Eco Friendly Homes - Earthship Style

I decided to write a hub on what I think would make the perfect eco friendly homes. While taking note of the main features that such a home should possess, namely water, waste and energy management with a little food and energy production thrown in, I discovered that the perfect homes are already being built. This is not an idea for the future but for today. The man behind these functional masterpieces is Michael Reynolds and he calles his designs earthships. The basis of the design has remained constant but Mr. Reynolds has continued to refine, over a thirty year timespan, his building techniques, resource utilization techniques and aesthetics. I'll present a subsection of each main feature and urge you to pick up one of the books mentioned below for further study. This concept is fantastic and more of us need to embrace the ideas. While we aren't likely to move into a home built of tires and pop cans we can consider ways to conserve and re-use water and grow a bit of food in our own environments.

Each home can come equiped with both solar and wind power generators. A modern battery system combined with very efficient lighting can thrive off the energy created by the solar panels. The key point in regards to energy is that the homes consume very little. This is another example of some elements that can be learned and adapted to suburban living. The way these eco friendly homes utilise sun energy via direct heat through glass as well as solar energy collection means that no energy needs being consumed to warm the place. We only need to fill the batteries with energy collected from small windmills along with the solar panels to run the appliances and lighting.

If you've turned on the news or read a couple books this year then you should be quite aware that one of, if not number one, the biggest threats to the prosperity of our civilizations will be the miss-use of our one and only water supply. Too many people have been taking for granted for too long. Earthships have a very nice method of using one resource three times over. In most communities rainwater is ignored, left to seep into the ground or funnel into the sewer system where it quickly goes from a near pristine state to something that even rats shouldn't be drinking. In the earthship design rainwater is captured on the rooftops and diverted into holding tanks (cisterns). The cisterns are typically built underground as a means of slowing down evaporation. The rainwater is then heated and used for showering and washing clothes. Used shower water doesn't disappear down the sewer like at my place but put into the grey water system which feeds an indoor garden and fills up the toilet. The toilet water, rebranded as blackwater, heads into a local septic system then into a vegetation stattion not far from the home. That is what I call getting good use from a resource.

The homes are built into the ground so that half of the building can take advantage of the earth's stable temperature. Once you are a few feet underground the earth temperature always stays near 58 degrees. In the hot summer months this is more than enough to keep the place cool as the cool air is wicked through the underground walls back into the home. The second segment of the climate system is the intelligent way glass is used. Of course it takes advantage of the south side but it is also placed at such an angle that the low winter sun will shine brightly through the glass helping to heat the home while the high summer sun will only cast a shadow inside. With the help of high end window shades the home temperature can be maintained at 72 degrees all year long without the need of any energy. Of course most climates have brief cold snaps or heat waves, to be prepared for this a backup system can be implemented that will use energy stored from solar panels to provide a little relief though it is almost never required.

As previously mentioned the grey water is re-used within the home to water some planting areas. These can be used for decorative or strictly oxygen producing plants but should be considered for edible plants and herbs. The concepts in earthships are all geared towards consuming less products. If we can grow a certain portion of our everyday food needs that eases to stress on global food production. Right now it is such a small fraction that it is meaningless but if we all incorporated some of these ideas it could have a significant impact. Some food can also be produced on site at the water fields created with the waste management system. There is nothing like grabbing some fresh herbs from your own garden to compliment a meal.

Earthships do not need to be plugged into a city sewage system as they use a modern septic system that works in conjunction with natural vegetation to locally clean the water supply. Clean water ends up being deposited back into the water table. Like all the systems aboard an earthship the waste water is managed very efficiently.

All of these ideas add up to one heck of terrific living space but they would never gain traction is they were not very comfortable to live in. After a few rough designs the newer plans have evolved and are now simply stunning. You would never know you were in such an efficient home. As can be seen in some of the images provided these are gorgeous, comfortable homes that you can be quite proud to live in. Take a look at the videos as well. These are stunning - I can't wait to own my own. Congratulations Mr. Reynolds and here's hoping we all, if not live in one someday, incorporate the design elements into our own homes.