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source: Earthship Biotechture

I happened to walk in today and catch a spot on the Weather Channel on a company called Earthship Biotechture.  It immediately caught my attention so I went online to find out more about it.  What follows is from the company's Web site.

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.

The Earthship is a completely independent globally oriented dwelling unit made from materials that are indigenous to the entire planet and designed to reduce our impact on the planet and increase our connection to it.

Photo Credit: Earthship.net

The Earthship utilizes recycled and low embodied energy materials, passive solar heating and cooling, photovoltaic power system, catchwater, solar hot water, gray water and black water treatment systems.

They offer consultation services for answering any questions you may have regarding your site, whether or how Earthships would work in your climate, code questions, how to get started, plan or systems recommendations, retrofit questions, detail questions, etc.

Earthship Systems

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. Earthships do not pollute underground water aquifers.

Water is caught from the roof. The roof must be a potable surface. From the roof, the water is channeled through silt catches into cisterns. Cisterns are sized to the local climate and are best buried and completely protected from the sun. The cisterns gravity feed a Water Organizing Module with a pump and filter. The pump pushes the water into a pressure tank to supply code required water pressure. The filters clean the water for consumption and cleaning.

Use & Re-use

Water is used in a conventional way such as bathing or washing dishes, except for the toilet. The water is used and cleaned a second time in interior botanical cells. The flush toilet is the third use of the water. After the toilet, the water is contained and treated, and used a fourth time in exterior botanical cells.

Hot Water

Water is heated with the sun and natural gas. The sun heats the water and the natural gas water-heater only turns on if the water is not hot enough. This is called "gas-on-demand" water heating.

The path of water in an Earthship:

• Water is caught from roof catchment systems and channeled via silt catches into cisterns.
• Cisterns gravity feed a DC pump and filter panels (WOM).
• A Pump and filter panel (WOM) pushes water into a pressure tank and conventional household water pressure is the result.
• The Toilet is separated from drainage system of all other household plumbing fixtures.
• Water is used in a conventional way such as bathing or washing dishes.
• Next, this water is then drained into linear biologically developed interior greywater treatment and containment systems.

We live in a time when many parts of our planet are experiencing water shortages. The volume of water on this planet is finite while human population increases. As we gauge the depletion of our aquifers and the increase in population, we are able to predict serious water shortages in the near future.

We must begin now... learning to harvest water in each individual home. We must use this water many times before putting it back into the earth. When we do put it back, it must be in a form that works with existing nurturing forces and phenomena of the earth.

To further compound the water problem on this planet, we have polluted and contaminated most of our easily accessible surface waters and are beginning to contaminate the more difficult to access aquifers beneath the surface of the our planet. This contamination happens because of the way conventional sewage systems operate.

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.

Getting Electricity

Electrical energy is "harvested" from the sun and the wind. Photovoltaic panels convert the sun's energy into DC current electricity and is stored in "golf-cart" type batteries. An Earthship Power Organizing Module draws the electricity from the batteries, inverts some of it for AC electricity and supplies it to the home. The POM can accept electricity from a gasoline generator, intertie with the city energy grid, etc.

Use

Washing machines, computers, kitchen appliances, print machines, vacuums, etc. can be used normally. No electricity is required for heating & cooling.

We advise small, medium or large pre-packaged power systems. Customization of power systems can be an expensive up front cost. Pre-Packaged Earthship Power Systems for your home can be shipped globally.

Power Organizing Module (POM)

A self contained organizer and distributor of electricity. It is available as a user friendly factory assembled unit that is simply screwed on your wall, your local electrician conventionally wires your house to this unit. It takes the custom design and unlimited expense out of renewable energy residential electrical systems.

Why the POM?

Your electrician wires your house absolutely conventionally to code as if it were connected to the grid. The electrician wires the house to conventional circuit breaker panels that are built into the POM. The POM concept is cheaper overall, easier to install and presents more proven reliability than any custom assemblage of solar components you can find and have installed. It is revolutionary in design, function and organization of solar/wind energy for household or business use.

There are many components, gadgets and aspects involved in receiving energy from the sun and wind and getting it to your electrical appliances. Currently these components are purchased individually by you or your power technician and custom designed and assembled for your specific situation. This is very expensive and the result is your very own one of a kind solar electrical system. Since it is one of a kind, it is very possible that is will have glitches, bugs and unforeseen design faults in addition to being very expensive.

