there's a lot of focus on getting solar panels for your home or buying an ev to go net zero and save money in the long run but that's only one piece of a much larger puzzle finding ways to reduce our energy use and live more sustainably is just as important like building a net zero or passive home or using smart technologies to optimize how and when things inside your home actually use energy i've done several videos on various aspects of these concepts already but just like the passivhaus standard there's another building technique that doesn't get as much attention now while i don't personally see myself building or living in an earthship which sounds like something that should be traveling the galaxy i find myself endlessly fascinated by the approach and how some of these principles can apply back to more traditional mainstream approaches now in the construction sector sustainable buildings like past homes and green buildings are getting traction and are important solution for a low-carbon future combined with renewables evs and battery storage now these homes naturally reduce carbon emissions from heating and cooling which is a very good thing especially when you consider that heating and cooling accounts for NUMBER_TOKEN of the total energy used in the u.s even though green buildings and passive house designs have a positive impact for the most part they still rely on the electrical grid and public utilities which depending on where you live isn't as reliable as it should be but what about an approach that could pull together energy efficiency upcycled materials and even food production and cooling from the earth itself combined with off-grid living and potentially do it for less money than something like a passivhaus enter earthships now built with eco-home building materials earthships offer comfortable energy efficient and cozy living spaces without relying on public utilities i've been drawn to solar power and battery storage in my grid tied system to try to reduce my depends on the grid but not to cut it out altogether now this on the other hand takes this thing to a whole nother level it all started in the NUMBER_TOKENs in new mexico with the architect michael reynolds he proposed the inclusion of bioecological features like beer cans old tires and bottles into his designs which was very curious at the time and even today airships can be boiled down to six basic design principles the first is building with natural and repurposed materials some of these materials are available in abundance worldwide in the us for example about NUMBER_TOKEN million tires were scrapped in NUMBER_TOKEN that's just one year now most of that is chopped up and burned recycled into other products or burned in landfills but there are millions of tires stockpiled every single year so you can get some of them for very cheap or sometimes for free and when they're used in earthship construction old tires are used as bricks they're filled with earth that's pounded to create very strong exterior walls and load-bearing interior walls they have a much higher thermal mass than traditional construction a study by the colorado school of mines showed an r-value of NUMBER_TOKEN for a tire bale wall that's three times as much insulation as a standard four inch stud wall other materials such as cans and bottles are optional but they can be used as a main material to construct interior walls which are then plastered the second principle is thermal solar heating and cooling earth ships naturally heat and cool themselves so they don't require electric heat fossil fuels or wood but that depends on where you live which i'll get
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