I have been interested in Earthships for quite some years now and I am constantly amazed at how people are taking the basic idea and running with it, to greater heights. The original idea of creating homes that sustain the occupants through clever, integrated design using recycled materials, passive solar design, rainwater catchment, greywater reuse,renewable energy and blackwater processing.... all in one.
You may have heard me talk about Earthships or Sustainable housing in previous posts. I owe my hands on learning to @eco-alex who both introduced me to his own home construction and incidentally, Steemit! Another Earthship expert I recommend you checking out is @nature-jon who hails from the UK and is active in the building community, offering his skills and experience to those wanting help in the eco building world.
@eco-alex has a nice post showing his home and some of the features of Earthships that make them Super appealing.
10 Reasons Why EarthShips Are Totally Awesome!
But as much as I like how far the ideas have come and how popular they are becoming around the world. I still feel like more could be done to make these homes EVEN MORE self sufficient. Check out this new project based on the same Principles as Biotecture.
Lifehaus Promotional Video
After helping with an Earthship build in Bali, Indonesia, the enthusiasm and urge to build was redirected to a project of their own in their home country.
There is an article you can read too:
Amazing low-cost, off-grid Lifehaus homes are made from recycled materials
I also liked what adjustments were made to this house:
Foxhole Homes Tour
Duuvy, an Aussie on the East Coast of 'Stralya is one of the people working on helping get Earthships built and is trying to improve on them by integrating innovative materials, like Hempcrete.
Australia's First Earthship - Part 1
So my main gripes/suggestions regarding Earthships, as they stand so far:
-Too much concrete, but makes sense in many applications. However, cob, adobe, hempcrete etc could be made more commonplace or encouraged as a first choice if materials, time and skill allow.
- Make composting toilets normal. Mike Reynolds himself admits the black water could be eliminated altogether and lots of water saved, but in order to get past the palate of most Westerners, he figured changing bathroom habits would be too much for most people. I don't think it matters much now. People know Earthships are great and living in one shows that you don't care too much about being normal vs being happy. Taking control of one more Waste cycle would seem to be a natural extension of this idea evolving anyway.
-Biogas digesters SHOULD BE MANDATORY. So we live off grid, no water bill, no power bill we just need to go to town once or twice a year to get a bottle of Dino farts for my super eco home. Burn your compost's farts instead. Here are 3 designs from Auto Awesome Just-buy-it to a sleek DIY, to a big Jeezly thing you can make in most countries and could be added to the side or integrated INTO the design of a house, just like the Cisterns.
HomeBiogas - Turn Your Waste into Energy
https://homebiogas.com/
Solar CITIES IBC Biogas System Tutorial Complete
Compact Biogas Plant
-Bedini Motors to make better use of the power coming in through renewables. Also supercapacitors or more eco friendly energy storage options should be explored. Edison's battery is still worthy of mention and worth investigating. I won't explain Bedini here, but here are some interesting batteries you can get now:
http://www.maxwell.com/
Though I also wrote this: https://steemit.com/science/@ecoknowme/need-science-people
which might be applicable too.
Lastly, Greywater. Botanical Cells are great but what I liked about the Lifehaus was the immediate use of greywater for the WHOLE landscape, this seems like a good way to integrate better with the surrounding environment, but Botanical cells for Blackwater coming out of a Septic Tank, is an absolute must. However, you don't need an Earthship to appreciate this cool Grey water innovation I came across that utilizes the help of worms to process solids, nutrify the water and make the system flow better. Check it out:
Permaculture Tip of the Day - Gravity Fed "Dark" Gray Water System
I could go into Bioremediation or Living Machines, but I think that is enough for now. Anything you would like to add?
How can we make best use of the available ideas and technologies and put them together to make something better and New?
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