Michael Reynolds discovered how Nature store heat energy and had experimented it over decades in real housing applications. When I read his clean explanation about thermal mass, it instantly made everything so clearly how to build off-grid house. Enough amount of material which has good thermal characteristics, i.e. soil or natural rock, works as heat energy storage. Reynolds suggests at 4 ft to 5 ft depth from the ground, the average temperature is between 25 to 27 Celsius degrees year round.
The described method of making entry doors is both simple and allows a novice to build a door that will outlast most store bought wooden doors, and allows for elegant detailing of the woodwork without former carpentry experience. I especially enjoyed where he describes running his kitchen sink water to an indoor planter where he placed a two dollar philodendron which grew to the size of a tree with flowers and fruit pods he’s never seen on other such plants, and it being so healthy that bugs left it totally alone.
John A
Self-sufficient, off-grid housing with food, natural heating/cooling & water catchment.
I bought this book when I was introduced to these ideas through a video documentary on earthships by mike reynolds that I checked out from the library called “Garbage Warrior.” I love many of the ideas of earthships, including using waste tires for something constructive, building my own house, having food-growing considerations included, heating/cooling using solar and earth, and water-catching and purifying all built into the structure.
The Earthship Biotecture store offsets the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the shipping of your order.
The Earthship Store uses industry models to determine the amount of CO2 that is released into the atmosphere for each shipment. We then pay that amount per shipment to offset those emissions.
The funds are used to purchase carbon credits, which offset your emissions through deforestation protection projects.