Earthship Systems: Composting Toilets, Wetlands & Rain Harvesting, Oh My!

Losing what's left of his sanity...

This past weekend, Zac has been submerged in the nitty gritty, ridiculously cool details that are to be our future home.  He has been working with a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certified Architect, Alice, (more on her in future posts) to get our drawings in shape to submit to the county. We have been assured as that as long as we get these in by the early part of this month, we should be good to go.  Let's just say that if we had to go back in time, we would have contacted Alice sooner as she has been able to help us whip our drawings into shape in no time flat!  Zac took off work on Friday and ended up spending all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday working on them; clocking in approximately 36 hours in front of the computer screen toiling away!

Anyhow, because we have been discussing the various aspects of our future home endlessly with one another, I thought I would exhaust the topic a bit further and share with you how cool our future home is to be!  One of the biggest pros of living in an Earthship is that it takes care of those who reside

Chaos puked on our coffee table...

in it; creating most if not all of its own utilities.  Unlike conventional homes, every aspect of the dwelling is designed so that the owner gets to capitalize on the natural resources that are free to us all to reduce consumption of resources that are quickly dwindling and harming the environment.  Such resources harvested and utilized include sunlight, rainwater and the principle of thermal mass.  So, without further ado, here are some of the features of our future home that we are drooling over... please keep in mind that I am not a "technical" person but will do my best to explain each feature to the best of my ability without appearing a total fool in the process:

• Climate Control-  Many people have asked us, "How are you going to stay warm when it gets cold and stay cool when it gets hot?!"  Here are a multitude of ways we will stay warm in frigid weather and cool in the hot, sticky months:
• Thermal Mass- The load bearing, earth-rammed tire walls on the North, East and West walls all serve several functions.  They hold up the roof of course, but they also soak up the heat from the sun during the day and hold it within and slowly release it through the evening hours when sunlight is no longer available.  This principle helps to naturally control the climate within the home year-round.  
• Berm- The North portion of the home is also bermed-covered in copious amounts of dirt- which allows us to take advantage of the earth's stable temperature; again, naturally helping us to control the climate of our home.  We have designed the roof of our house to block out the harsh summer sun and will use the earth's cool, stable temperature to maintain a refreshing indoor climate in hot months.  It is said that earthship homes will stay around 58 degrees year-round without further assistance due to the earth's stable temperature.
• Radiant floor heating- Underneath the floors of our home, we will have an organized network of water-heated tubes that will radiate heat from the ground which will allow our toesies to remain cozy!  This type of heating is said to be more efficient than standard forced-air systems which blow air out that quickly cools and then falls to the floor. 
• South-facing windows- The entire front of our home will be covered in windows that will work to passively control the climate of our home year-round.  In the cold months we will be reaping the benefits of the low-hanging Winter sun as it works to heat up the thermal mass of our home (i.e. dirt and tires) and provides us with natural lighting to boot!  In the summertime, the sun is higher in the sky and thus, the roof is designed to shield the home from getting too hot during that time of the year while still allowing tons of natural light to flood in.  
• Wood Cook-Stove-  We will be utilizing a wood cook stove to cook many of our meals (especially in the cooler months) and will enjoy the warmth it radiates as well!  We are planning on using our toaster oven for baking, warming, toasting, etc. in warmer months or when we want a quick meal. 

  

