Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Earthships are a wonderful concept but they are not for everyone or for everywhere. Something to note about heating/cooling and earth temps that was noted early in the video. If the ground temp in the area is 55 degrees on average and you have any humidity in the home (unavoidable due to breating, cooking and bathing not to mention the plants and grey water planters) there could be issues with moisture and mold problems. The earth ship might be appropriate to desert climates but I don't think I would want one quite like that in a humid climate.

In general, underground, homes would do better with insulation unless the inhabitants are comfortable living at the ground temperature. In the far past, living in a space at 55 degrees was probably comfortable to people who other wise might have been sleeping in a much colder space. Now days we are used to our comfort and would probably want to keep the air warmer but if the walls and floor are at 55 F and the air is at 68 F what do you suppose will happen to the moiture in the air? It will condense on those cooler surfaces and likely cause mold problems. If the house was insulated and in the ground, it might loose a little of the benefit of the larger thermal mass but a thermal mass that is not perfectly within the comfort zone, is not quite as beneficial as some may think.

Here are some other ideas that might not be quite like the earthships but have some of the advantages without a few of the disadvantages though both might be tricky to get past council.
http://www.thinshell.tclynx.com/
http://static.monolithic.com/
http://cloudhidden.org/

Insulated Thinshell concrete construction is very strong (disaster resistant.) Trees, trucks, bullets, fires, tornado, snow, hurricane, earthquake, etc, no problem. And even better, they are very energy efficient for heating/cooling. The concrete thermal mass in inside the insulated envelope will help keep the temperature stable. Basically, once it has cooled down or warmed up to the comfort zone, it will tend to stay there without much extra input.

Thinshell is not like earthship in that most people won't have the equipment/knowlege to build one themselves. Once built though, they can last a long time.

you have lost me , or me you more like !!

sceeming of ways to get the idea of an earth ship, made with tyres rammed with earth, past the building inspectors approvial.

To build up here is at a huge price for a strandard styled house, but these sort of dwellings look cyclone proof, everything proof really, and i like 'em

Excellent TCL thanks, now I totally get it. Humidity here can get to 100 % . will be doing some research into it, thanks again

I love your thinshell concept TCL now you just need to make time for the project and don't forget the pix. Keep the dream alive!
Sleepe - thanks for the garbage warrior.

when we actually get to a placed we can build, I will be documenting over on the Monolithic Forum where there is lots of info and threads from other people who have built this way.

Figure I could have a look at that forum being in the trade and all
Thanks for the heads up!