The Power Organizing Module (POM) is not one of a kind. They are mass produced and used over and over again in a variety of climatic situation. Glitches, bugs and custom design faults have long since been evolved out. Since the POM has been used all over the USA, we know what various code require. These aspects and components are built into the POM. Since it is mass produced in the factory, it is very economical and efficient. The POM leaves your local electrician with nothing to do that involves solar/wind energy designs.

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.

The concept used for containment, treatment and distribution of sewage-water is based on and draws information from the wetlands concept which has long been used in exterior applications for thousands of years by humans and nature.

The Earthship sewage system differs from the wetlands approach in that it primarily treats the greywater inside the building and the sewage from the toilet outside of the building, both in smaller areas. Greywater is the used water after all receptacles except the toilet.

All household sewage is used & reused in the interior and exterior planters, called botanical cells.

Use & Re-use

Water is used to carry away our household sewage in a conventional way such as bathing, washing dishes and for the toilet. The sewage-water, also called greywater, is used and cleaned for a second time in interior botanical cells. The flush toilet is the third use of the water. After the toilet, the water is contained and treated, and used a fourth time in exterior botanical cells.

Interior Botanical Cell

The Earthship greywater system has been researched and developed by Earthship Biotecture for over 20 years. This system allows for the need of far less water than is conventionally assumed.

Exterior Botanical Cell

The effort to contain the outdoor system rather than letting it leach into the earth is much more realistic and manageable because of its lower volume. It should also be noted that one or many more contained cells can be added to the outdoor system if necessary. This simply adds to the controlled landscaping of the home.

The objective is to eliminate the need for public sewage systems and un-contained septic systems that pollute the earth, while getting multiple uses out of all water collected in the catchwater systems.

For the purpose of satisfying convention, the Earthship Sewage system is set up (via valving) to flow entirely into the conventional septic tank and on to a conventional leach-field. The Earthship water system is not, therefore, in place of but in addition to convention.

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.

Different climates around the world require different designs for the home to interact with these two sources of temperature.
The outer few feet of the earth heat up and cool off in response to surface weather. However, deeper in the earth, about four feet and beyond, the temperature is more constant (around 58 degrees). Here, the earth can be used to both cool and stabilize temperature if the home is appropriately designed.

Earthships are thermal mass homes first, passive solar homes second. Therefore, the layout and design of the Earthship can be completely customized to look like any conventional home, and still be sustainable.
The "generic" earthship designs are what works the best, both in terms of economics and energy efficiency.
Because of the way Earthships interact with the sun and the earth, little to no fossil fuels are required to maintain a comfortable, stable temperature in any climate.

Warmth

If you want heat, you admit the sun. The sun heats the mass, the mass stores the heat and the insulation won't let it escape. The more mass, the more storage capacity. When there is no sun, the heat stored in the mass radiates into the space, for heat travels to the cooler direction.

Coolness

If you want coolness, you admit the cooler earth temperature and block the sun. The cool mass of the earth connects with the mass of the shelter, is absorbed into the shelter mass and leaks into the living space. This is like hooking a big battery (the earth) up to a smaller battery (the shelter). The thermal mass of both the earth and shelter is a storage battery for temperature.

Insulation & Thermal Mass

In recent years humans have recognized the fact that insulation can help keep temperature in a shelter. Insulation, however, neither collects nor stores temperature. It simply blocks the passage of temperature from inside to out and visa versa.

Good insulation has millions of tiny air spaces. The presence of air spaces tends to slow up the movement of temperature by causing it to pass from air space to air space as opposed to moving easily through unobstructed dense mass.

Dense mass both collects and stores temperature like a jar holds marbles. Examples of dense mass are stone, water, compacted earth, or concrete. There is a major difference between mass and insulation and this difference is not very clearly understood. Dense means no voids or air spaces. The more dense the mass the more temperature it holds. This density actually acts as a conduit for temperature.

The people made shelter by assembling pieces one at a time. They put pieces together around themselves not upon themselves Soon they had created shelter around themselves They were in shelter The people also found happiness by manifesting it piece at a time They manifest happiness all around themselves not for themselves Soon they had created happiness all around themselves They were in happiness Both shelter and happiness can be achieved by focusing outside of self.

For more information on how Earthship Biotechture can help you build a sustainable home contact:

Earthship Biotecture / PO Box 1041 / Taos, NM 87571
505-751-0462 (questions) 1-(800)-841-9249 (store) 02079934859 (europe)
biotecture@earthship.org / www.earthship.org