Transcript Earthships

Earthships
http://www.earthship.org/learn/garbage-warrior.php
• Earthships have evolved over the last thirty years from
the pioneering work of Michael Reynolds and the
residents of the 3 Earthship communities in Taos, New
Mexico.
Earthships are autonomous buildings designed to reduce
our impact on the planet and increase our connection to
it by:
• Using the suns energy and the thermal mass of
their walls for heating and cooling
• Generating their own electricity from the sun
• Harvesting their own water from rain
• Dealing directly with their own waste
• Using discarded tyres and other wastes for wall
construction
• Using materials with low embodied carbon
• Being buildable by most people at relatively low
cost
Shot over three years in the USA, India and Mexico, Garbage Warrior is a featurelength documentary film by Oliver Hodge telling the epic story of maverick architect
Michael Reynolds, his crew of renegade house builders from New Mexico, and
their fight to introduce radically different ways of living. A snapshot of contemporary
geo-politics and an inspirational tale of triumph over bureaucracy, Garbage Warrior
is above all an intimate portrait of an extraordinary individual and his dream of
changing the world.
• ‘We need to evolve
self-sufficient living
units that are their
own systems.
• These units must
energise themselves,
heat and cool themselves,
grow food and deal with
their own waste.
• We are now in
need of EARTHSHIPS
- independent vessels
- to sail on the seas
of tomorrow’
Mike Reynolds
Earthship Creator
Taos, New Mexico
• http://www.earthship.org/learn/garbage-warrior.php
Definitions
• Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of
natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass
construction for temperature stabilization. 3.
renewable energy & integrated water systems
make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to
no utility bills.
• Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing
buildings and environments with consideration
for their sustainability. 2. A combination of
biology and architecture
• Earthship Biotecture, based in Taos, NM,
USA is a global company offering proven,
totally sustainable designs, construction
drawings & details, products, educational
materials, lectures / presentations,
consultation & guidance toward getting
people in sustainable housing. From single
family to colony / community / city
complexes.
• June 8-10
July 27-29
August 24-26
September 28-30
•
Water: Earthships catch water from the sky (rain & snow
melt) and uses it four times. Water is heated from the
sun and/or natural gas. Earthships can have city water
as backup.
• Electricity: Earthships produce their own electricity with
a prepackaged photovoltaic / wind power system. This
energy is stored in batteries and supplied to your
electrical outlets. Earthships can have multiple sources
of power, all automated, including grid-intertie.
• Sewage: Earthships contain use and reuse all
household sewage in indoor and outdoor treatment cells
resulting in food production and landscaping with no
pollution of aquifers. Toilets flush with greywater that
does not smell.
• Comfort: Earthships maintain comfortable temperatures
in any climate. The planet Earth is a thermally stabilizing
mass that delivers temperature without wire or pipes.
The sun is a nuclear power plant that also delivers
without wires or pipes.
Your first consideration is the site. Your site should face south to take advantage of
the sun. You must also consider the climate of your area.
This house is being build in
Hawaii where there is a great
deal of humidity and the lava
rock rich soil also holds
moisture.
In order to make the house as
termite proof as possible, wh
have pounded a stem wall to
receive the greenhouse frame
in the front of the hut.
In this image you can see an
individual pounding the dirt
into the side of the tire. The
process takes somewhere
around 15 minutes to half an
hour per tire.
The number of tires necessary
for the building depends on the
size of the building and whether
or you are building it partially
into a hill or not.
When you are finished with a
tire you start the next tire by
placing it next to the first one
and then packing it full the
same way. The tires are laid
like bricks.
2 Days of Work and the Structure is Half Up.
A metal dome goes on top of
the tires. It is covered with
chicken wire. After the
chicken wire has been tied in
place then the structure is
covered with burlap bags
that have been run through a
cement mixer with cement.
They are applied like paper
machete. This is then
coated with plaster.
Insulation will go between the
dome and the frame ceiling.
