New Earthships capture more energy, water & food at lower cost

2.3M views · 6 years ago · documentary · evergreen

Kirsten Dirksen visits newer Earthships, off-grid homes built to capture their own energy, water and food. Commenters recall a water cycle in which shower water feeds indoor plants, then the toilet, then outdoor plants.

HN people recommend it as a fun look at net-zero desert housing and a good entry into Dirksen's channel on alternative ways of living.

“Almost all the videos on this channel are fascinating btw.”

4 comments from Hacker News

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@culi2026 · in “Forestiere Underground Gardens”
Almost all the videos on this channel are fascinating btw. Greenhouses enveloping entire houses/villages[0][1] in northern Europe to earthships[2] to someone growing citrus in Nebraska using trenches[3] to entire villages underground in Australia[4] [0] link [1] link [2] ▶ this video [3] link [4] link I'd also recommend the channels FLORB and Happen Films though they're admittedly a little corny. link link Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't recently did a tour of an interesting alt home as well. link
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@somethoughts2022 · in “Separating urine from sewage could mitigate some environmental problems”
Kinda of reminds me of this fun video about a net zero desert house(/commune?). They proposed/demostrated a cycle that is basically Shower -> indoor plants -> toilet -> outdoor plants New Earthships capture more energy, water & food at lower cost ▶ this video
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2
@205guy2020 · in “Arcosanti”
Kirsten Dirksen Seems to be finding and documenting them on her YouTube channel: link Many are just individuals in alternative living situations or creative housing, but some are communities or -in-the-making: Earthship community in Taos New Mexico: ▶ this video Back-to-the-traditional-village in Portugal: link
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@cookiengineer2022 · in “Geothermal may beat batteries for energy storage”
This reminds me a lot of the Earthship community in the middle of the desert, which always focusses on smart ways of reusing water for different purposes, and by not wasting water as much as possible. The houses usually have a clean/grey/blackwater + a rainwormbox system to process fecals and reuse it for growing plants. Their air conditioning system is basically just a pipe in the ground where the hot air flows through, cools down, and automatically gets pushed through the house when they open the windows on the roof. I was always wondering why there are no systems converting the unused electricity in potential energy by moving water to a higher ground. And more importantly: Why there are no water storages on the roof. [1] ▶ this video
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