Life in an Earthship

Image Gallery Ellen's Earthship. ELLEN CRAIG

I have always thought of myself as a fairly conventional, average sort of person, but I have to admit that my home, located near Breckenridge, Colo., is not at all average. About 10 years ago, I decided to move from my three-acre property to a larger, more remote piece of land. I was searching for ideas about energy-efficient, environmentally friendly houses when I stumbled on an article about Earthships.

An Earthship is a type of rammed-earth house, sort of a modern version of a Native American pueblo dwelling. It’s a trademarked name and design, conceived by Michael Reynolds of Earthship Biotecture, a company based in Taos, N.M.

The walls of this eco-friendly house are made of discarded tires, which are tightly packed with dirt using a sledgehammer, and then stacked like giant bricks. Mud is packed into the scalloped spaces between the tires and then usually finished with adobe, plaster or stucco.

Earthships are passive solar homes, which makes them extremely energy efficient. They are built with south-facing walls made almost entirely of glass — many people incorporate a greenhouse into this part of the house. During the winter, the sun is at a low angle in the sky, and sunlight streams in through the windows to heat the house’s heavy walls, which act as thermal mass. When the room temperature drops below that of the walls, they slowly emit heat to warm the house. With windows and operable skylights for ventilation during the summer months, the building maintains a relatively stable temperature year-round. Many Earthship owners use woodstoves for backup heat, but otherwise, their houses are heated entirely by the sun.

I was so intrigued by what I read that I journeyed to Taos for a two-day seminar. There I got to see a completed Earthship, and I thought that its wonderful greenhouse and exotic plants gave a warm, comfortable feeling to the house. I quickly decided that I could — and should — build this type of home.

Building Begins

I purchased 35 acres in the mountains, selecting the site for its southern exposure, remoteness, spectacular view and large, interesting-looking boulders. Several of those factors ultimately made construction more difficult than I had planned, particularly the steep slope of the site! I purchased Earthship plans and put my existing house on the market. To my surprise, and somewhat to my dismay, it sold in three days, and I had six weeks to move. I quickly made plans to erect a fence for my dogs on the new property, and a friend was generous enough to lend me a pop-up camper, but life was still a bit rugged. I had no electricity and hauled all my water by hand