Earthship New Zealand

Harnessing the concept of reusing waste materials, this ocean going yacht built from plastic bottles, will utilise all manner of Environmentally Sustainable Technology to navigate its way from San Francisco to Sydney.

The website itself is very impressive and well worth checking out.

Just a pity its not coming to New Zealand…

Check out the website: The Plastiki Expedition.

Florida Shipping Container Home

Read the full article: Cheap, strong and cool | HeraldTribune.com | Sarasota Florida | Southwest Florida’s Information Leader.

Earthship Biotecture have posted an interesting article on empirical evidence of an Earthship behaving in a fire.  Back in 1996 an incomplete Earthship was ravaged by a forest fire which levelled all the surrounding conventionally built homes.

There’s an interesting description as to what happened to the rammed earth tyre walls.  Check it out: Earthship Biotecture – An Earthship goes through the Hondo Fire!.

Ecobob.co.nz have written an interesting short article on recycled building material.  Of course no such article would be complete without reference to Earthships (and a plug for this website – thank you!!).

Another interesting part of the article mentioned work out of the University of Nottingham, where they are producing a ‘Bitublock’ out of recycled glass, metal slag, sewage sludge, incinerator ash, and pulverised fuel ash from power stations.

According to Dr Forth, this eco-friendly ‘Bitublock’ consists of up to 100 per cent recycled materials, and uses less energy to manufacture than a concrete block. It’s about six times as strong, which makes it a high-performance product. Dr Forth hopes the Bitublock will completely replace energy-intensive concrete as a structural material.

It sounds great but of course in the three R’s, “Reuse” comes before “Recycle” and its an advantage to be able to reuse a waste material without having to re-process it through another energy cycle.   This is where the reuse of waste tyres, bottles and shipping containers for building construction offer a clear advantage (not to mention preventing someone from intervening in the process by repackaging materials and making ‘green’ money out of it).

Check out the full article at: Rubbish good for building your house – Ecobob Forums .

Check out this Earthship which has been around since at least 1996.  You can see from the pictures that this Earthship is high up in the Rockies and exposed to high extremes of weather.  My favourite picture is where the snow is up to the windows!

Check out: Fun Climbs Around The World » Our Summit county earthship, over the years.

Many thanks to those who contacted us advising that the Forum wasn’t performing.  You’re right and we have taken it down until we can find a better solution for our needs.

This short film shows some of the alternative building materials and designs an Ohio couple have experiemented with on their farm over the last ten years.

For more information go to: http://www.bluerockstation.com/

Chris and Sandra are a couple living with their children in Darfield, British Colombia.

“We are a family of five living in Darfield, BC.

Our house is six hundred square feet in total and we are feeling cramped.

We have decided to build an earthship!

So starts the adventure …”

A great blog chronicling their Earthship adventure.  Also be sure to check out their house plans via their blog Building an Earthship in Darfield, BC.

Follow this link to check out Golden Bay Hideaway.

This is Lawrence McIntyre’s “Little Greenie” recently awarded the highest energy rating of any house in NZ.  Its fantastic to see a great array of local materials and products used, combined with the latest technology from Europe and afar.

Its a great run through of the build process – enjoy!

Rob

Annually $41 should provide heat and hot water to New Zealand’s highest-rated energy efficient home.

Add LED lights, extra insulation and a modest size, and total electricity bills should be about $20 a month.

Owner Lawrence McIntyre hopes people will visit the house, his “little greenie”, and see they could build one themselves.

“The difference between insulating a house the way I have and the way another house is, is probably only $3000 to $4000 and the insulation value is more than double,” he said.

High quality double-glazed windows stop heat escaping, along with wool insulation and a polystyrene break to stop the concrete floor touching the ground. Sun-warmed air is directed into the walls for storage and to release heat.

The Energy Rating Authority worked out it would cost less than $50 for hot water and to heat the house to about 20C all year. The need for heating was about 85 per cent lower than an average new house, and about 97 per cent lower than an uninsulated house.

Mr McIntyre said the extra features would more than pay for themselves over their lifetime. “Really we need to move away from this [idea we should have a] pay-back period of five or seven years because the health benefits [of warm houses] … are huge.”

For more information, go to goldenbayhideaway.co.nz and eeca.govt.nz

via ‘Little greenie’ runs heating on $41 a year – Life & Style – NZ Herald News.