>Mike Reynolds — He is an archi­tect who lives in
>New Mexico and prac­tices "Earthship Biotecture".
>Reynolds claims that his build­ings can oper­ate >off the elec­tric­ity grid, requir­ing lit­tle or
>no mort­gage pay­ment and no util­ity bills.

Mike is a self-styled architect. He is not a builder, not an engineer. Frank Loyd Wright was also an architect, who designed beautiful impractical buildings that either couldn't be built, or had to have constant (ie weekly or monthly) maintenance to stay up (a dark little secret that few mention)

Ok you first need to go out and visit the "earthship" websites. They fill you in on details but are clearly pushing their own agenda. Then go out to N.M. and see them.

The earthships are located in the middle of barren dessert that nobody else wants. Not even the Native Americans –they were smart enough to stay near the water and shade!

Earthship Houses have no water except what they haul in or the little rain they catch. That's why they have "no water in or out" — they must save any and all sewage! typically they use composting toilets, (no matter what they say, they are not nice and they do stink — been there, done that) so "used water" is "grey water" and used for plants.

They are off-grid because they are 10 miles from the nearest powerline. Cost to bring in power starts at $10,000 per mile and goes up. They typically use solar, wind, and generators — they just don't tell you about the generators. Typical cost of Solar Array is $20,000 to $30,000 and up but that only supplies lights and electronics, not enough to power the major appliances we are used to, especially not enough to run an 18 cu foot refridgerator *and* a 15–20 cu ft freezer. And you will need both, because you are 45 miles from town. these houses run from 1500 to 6000 square feet, and work because they have 3–5 foot thick dirt walls and only south-facing windows, so it is like living in a cave with little airflow.
Oh yes, and they have virtually no storage space, no basement, garage, etc…

How he claims they are self-sufficient is beyond me because if they supplement their passive solar heat with burning wood (nobody told you that part of NM is suffering from below zero and blizzards right now, did they?) there are no trees to cut within 50 miles! and their little "internal" gardens are not enough to feed 1 person, and few of us who have to chop wood and haul water can survive on a completely vegetarian diet anyway.
If you choose to hunt for meat, there is no game in that desert — only horny toads and snakes and scorpions and dessert mice.

The construction itself is well, different. He uses discarded tires pinned together with rebar and filled with dirt for the walls. He is basically building a "dirt house". If it ever rained for 3 days in a row and the exterior is compromised the house would wash away. Reynolds claims it is innovative and cutting edge, but you will only find it in this remote area of NM because there are no codes to stop him.

They are all Mortgage-free because nobody is crazy enough to put out a loan on a place like this. They have VERY limited resale value, only within a small community of what seems to me to be "earthship fanatics".

I submit that stabalized adobe brick is far superior, but Reynolds is on some kind of trip that he has to reuse tires somehow. A better use is to grind em up and add to new rubber mix!

His 6000 gallons of water is probably his water storage cistern — very common out here, in AZ, TX, and any arid ranch country. In normal usage, a family of 4 uses 12,000 gallons, so his 6000 gallon tank has to be refilled twice a month by a
water truck. BTW they need to haul water because you can drill 4000 feet down and still not hit water (another reason most locals don't want the land).

There is a small community of these things out here in the dessert, no where else (and for good reason) and you will find that the folks there are kind of a modern hippy (no offense) but I for one like to wash my clothes every week in a washing machine, not once a month in a washtub.

For a modern green home I would submit:
http://www.crestonesolarschool.com/index.html
This guy actually knows what he is doing :
Paul Shippee is director of Colorado Sunworks and is a solar designer and builder. He was the founding President of the Colorado Solar Energy Association, and a teacher. Paul holds a degree in Civil Engineering, with a major in Structural Engineering from the University of Connecticut. He helped plan housing experiments in energy conservation with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and designed the best-rated energy conservation home in a HUD-sponsored study. He holds a U.S. patent on a solar water heating system. Paul is currently building a rammed-earth/strawbale home that he has designed as a personal residence in Colorado.

A town (a city now) I used to live in was flooded with 'first time buyer' level homes built on what was previously farm land. The town annexed them, business followed and then "high density" housing was encouraged to counter the sprawl. It overwhelmed the system (water moratorium), traffic became a nightmare, crime skyrocketed taxes and fees tripled in five years…

I don't know what the solution is, both ways seem to have a lot of downside.

I could easily live off grid with no solar. I backpack camp all the time. I dream of living off the grid. My cabin will have a wood cook stove.

Last yr. my propane gas company wanted 1800.00 to fill a 400 gallon tank. I told them to keep the gas. we used our wood stove fireplace insert. Sure you had to get up at night when you went to the bathroom and stuff more wood in it. But my total heating cost was $400.00 for the whole winter! This yr. gas company came down to $500.00 and I purchased gas. I think they learned their lesson their lot is full of returned tanks.

This is the real clincher. I have lived here 16 yrs. My electric bill was no more than $50.00 per month without a/c. Then we had a tree get struck my lightning. Tree blew out of the ground fell on electric wires and the meter exploded off side of the house. Electric company replaced it with a new one. Ever since my electric bill has never been under a $100.00. You have no control over these bills.

Our utility companies got stimulus money. Well electric company in Knoxville is replacing meters so they can read the meters from the office. Guess all the meter readers are getting laid off. That really stimulated jobs didn't it.

The designs were innovative but too big to fit within the definition ELF assigns as ecologically friendly — which I suspect would probably applies everything except Tepees.

Any steps toward sustainable living and less consumption are a positive in my view. I even believe that most of us would agree that living more softly upon the planet as a virtue. It's too bad some feel the need to impose their will on everyone else and get everyone there at the same speed. Human nature perhaps, but not reality.

Being an optimist I see "Green McMansions" in a glass half full perspective. They **can** house more people with less impact on the environment than a cluster of little houses. In this recession/depression reality I'm seeing a lot more three generation families living together our of economic necessity. These "luxury" homes generate a lot more of tax revenue and jobs than the little houses too. Our State is highly dependent on property taxes and by far the largest chunk of that revenue comes from homes valued over $500,000.

I prefer living in a world that I can choose my own path and accept that others may choose another. I suspect we'll get "green" quicker that way.