Earthships are incredible, innovative homes that are completely off the grid. They are environmentally friendly, producing their own electricity, harvesting rainwater, and they even have their own sewage systems! They are completely self-sustainable homes that are extremely environmentally friendly. If everyone lived in an earthship, pollution and deforestation would be much less of a problem. Now, what’s so great about earthships?
How are earthships built? Earthships are built using recycled material and waste that can be found anywhere, like soda cans. Vehicle tires provide insulation, while glass bottles act as tinted windows. Earthships are also almost fireproof, since that risk of wildfires burning your home still exists. Concrete is used to stick cans together to form walls, and the tires are covered in stucco or adobe.
What are some of the functions of an earthship? Earthships don’t use central heating or air-conditioning. Instead, the eco-friendly homes generate their electricity with solar panels, which can provide electricity for 30 years, helping to stop global warming. Earthships also use wind energy, and with both energy sources combined, it has enough to charge batteries that keep the homes running. Rainwater, on the other hand, is harvested by falling on the roof and running through filters, it is then fed into the building by gravity. Water is used four times in earthships, for washing, bathing, laundry, and is then given to the plants. Earthships are heated by the sun’s rays, which they position the building very carefully to catch just at the right angle to heat up the house through the tire insulation.
Earthship communities. The architect Michael Reynolds created Earthships in the 1970s. On this day in age, there is a whole community of earthships in Taos, New Mexico called The Greater World Community. It’s the first ever earthship community, and it has over 70 homes, some of them even rentable on Airbnb! This community also has a school for students and self-guided tours of the amazing eco-friendly society. Earthships really are some of the coolest homes out there.
Diya V. 4/16/2021
