Effectivness
Earthships are homes completely made of recycled material, and everything serves a purpose, without
looking butt ugly. These simple structures can help almost anybody in almost every way such as having
food, water, looks, bills, heating, cooling, etc. These structures grow food all year round, and if you
are a meat eater then you can always start something like a chicken coup to provide your protein. The
only problems with growing food all year long is that you have to consider how what plants will thrive
most, and the soil type, and plants are supposed to die over the winter, so keeping them alive year round
may prevent them from producing food and growing. But if you use your resources right you will save
grocery money and gas money because you didn’t have to drive to the grocery store.
Earthships also use rainwater as its source of water. Meaning you don’t have to pay for water bills. Now,
you probably already acknowledged the fact the fact that it doesn’t always rain, and you’ve probably
asked how the house has a sustainable source of water. There is a pretty simple system built into the
house that really uses water in a way that it can last a good while. Basically rain falls and is collected into
a container. When you need the water is needed, it’ll leave the container and pass through a filter, so it
can serve as your drinking water and water to wash your hands with. The water you used to wash your
hands is called ‘grey water’ and some of this water goes to the plants that produce your vegetables. The
rest of the water goes through a filter and eventually becomes your toilet water. That water, after it
is used, is called ‘black water’ and it is used to water the plants that don’t produce food. So this whole
system not only saves you money, but serves so many other purposes as well.
Time/Cost to Make
Another perk about living in earthships are the costs and time it takes to make it. I read that it took a
couple 3 months to build a 3 story tall earthship. These people had no extra help, used no power tools,
and had no experience in construction its just that simple. And the cost of it can be affordable for most
people. The simplest style of the earthships cost as low as $7,000, while the more extravagant styles
cost up to $70,000 plus. These house are very simple using things like used tires, bottles, wood, etc.
These materials are extremely easy to find. There are bottles laying all over in the streets and there are
junk yards full of tires. There no reason for all of that to be lying around, so we might as well use our trash.
Comforts of Living
If someone did decide to live in an earthship, they wouldn’t have to give up a whole lot of comfort. They
could still use their computer and tv’s. Earthships have solar panels and wind turbines op provide its
power, which makes your energy free. But it also makes your energy limited because it is not always
sunny and it isn’t always windy meaning that you have to be smart about the way you use your energy.
With earthships you don’t even have to pay for heating because like I said the earthships keep
a comfortable temperature all the time. But this is not an automatic system. The comfortable
temperature during the warm seasons depends on which way you have your windows facing. But the
heating still has a little problem. In order to keep the home warm, you obviously have to have your
windows closed. The comfortable temperature during the warm seasons depend on the circulation of air
throughout the house, closing the windows keep that air from moving. Fresh air does not come through
the house during the cold seasons because your windows are closed. But through it all, I still think it is
worth it.
Earthships In Baltimore
Many people in Baltimore City struggle to pay for food, electric bills, heating bills, water bills, and even
for the home itself. Setting up earthships in the city could help people with a lot of expenses and other
aspects of life. People saving money could possibly lead to people having a easier time getting on their
feet and go living a better life. Depending on how much money the earthships save people, inner city
people wouldn’t have to sell drugs and could focus more on school because they can afford it now.
The city is the home to a large population meaning that a normal earthship being built in the city would
take up to much space. But there is no more space so to the solution would be to build the houses
upward instead of wider. Basically there would be multiple people in one tall building. This idea seems
like something that could possibly solve the space problem, but it creates more problems. Electricity
is one of the problems. To supply electricity for all those people there would have to many more solar
panels and wind turbines. There would also be food problems. Because the population is so heavy,
growing your vegetables won’t be enough for all people. In order to make a earthship work for a large
group of people, you’ll have to put things on a much larger scale.
Summary
Overall Earthships are extremely beneficial to the environment without being an inconvenience to you. It is something easy to make and solves some of the worlds waste problems without costing you everything you have all at the same time. Obviously I think earthships are an amazing invention, probably one of the best in a long time, and I see no reason not to use them.
