Earth Ships?
 

http://www.earthship.net/images/es/b...ew_rianbow.jpg

Earthship Biotecture creates buildings that...

*heat and cool themselves naturally via solar/thermal dynamics
*collect their own power from the sun and wind
*harvest their own water from rain and snow melt
*contain and treat their own sewage on site
*produce food in significant quantities
*utilize materials that are byproducts of modern society like cans, bottles and tires

www.earthship.org

what do you guys think of these plans? i'm more a city guy so reading about survivalist methods and strategy is quite foreign to me.

do you think this is a good option for someone like myself?

Re: Earth Ships?
 

WOW those look pretty awesome.:applause_

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they're actually not too pricey either. depending on where its built, its quite comparable to a regular house and in the long run will probably pay itself off, although i am uncertain about the quality and difficulty or ease in maintenance.

Re: Earth Ships?
 

This is a great find!!! Thanks for posting this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9jdIm7grCY

Edit...Pt.2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlrhx...elated&search=


*** It's funny how the narrator sounds like Bush.

Re: Earth Ships?
 

Check this out...

http://garbagewarrior.com/About.htm

Re: Earth Ships?
 

jeezus, those two videos explained in eleven minutes what took me three hours to read and comprehend. lol.

Re: Earth Ships?
 

See what $3.3 million will get you these days.

https://dennisweaver.com/earthshipforsale.html

Re: Earth Ships?
 

I'd like to see how Earthship integrates their heating / cooling, insulating and waterproofing technologies in a hot humid hurricane prone area like Florida. Don't get me wrong, I really like those stucco and straw and tire and soda can desert homes, but what good would a cooling tube be in the southeast? Or heavy rains on glass windows aimed at the sky.

I don't know, but I'd guess there are going to be some unexpected design flaws. Like the expansion and contraction rates of such different and unusual materials.

It might be fun to find out, though, with the possibility of some expensive lessons.

Re: Earth Ships?
 

Well I have only been researching this for a few hours, but one of the major success stories of this guy was his rebuilding in the south-east Asia tsunami disaster zone. I think that is about as hot and humid as it gets. :D

Re: Earth Ships?
 

I guess what I'm looking for are good solid passive alternative solutions to A/C. I'm under the impression that cooling tubes don't work here in Fl. Too much humidity. If I'm wrong about that I wish somebody would show me otherwise. I hate these forced air air conditioners and heat pumps.

Also, the geodesic domes that Bucky Fuller came up with, leak like teen girls watching a chick flick, and sweat like the boys they're on a date with.:D That's been my experience with them anyway. Just a tad skeptical, I am.

Re: Earth Ships?
 

Business of the future boys.

Get in while the gettins good.

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Ok. That was damn funny...:D

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What about...

ants, termites, and other critters?

Re: Earth Ships?
 

I guess the link is down
www.earthship.org

Re: Earth Ships?
 

For what is being offered, 3.3 is a steal. Most of the cost is about LOCATION, but and doesn't come cheap either.

Ten Thousand Square Feet! Picture a 100' X 100' building. That thing is a one-of-a-kind mansion. Most Earthships are considerably more modest.

OTOH, just think how much ammo and wheat you could store there! :D

Re: Earth Ships?
 

:emotions16: I live in CO and have seen the Weaver estate (from afar). It is truly an awesome area, and the house is incredible. It's been on the market for at least 5 years that I know of, so no takers at 3.3 mil. If the lotto ever came in, I'm there!

Re: Earth Ships?
 

I don't think that hay bale construction has much longterm viability in FL. That's ok though because plenty of perfectly good materials like concrete, cement, brick and others do just fine down here.

Cooling tubes do work in Florida. In my travels I've encounter a few old brick buildings from the 1800's that used them. They aren't as good as AC but they're better than nothing. As far as humidity goes, that's life down here. I'm experimenting with air wells right now and I could see using the cooling tube as part of an air well system. Traditional buildings in FL were built with high ceilings and a large coupala with big windows. The hot air rises, pulls fresh air in from outside. Tubes can make it a little better. Humidity can be a real problem in buildings that just aren't built for our climate. The ramshackle hut I currently live in would be perfectly unbearable in the summer without air conditioning just because it is poorly built for this area, gets soggy real quick. On the other hand an old cracker house or chickee is survivable.

If you have the space and funds for it you could run an experiment, lay some pvc pipe and run it to your shed or something. Measure the average temp over several days with the tubes running and without.

I think stirling coolers have much more promise though. I'd like to get ahold of one of the Coleman stirling ice boxes, rip out of the electric motor and throw on a pulley and see if I couldn't find a way to get it to cool a room.

On that note I was recently reading about hand cranked ice makers that were used in the 19th century. They used a principle of evaporating water and sulphuric acid under a vacuum, I'm a little fuzzy on how all that works but it'd turn out a 1.25lbs block of ice for 20 minutes of cranking. Seems to me you could do much the same with a converted Coleman unit, hook it up to an exercise bike, savonius wind turbine or similar and be able to keep food and drinks cold even through a nasty hurricane. I would have loved to have one a few years ago when I was cut off from electricity and civilization by flooding and wind dammage for a couple weeks. The Coleman unit has a capacity of something around a cubic foot as I recall.

Re: Earth Ships?
 

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Cradle to Cradle - William McDonough and Michael Braungart