Hello is anyone on this forum live in an earthship and if so tell what it is like living in one is it simpler than a normal house or not. Thanks
An earthship is a house built out of old tires rammed with dirt as a foundation, grows all of the needs of food, water collection system, solar panels, efficient design built to use nature so it uses no heating or cooling, so basically very self sustainable. Here is a link for more info and pics http://earthship.com/ also buy (download) go to a torrent search site and type in earthship it has 3 books read them in order they explain it all.
I am a bit leary of using old tires for anything after an experience I had using tires in the garden. I had once heard of growing potatoes in old tires and as the potato vine grows more soil is added until the tire is filled and then continue adding tires and soil until the vine is as high as you want. Mine was filled 3 tires high and the vines grew amazingly. At the end of the summer at harvest the tires were stuffed with potatoes but there were all miss shaped and odd looking. I consulted with a gardening buddy and he advised against eating the potatoes as he claims the tires are full of chemicals and contaminants picked up from the road and would have been absorbed by the potatoes and the soil. The concept of using old tires for shelter is interesting and the website looks like it has some valuable information to sift through and it's a perfect solution for old tires that no longer serve a purpose. I am interested to hear what others think of using old tires and whether or not there is any valid study of contaminants coming out of old used tires.
Well most chemicals on tires are worn off after they are used and timber HAS A LOT of chemicals in his books I think it says there is enough chromium on a 2x4 with 8 foot length to kill 25 people. Also it really wouldn't make a difference since you are not drinking or growing anything with them. Also using old tires is upcycling and uses a lot less energy to upcycle than to recycle and most tires aren't recycled either so its a win for you and the environment. Most places will give you free tires from what I read so it is cheaper than buying a shit load of plywood and building a house than to make some earth rammed tires. And if there is chemicals they would be more likely to runoff in a tire place than in an area where there is no air or sunlight. His books are very usefully and teach you how and why it works and why normal houses are basically retarded.
You can eat things grown in tires. They'll look different, seeing how you're using a small space to grow something. Just look at the difference of the yields between a container gardening and a "normal" garden. Potatoes grown in containers look much smaller than potatoes grown in the ground. Besides, treated wood is damn near toxic. don't know too much about Earthships. I've seen a few that were a LOT of work, but the people seemed pretty happy with their choice. They had to learn to re adjust and do things much different, but they felt pretty intimate with their homes.
I lived in NM for a while and have been inside quite a few earthships. They are excellent structures and are incredibly efficient. I wouldn't mind living in one myself. However... ramming tires is a TON of work, too much for one or two people... I'm currently trying to figure out another alternative that's more suited to a solo building project...
Here is a good set of videos for easier tire compacting https://www.youtube.com/user/TirewallCorp#p/u hope this helps. Thanks for the review of the earthship.
the guy who invented them was a friend of my teachers in their college days. just a fun-fact. but anyhow I think they are cool and have thought about living in one before .. but thats about it.
I lived in NM for awhile as well, and went into a couple earthships, and had a couple friends who lived in them for some time. I think they're pretty nifty indeed, look amazing and once they're built they seem pretty low maintenance. Building them is quite a chore, but the organization in Taos helps you train a crew for any earthship projects (there are quite a few propping up around the globe - and allot of the technology involved is being tailored to different climates) - in some cases they can even send a crew from the original colony to help you out. Its always been a pipe-dream of mine to start an earthship colony and guesthouse/hostel somewhere in Asia (I believe someone built a single house in India, other than that I'm not sure there are any in Asia, but could be wrong). Anybody got a beautiful plot of land in Asia, and start-up cash?