A Skylight is Being Installed in the Top.
Note the Gutter that is being built our of a can
wall. It will catch rain water and direct it to a
cistern for other uses.
Operable vent windows located on the
front face and operable skylights at the
back of the room are opened allowing
natural ventilation. To increase
ventilation, the number of vent windows
can be increased, and the height of the
skylight box can be raised to create a
stronger draw. This natural ventilation
system ensures that indoor air is healthy.
The second main building component in an
Earthship is the aluminum cans. The cans are
used to build the internal, non-structural walls.
• People often ask if you need to drink a lot of beer to build
an Earthship. The answer is no but it sure helps.
• A can wall is layered with cans and then concrete and
then another layer of cans. You can also see how the
tabs of the cans all point to the outside. This is done
whenever possible due to the tab acting as a lathe for
the adobe plaster to hold onto.
The guttering could have been constructed out of
plastic water bottles, etc. It will have cement coating it
and then plaster/stucco.
Tar Paper is being placed on decking of the
greenhouse which attaches to the front of the
structure.
Window Frames for the Green House
• The Earthship Greenhouse is the one of the greatest
things about the Earthship. It allows the home to remain
warm all winter long. Our house has not gotten below 60
degrees for the past two winters even though the outside
temperature has been as low as -5 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bottles are cut in half and then two are taped together to form
bottle bricks. They are then laid in rows and cemented together. It
is important to use “two-fingers” of cement in order to have
strength to the wall. Bottles work like stained glass windows and
allow light in.
• This is the master bathroom. The bathtub in the
background is shaped to fit your body which is
real nice.
•
This is our Kitchen and living U. It is the biggest U in the house at 18' X 26'.
The kitchen cabinetry is made out of Aspen and the cabinet doors are made
out of Cedar wood. In the background you can see the stove pipe for our
wood burning stove. We had to put some type of backup heat in so that we
met the building codes. We only need to use the wood stove a couple of
times per year and that is more for ambience than heating. The refrigerator
on the right side is the worlds most efficient, a Sun Frost. It uses DC power
so that it can work off of the (solar powered) batteries directly and not the
inverter.
• This picture is
our planter box
where we can
grow our
veggies year
round.
These buildings produce their own electricity with a prepackaged photovoltaic
power system. This power unit is a pre-designed, pre-built "components"called
the Power Organizing Module (POM). It can be installed and hooked up to by
any electrician. Pre-designing reduces the need for specialists, therefore
lowering the cost. The basic POM unit works with 120 Watt solar panels which
can be pole mounted or attached to the front of building. The 8 volt - 6 B/220
Amp. 2.5 K or 4K inverter can be expanded to 8 or more 120W panels and 1620 batteries. The Earthship power system can be expanded to accommodate
larger families and can be supplemented with wind turbines where applicable.
All built-in lighting is 12V DC using super-efficient light bulbs. The pumps for
the water system are 12V DC, and the most power consumptive appliance, the
refrigerator, is a super insulated 12V upright or chest type fridge. The oven is
gas because an electric oven is a burden to a photovoltaic system. With the
power inverter, most other conventional appliances and tools can be used on
this system.
The buildings collect their own water from a
unique metal roof, silt catch and cistern
system and treat their own sewage through
greenhouse technology that allows
contained flush toilets.
Like the "designed down“ power system, the
water system in this building reduces the
overall water requirements of its inhabitants.
Data and calculations that determine how
much water a conventional home uses
should not be used in determining how much
water the occupants will need because this
building will use each gallon of water four
times.
Catch water systems elicit low water
consumption and go hand-in-hand with gray
water and black water treatment systems
that cleanse and reuse water.
• The structure is designed with a coated
roof and gutter system that transports rain
and snow melt to the ends of the building
passing through a funnel which filters large
debris and directs the water into two
cisterns.
