Earthship New Zealand

Although Earthships focus on harnessing natural sources of passive energy for heating and electricity, they still utilise other energy sources for cooking, so I like to keep an eye out for suitable companion stoves for an Earthship from time to time.

I’ve got to say I love watching this video about the utility value of a wood-fired/biomass cast-iron stove.  I love their “cleverness”.  They are pieces of art and engineering, evolved over time (and not just in a R&D lab).  I also love watching a craftsman talk about their work in a way only they can.  One stove; one local & renewable source of energy; so many benefits.

http://www.homewoodstoves.co.nz/

Mike Reynolds has often suggested that the cost per square foot for an Earthship is about the same as the local cost for a conventional home of similar size.  Where Earthships have reduced costs for most of the main building materials, by using waste products, they typically invest more upfront in the services for the home (Rainwater harvesting and PV solar generation capabilities etc) hence the costs balance out. 

HOWEVER you need to look at the total cost of ownership for an Earthship and remember that once it is up and running there are arguably no utility bills and an anecdotal US$100 per year on gas for cooking fuel (and even that can be reduced to zero!).  Of course it goes without saying that just looking at the bottom line costs of housing and things like GDP, got us here in the first place.  With an Earthship the cradle to cradle view of understanding the ‘costs’ of this home is better known and better off in the short and long term.

BRANZ (Building Research Association of New Zealand) recently published some “Average Build Costs” for New Zealand.

In this presentation Steve Bright will be outlining the basic principles of Earthship buildings, their pros and cons, and answering any questions that he can. Depending on interest, practical workshops may be held later.

Earthship buildings were developed over the last thirty years or so by American architect Mike Reynolds to reduce the costs of building new houses, the running costs and the ongoing environmental costs. He coined the phrase ‛biotecture’ for his ideas and designs for buildings that work in harmony with the Earth’s natural systems and used what he describes as ‛the new natural resource’ ‒ old car tires ‒ as the basic building block.

Steve Bright is an engineer by trade. In 2003 he built an Earthship with the Low Carbon Network (Brighton) and Mike and his team. At present he is helping a local person design, and hopefully later build, their own ‛Earthship-style’ building.

Thursday 12 August, 7 – 9pm 

This is an excellent walk through of an Earthship built by Earthship Biotecture in Miles City, Montana.  It is very representative of the standard Earthship layout that has evolved over recent years (almost identical to the Earthship in Ger, France).  It is also valuable in showing you what kind of noise the WOM (Water Organising Module) produces.  It’s encased in a box and some Earthships have also used insultation to limit the noise. 

The cool thing is that here in New Zealand I have seen a very affordable, waterproof (IP56) filtering system that can be sited outside of the house, reducing the noice pollution in house.  I hope to include a review of the product sometime soon (along with a review of a NZ made rainwater harvesting system).

This is a cool short video by Second Year AUT students interviewing Brian and Karen Gubb.  Although its design is a unique interpretation of Michael Reynolds original and its still being finished off on the inside; its a great testament to the fact that “it can be done!”

Well done the Gubbs!