Earthships are houses made with discarded tires, bottles, and cans, put together with lots of dirt. Many of them are self-sufficient, creating their own energy, and capturing their own rain-water. Since they’re made from reused/free materials, and supply their own electricity, heating, and water, they help conserve natural resources while also saving chunks of money. I’m down for anything that helps the environment AND saves me some dinero.

But I digress. I now present to you, courtesy of Earthship.net, “Earthships 101”.

Earthships 101: Part One:

Earthships 101: Part Deux

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Dang I want one.

Amory Lovins, who won a MacArthur Genius grant back in 1993 (and an Eco-Hero Award just right now), has been living in a house he built since 1983. It looks like a very nice and comfy house, especially when you consider that, despite living 7,000 feet up in the Rocky Mountains (where it gets pretty dang cold), he pays $0 a year on his heating. Not only that, but his house actually generates more electricity than he needs — so he sells the surplus energy to the power company for some extra cash. Here are three ways to cut your electric bill like crazy.

CLICK HERE TO SEE AN INFORMATIVE YET FUN YET NEAT VIDEO OF HIS HOUSE

Insulate, Insulate, Insulate

His secret (one of them) is that he designed his house to be very well insulated. His walls are 16 inches thick, and his large super-insulated windows (made with special glass that insulates as well as 14 normal panes of glass) mean that his house can retain heat quite well.

Passive and Active Solar Heating

Lovins’ house is heated in two main ways: both from sun-rays passing through his many windows, or by means of Amory’s solar panels, which supply his house with more energy than it even uses.

Energy-Efficient Appliances

Much of Lovins’ house is naturally lit by the sun. Besides that, motion-detector lights and energy-efficient bulbs help to cut down on electricity use. His fridge is thickly-insulated, which reduces its energy consumption by quite a lot. His dryer is solar powered, and looks like it uses no electricity at all (watch the video to see how).

Amory Lovins’ home took some extra thought to design and build. It also cost a little bit extra ($6,000). But by cutting his power bill to zero, the extra planning and money spent were easily worth it. If more and more contractors start building this way, you could kiss our “oil prices” and “energy crisis” problems good-bye.

Thankee to Sam for telling me about this homey

There’s a new craze that’s sweeping the nation. Tiny houses. Many of them even smaller than this converted bus. Instead of living in a big, energy-consuming, resource-using McMansion, some people have chosen to live in small houses of about 100 square feet. It might sound crazy, but after looking at pictures and video of them, a tiny house doesn’t sound too bad.

Martin House-To-Go has finished their 2008 tiny house model, and they call it Fresh Start. At $29,900, it only costs as much as a nice car, but offers all the modern comforts of home. Their tiny house includes these following features:

• 11′ high ceilings!
• solid bamboo floors!
• no toxic, gas-emitting materials used in construction

Anyhoo, it’s worth taking a look at their galleries. Marvelous, they are.

Moving on, we find Jay Shafer of Tumbleweed. He’s been building (and living in) tiny homes since 1997. Most of his tiny houses are about 100 square feet. He claims that the reason he started living in small houses is because he hates sweeping and vacuuming big houses. Also, since they use less natural resources (both in construction and in upkeep). Without further ado, I present Jay Shafer’s guided tour of his tiny house:

One day I might have to take the plunge and live in a mini-house. They look cool, are cheap, and are environmentally responsible. What more could ye ask for?Thanks to Tiff for telling me about this here thing.

Last spring, two of my friends went to work building a bicycle generator. They slaved away on it for literally a couple days, but eventually it was ready to be tested. Me and Tiff stopped by for this special occasion; Thanh and Billy had hooked up the bike generator to a lamp. All we needed was a volunteer to ride the electrical monstrosity. After a moment of trepidation, I bravely stepped forward to offer my bike pedaling services, and as night fell in the thriving metropolis of Raleigh, I began pedaling…


Amazingly, it did not explode in a deadly shower of sparks. It worked. We had invented… ELECTRICITY. As that realization hit us, Captain Planet flew into the room, and everybody high-fived. It was awesome.Update: WRAL is going to put this on the news. The bad news is that we have to put the bike generator back together, as it’s been through some mess since last May.

