possible.
To me, the aspect of an earth ship that I think we should look at and integrate into our modern homes is: 1) the use of how energy and air circulates in our homes. 2) the water system. Having our water used to it's maximum ability.
I've done research into homes from long ago that use wind towers to cool their homes.
my dad was a huge fan of all these ideas, and Earthships ...since the early 80's he kept loads of books around, visited/helped on builds, and we talked a lot about sustainable ideas before he passed.
the ICF buildings i'm planning utilize earthtubes (10' underground air ducts that absorb the soil's steady-state temp) to feed the ERV (energy recovery ventilation) system with ~62f temp air year-round, instead of only being used for cooling in-conjunction with the stack-effect (as you describe in the vid). this should dramatically increase their efficiency, as the temp delta between the living space & incoming fresh air is minimal. they could also be routed through the exchange half of mini-split heating/cooling systems, giving the heat-pump more temperate air to pull/dissipate heat with (again, higher efficiency).
not aware that either of those have ever been done before, so i'm pretty excited to test the concepts.
There is a school in California. A central core is the library. Surrounding that irate classrooms. Out side dart is piled up against reinforced concrete walls which make up the structure of the school. Each room has an exterior door, glass mostly. Skylights provide daylight in room and the library. This school has existed
One thing worth mentioning is that kitchen sink water should actually be treated as black water. Bathroom sinks and the rest are fine but the oil, grease and food scrap build up from a kitchen sink can greatly complicate a grey water system.
Bill Lishman “fly away home” built an earth ship home in the attic circle sometime in the 60’s. His Earth Integrated home is amazing!
Adopting an earth-ship plan as a community garden to provide local produce during the winter would be interesting to see adopted into a city architecture plan. It would be a great research spot to see what effects VOC's from tires in the walls to absorb heat have on the plants and graywater. It would be something that may provide new filtration systems for water or food for expecting mothers and prevent birth defects, still births, or developmental problems.
Matt. I used to build these with him in the early 1990s. You shoukd take a week and go rent one of the rental units in Taos in the "greater world" community. I remeber the day he bought the 1000acres. He boughtvus all dinner and said he was cash poor but land rich! You should stay in one. There is no more calming sleep you will get. Its like an isolation chamber. Your superinsulated active home can not compare to the experience. My wife and i stay in one a few years ago on a cross country vacation. I love you channel and i am a Cleantech Invement Banker (not as sexy as it sounds). Saying you wouldnt want one before you actually spend a nightbor two is....well lets just say i HAD to comment. I love you channel. Not sure you will ever see this. There are many in Canada. The tires cannot breakdown....they are completely sealed with dirt. The materials in your hypersealed home probably offgass or breakdown more than any used bald tire sealed behind inches of dirt and plaster. Many are ugly AF, but the ones for rent in Taos at the greater world are very good looking.
Bad typos, sorry. On my phone.