THE PATRICK TIMPONE SHOW

Michael Reynolds

Earthships & True Sustainability

Michael Reynolds is a specialist in Biotechture based in New Mexico and a proponent of ‘radically sustainable living.

He has been a forceful and controversial critic of the profession of architecture for its failure to deal with the amount of waste that building design creates.

Hear him talk about true Earthships, sustainability, living in beautiful homes, regardless of the weather with $200 in energy costs. Wow!

Earthship Biotecture http://www.earthship.net

Architect Michael Reynolds uses mostly recyclable materials. His designs use the water four times before final evaporation, do not use heating or cooling systems and are beautiful and cozy. Check out his website, earthship.net, sit back and listen in. Cool stuff here, really cool.

Design Principles
1) Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling
Earthships maintain comfortable temperatures in any climate. The planet Earth is a thermally stabilizing mass that delivers temperature without wire or pipes. The sun is a nuclear power plant that also delivers without wires or pipes.

2) Solar & Wind Electricity
Earthships produce their own electricity with a prepackaged photovoltaic / wind power system. This energy is stored in batteries and supplied to your electrical outlets. Earthships can have multiple sources of power, all automated, including grid-intertie.

3) Contained Sewage Treatment
Earthships contain use and reuse all household sewage in indoor and outdoor treatment cells resulting in food production and landscaping with no pollution of aquifers. Toilets flush with greywater that does not smell.

4) Building with Natural &
Recycled Materials
House as Assemblage of by-products: A sustainable home must make use of indigenous materials, those occurring naturally in the local area.

5) Water Harvesting
Earthships catch water from the sky (rain & snow melt) and use it four times. Water is heated from the sun, biodiesel and/or natural gas. Earthships can have city water as backup. Earthships do not pollute underground water aquifers.

6) Food Production
Earthship wetlands, the planters that hold hundreds of gallons of water from sinks and the shower are a great place for raising some of the fresh produce you’d like to have in the winter, but find expensive or bland tasting from the supermarket.