Do you love camping, but hate sleeping on the ground? Do you envy the lives of acorns and pinecones, getting to hang from a tree all day? Well have I got an invention for you.

It’s called the Tree Tent. Designed by Dutch sculptor Dré Wapenaar, the Tree Tent is a 13-foot tall ball that you hang from a tree. Its hardwood floor and round mattress lend an air of dignity to the zaniness of the Tree Tent.

Luckily, it only costs $50,000 to buy yourself one. At that price, I think I’d rather just hang a bag on a tree and crawl inside, but if I was super-rich, I might be tempted to get me one of these. If your bank vault is getting full, you can buy a Tree Tent here.

Wow, this seems like such a great way to reuse plastic bottles. Risha Sowa, an Englishman (and official EcoJoes Eco Hero), moved to Mexico back in the ’90s and built his own private island using around 250,000 plastic bottles and sand from local beaches. He had his own solar cooker, composting toilet, and lots of pets running around. Unfortunately, Spiral Island was beached during a hurricane, but Sowa is now building a new and improved version. Here’s a video of the original Spiral Island:

Bonus Fun Fact: The host of that video is none other than good ol’ Dave Lister (Craig Charles) from Red Dwarf, a great show if I do say so myself.For more information on Rishi’s past and present islands, I heartily suggest you check out his website: Spiral Islanders.

Way up on the ninth floor in a Manhattan apartment, there is a family living off of the power grid. With only a single solar panel providing all their power (for a laptop and a light), the Beavans’ apartment is quiet and calm. A wooden compost bin sits in the kitchen, full of vegetable peels, fruit cores, and worms. When you look around their house, you might be surprised to find no toilet paper, shampoo, or bottles of toiletries. You might think they’re weird if you haven’t met them, but Colin Beavan, his wife Michelle, and their young daughter Isabella are, in many ways, the typical American family.

“The concept is that we should have no net environmental impact, which is, of course, technically not feasible”, says Colin. “So the idea is that we would reduce our negative impact and increase our positive impact.”

And reduce it they have. Ecozoic Not only by cutting off their electricity (not even the fridge is turned on!), but other ways as well. Instead of using disposable coffee cups every day, Colin takes along his faithful glass jar to the nearest coffee shop. They buy food at the nearby farmers’ market almost daily (due to not using the refrigerator). They’ve got rid of lots of harmful, caustic cleaners, and now rely on baking soda, borax, and vinegar to keep things spiffy and clean. They have even sworn off of all carbon-producing transport, now walking or biking to school and work.

Although Michelle says there are times she regrets her family’s decision to turn so green, she did say there have been cheap nba jerseys some unexpected benefits. “In essence, the project has really slowed down time, which is pretty amazing considering how fast time has become, and especially with us living in New York – you come home to a quiet, soothing cocoon.”

One thing I still don’t understand is how they don’t use toilet paper. When asked what they used instead, Colin answered, “What I’ll tell you, is this: There are many places all over the world that wholesale jerseys China don’t use toilet paper.” So it’s still a mystery to me. Maybe a bidet? I don’t know.

A sort of counter-intuitive thing is that most people in New York City Quote (and other big cities) already have a smaller impact than the rest of the population. New Yorkers, on average, use services that emit about a third of the carbon per person as most of the rest of the country. This is mainly due to the economies of scale.

Anyhoo, Colin Beavan is behind the upcoming film “No Impact Man”, which should be out in early 2009. It’s about his and his family’s life during Hello their one year as super low impact city dwellers. There will also be a cheap jerseys book by the same name (published in an eco-friendly way). I plan on checking it out once it hits the stores.