• These cisterns have the capacity to store
5,000 gallons of water each (more cistern
storage may be added as necessary). The
cisterns are buried in the earth barmy
maintaining stable temperature and away
from sunlight therefore reducing the
growth of algae.
Pumps
• Water caught on the roof and stored in the
cistern flows with gravity pressure to the
water organizing module (WOM). The
WOM is pre-designed component
consisting of four filters (one for drinking
water), a 12V pump and pressure gauge.
As the water passes through this unit it is
filtered and pumped to a pressure tank for
household use. From there it is distributed
as cold water to the kitchen and bathroom.
Solar Hot Water
• Water is passively heated in a solar water
heater mounted on the roof. This unit
works in conjunction with an on-demand
gas heater which only uses gas when the
water from the solar heater drops below a
certain temperature. The hot water is then
distributed accordingly.
Grey Water
• The gray water
treatment planter is a
lined, contained indoor
planter that receives the
once-used water from
sinks, tubs and washing
machines. This water
passes through a grease
and particle filter to
remove large debris so
as not to clog up the
treatment system.
• After this filter, the water is taken through a
long pathway of pit run pumice to create
natural cleaning similar to a mountain
stream running and tumbling through
rocks and gravel. Also, a certain type of
bacteria actually houses itself in the
"caverns"of the pumice. This bacteria
attacks the bacteria in the gray water. This
pathway of pumice is placed in the bottom
of a planter designed to hold water.
• The planter is designed with baffles to create the
longest possible travel distance through the
pumice. Above the pumice, the planter is filled
with sand and topsoil to accommodate the
plants. The plant roots bring oxygen down into
the water. This combination of travel through
pumice and oxygenation by plant roots cleanses
the water to the point where it looks and smells
clean. It is not clean enough to drink, but it is
clean enough to be used for growing plants both
inside and out, as well as to flush your toilet.
• Another function of these containment and
treatment planters is that the plant roots will suck
up a large part of the water. This is called
transpiration. The planter is designed to allow
maximum travel of the water, and at the same
time provide enough plants to absorb most of
the water. The more "jungle", the more water will
be absorbed by the plants. Twenty square feet of
planter per plumbing fixture is recommended as
a minimum size.
Grey Water Toilet
• At the end of the planter, the treated gray
water is stored and ready to be used to
flush the toilet, eliminating the need to use
fresh drinking water to flush the toilet. The
toilet is the third use of the water. After the
toilet is flushed, this "black water" sewage
is sent out to the outdoor contained black
water treatment system.
Solar Septic System
• The black water leaves the building and
passes through the solar septic tank which
accelerates the anaerobic process by
heating the waste with solar energy. The
solids break down and are later washed
through with the liquid waste. The liquid
waste then enters the fully lined bed and
travels through layers of gravel, pumice,
soil and roots where it is absorbed by
plants and cleaned.
Foods can be grown year round, decreasing your purchasing needs.
It is naturally water on the exterior of the home through the solar
septic system.
This is called a "Castle Earthship" and is
the more basic of three new plans. A
more advanced plan includes a two
story jungle greenhouse.
Dennis Weaver’s Earthship
...a one-of-a kind, energy efficient, luxury home featured on Lifestyles of the
Rich and Famous, Home and Garden TV, the Discovery Channel, and PBS. Its
10,000 sq. ft. have been custom designed, handcrafted and furnished in
Southwestern elegance, with incredible decorative detail.
20 Acres and Earthship in Ridgeway,
Colorado.
Earthship Biotecture Internship
Program
• The Earthship Internship program is open to
anyone with an interest in sustainability and a
willingness to work hard. People of all ages and
backgrounds are encouraged to apply.
• Interns work full time on Earthship construction
sites learning building concepts and techniques
through hands-on experience.
• We will offer 6 internship sessions and will
accept up to 6 interns per session. Each session
will last for one month. Internships are unpaid
positions.
• Upon completion of the session, interns will
either attend or receive a certificate to attend a
three-day long Earthship Seminar.