Louis Smith

Awesome reply dude. Keep us updated when your house starts to be built. On the point of the windows....I always thought that no roof overhang with the angled windows would be a problem with water damage, never thought of the plants having more space to grow vertically though that's a good point. The verticle window portion would also be a lot easier to construct. I like the idea of hempcrete but honestly don't totally trust any construction product that isn't adopted by the mainstream already though. I remember working for a contractor years ago and having him tell people that the plastic pipe for hot water we were installing would never leak unless it was right away. Once it was installed it would last forever. Years later it has been found to corrode pretty rapidly for residential water use, nevermind the in floor heating application we used it for. My timeframe is kindof up in the air....I am moving for sure in the next few years, but I may rent for a while. Definitely within 5 years.

I had the same exact idea. I was going to have the cob for aesthetics while avoiding most of it's problems. I was even thinking of having another material below the cob walls that's more resilient to water in case of a leak and just running traditional walls in the bathroom and by the kitchen. In Ontario too so I don't trust cob walls at all without a exterior insulation and traditional wall on the exterior

So I was thinking of making a eartship but instead of tire walls I would just use hempcrete or concrete. Also instead of the whirlybirds or a skylight you can open, i would use some fans to draw out air from the earth tubes and out of the greenhouse area.  HRV would be a must as the eartship seems to have no winter ventilation. Does anyone know of anyone else who has modernized some aspects of the eartship design? I am planning on using a biogas kit(like homebiogas) for cooking and use a lehmens washer and a drying closet but some of the recycling methods just seem way to labor intensive and I'm concerned about the risk of leaks when it comes to the earthships massive skylights and poor air quality in the winter. The eartship off grid aspect is interesting and I too may be offgrid, but I'd like to use less naturalgas/propane if possible by avoiding using a gas oven or gas clothes dryers althought I may use a gas water heater with a solar pv direct heating element because of practicality. Feedback or examples of people who have modified the earthship would be appreciated. I've only seen the Collingwood earthship upgrade the standard designs by using whirlybirds and a HRV.