  Picture courtesy of Annie Warmke's Blog on Mother Earth News' site

• Rocket Stove Bench- In our dining room area, we will be building a rocket stove that will help keep us cozy in a variety of ways.  As explained in an article on examiner.com titled Rocket Mass Heater: Possibly the most efficient heater in the world, "a rocket stove heater is extremely efficient... [and is] comprised of a place to put some wood, a very small amount is all it takes, a combustion chamber, a small exhaust, the duct work from the chamber through the thermal unit and the thermal unit."  In our case, the thermal unit will be the constructed cobb bench that we can also curl up on during the cool months; reading a book and sipping a warm cup of coffee!  
• Rain Harvesting-  Why pay for water from a utility company when you can get it for free from the sky?!  We have purchased three 1,700 gallon cisterns to allow us to store a total of 5,100 gallons of harvested rainwater from our metal roof. The cisterns will be buried in the berm of our home; keeping them from freezing throughout the cold months and keeping them cool in the hot months.  We will have filters in place so that the water will be filtered for bathing and cleaning prior to it being deposited into cisterns.  When used for drinking water, it will be filtered once more to ensure that it is safe to consume.  One tremendous aspect of harvesting rainwater is that you don't have to be concerned with the use of various chemicals in having treated the water prior to consuming it.  You have more overall control over what you consume and know exactly where it comes from.  If concerned about the potability of the water harvested, it can always be subjected to water testing at various points to assure that it is safe to drink.
• Wetlands- We are currently working with the Greene County Combined Health District to obtain the information needed to apply for a variance to utilize wetlands to treat our graywater.  Graywater is considered used water that is unsuitable for drinking.  Thus, any water that is used for showering, washing hands, doing laundry, etc. is considered graywater and will be run outside into our constructed wetlands to be used to irrigate our landscape and be filtered naturally.  Here is some detailed information published by the EPA in October 2012 on treating graywater via constructed wetlands: Graywater Treatment Using Constructed Wetlands.
• Composting Toilets- I know, I know... this is the point where we lose a lot of people.  This is another area that we are working with the health department on as we plan on applying for the necessary variances to be able to lawfully utilize composting toilets in our dwelling.  We have been told that some changes in local laws are in the works to allow for the use of composing toilets and we are hoping to hear something more this week.
  
  There will be future posts outlining the reasons why composting your feces and urine [in a thermophilic manner] isn't a health risk, but I don't have the time, nor energy to delve into that one just yet.  If I've piqued your interest however, be sure to read The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins as it will answer any and all questions you would ever want to know about returning your excreta to the earth.
• Lighting- We will be utilizing a variety of methods to light our home; many of which require no electricity whatsoever!
• Light Tubes- In the back portions of our home (i.e. the storage room, the bathroom, the kitchen and the back portion of our living room) we will be installing light tubes that allow natural light into the space.  We are looking to use solar light tubes that capture the sun's energy during the daytime hours and allow us to use it to power more conventional lights within the tube itself during the nighttime hours as necessary.  Fortunately, more and more companies are making these so the prices are getting more competitive!
• South-Facing Windows- As mentioned previously, the South side of our home is going to be completely covered in large windows that will serve to light the entire front portions of the house during the daytime hours.  We will install shades of some sort for added privacy and/or to control the climate within the home; allowing for more or less sunlight into the space as needed.
• Bottle Walls- One of our favorite light features is the bottle walls we will be constructing in the circular craft/play area on the East corner of our home and the breezeway at the front of the house.  The bottle bricks we have constructed will create a stained glass effect that will bring a great deal of interesting light into the areas of the home we construct them! 
• Root Cellar- HOORAY for having our own perfect space to store any fruits, veggies, and other food from the growing season to consume throughout the winter!  Our root cellar will be located in the berm of our home-right off the kitchen-to allow for easy access.   

The majority of these systems comprise the greatest amount of total cost to be invested in our future home.  However, they will quickly pay for themselves as we hope to be generating all of our own utilities within the years to come.  While we will be purchasing solar panels to power our home, we plan on staying tied into the grid until we have a better idea of any adjustments we will need to make to our system before making the switch to battery storage.  This will also allow us time to save up money to purchase the battery bank as this tends to be the most expensive aspect of equipping a home with solar power.

As an aside, only 39 days till the first Earthship build workshop!  There are still spots available for our first Earthship Build Workshop (Tire Foundation Workshop) on April 12, 2014- April 13, 2014 and you can sign up here.  We are SO excited to meet other like-minded individuals via these workshops and so appreciate everyone who has registered thus far.  As stated in previous posts, the cost for each full weekend workshop is $35 and basically just covers the cost of food for both days (breakfast and lunch- both meat and veggie friendly).  Participants are more than welcome to camp on our land each workshop weekend as well!  Also, as another reminder, if less structure is more your thing, we will also be hosting less formal "work weekends" in between the workshops that are free of charge but don't include meals.  Just email me to sign up for any of these weekends!