Imagine living in an off-grid home and not ever receiving a utility bill – no electric bill, no water bill, no sewer bill. Even better, you don’t have to stockpile firewood, because your home is heated by the sun.
Sound impossible? It’s not. It is called an earthship home, and on this week’s edition of Off The Grid Radio we take a look at these unique houses that are revolutionizing what it means to live off-grid. Our guest is Craig Cook, who lives in an earthship home with his wife Connie in Canada – where temperatures in the winter often hover around 0 degree Fahrenheit.
Incredibly, their home cost only $70,000.
Craig tells us:
How his house stays warm in the winter and cool in the summer, without a stove or AC.
What is different between an earthship home and a typical homestead house.
How he and his wife have all the water they need – without a well or utility hook-up.
Why his home incorporates hundreds of used tires … that he got for free.
Craig also shares with us the pros and cons of an earthship home for those considering making the transition. If you’re a homesteader, off-gridder or simply someone who enjoys fascinating people, then don’t miss this week’s show!
After studying construction technology in college, Jordan decided to focus on sustainable building.
Initially discounting earthship building as “pretty out there,” he came back to the idea after doing some more research. Wanting to see “what it was all about,” the Canadian young man travelled two times from Prince Edward Island to Arizona, where he helped with two earthship builds.
“Eventually I made the leap to build here in Prince Edward Island,” he tells the Exploring Alternatives YouTube channel, adding that he chose a location near a busy road so that the home could “serve as a beacon for people who pass to know that sustainability is out there. You don’t need to build a home out of tires, but you can contribute in whatever way possible.”
With the help of his girlfriend and some friends he met while helping with the Arizona earthship builds, Jordan designed and built a beautiful 800-square foot earthship home that offers an open floor plan and plenty of natural light.
His home is filled with recycled and repurposed products, including recycled granite countertops and nearly 1,000 tires reclaimed from the local dump. Broken CDs form a creative kitchen backsplash, and like many earthship homes, the house includes mosaics made from recycled bottles and tiles.
In addition to the sturdy tire walls, Jordan used earthen cob made from clay, sand and straw in building his green home.
He says that he learned about the process by reading books on earthship building, but that the first-hand experience of working on two other homes was invaluable. “It’s also about karma,” he says. “It goes around like that.”
Jordan admits that reading and planning are important, but he warns against “diving into the deep end headfirst. “
“Help someone else first, so you can know if it is want you want to do,” he advises. “You can meet friends, ask questions and know your plans.”
The light-filled home collects rainwater, recycles grey water and heats and cools itself through its passive solar design and strategic thermal mass that stores heat much like a battery stores energy.
Although he has a wood stove in the home for cold Canadian winter nights, Jordan says that he didn’t really need it the first winter. He plans to add solar panels soon, and he says he is working on developing his green thumb by growing some of his own food.
“It’s a beautiful thing to be in a place that you and your friends created,” Jordan says. “It’s almost like a nest in nature… You live with the beautiful complements and you live with all the kinks of the place.”
The home, which is located in the town of Wellington, is available for rent on Airbnb. The rental page promises the home as the “Most Unique Stay on PEI Guaranteed!”
“You build a home,” says Jordan, “but it also builds you as a person.”
He says that if he builds another sustainable home, he will make it even smaller. “Bigger is not always better,” he explains, adding that his next home will be “tiny home meets earthship.”
Would you want to live in an earthship home? Share your thoughts in the section below:
