Earthship Dome?

[tyguy04]

A number of people here have probably heard of or looked at the earthship style homes. For those who havent, at the bascs it is a home built out of tires rammed with dirt and other recycled materials; collects its own water through rain catchment, electric through solar and wind, and maintains its temperature with very little power needed through use of thermal mass, airflow, and south facing slanted windows.
What I'm trying to find out is if anyone has managed to incorporate much of these into a dome. I know the principle of thermal mass comes into play with the concrete of the dome and air cooling/warming through buried tubes, but what else? Has anyone tried angled south facing windows to maximize solar heat? Is there a coating that can be put on (is one needed) to allow safe rainwater catchment? The earthship feeds the sinks and showers from filtered rainwater, the toilets from grey water filtered through an inhome garden, and the black water then goes to a conventional septic system and flower garden outside? Can this be done with a dome?
Overall, I prefer the safety features of the dome and how it requires little energy, but would like to be able to incorporate earthship ideas to be able to go completely off grid. Thoughts?

[Necoras]

I'm intending to do some of these (although I'm only in the roughest of planning stages currently). The land I've purchased has a gentle hill that I intend to dig into, and it faces south. All of the bedrooms will have large south facing windows (and a door to the outside to meet fire code). The north side of the dome will have dirt (I'm thinking a minimum 2 feet, but I've not done any engineering studies yet) to act as thermal mass. I believe there is some necessity to keep water out of that dirt for it to act properly as heat storage. I may try to integrate some rain water catchment depending on costs, but it wouldn't be for human use. Rather I'd use it to run a sprinkler system, or to water a hydroponic greenhouse. It probably won't be worth the money considering I'll be putting in a .5-1 acre pond within the next year or so, and any runoff will just flow to that anyways.

I'm in Texas, so I suspect I'll still need some traditional A/C, if only small window units. We'll be running heated floors in the bathrooms purely for comfort reasons. I don't anticipate needing any other heating/cooling. We will be completely on the grid in terms of power, water (for drinking, bathing, cooking, etc.) and communications (I'm a tech geek, and I'm not going without a fiber connection). My land has deed restrictions against a wind turbine tower (I may or may not fight those), and currently solar isn't practical for the price. That may change within the 5-10 years until I'm ready to build, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'll be looking at a partial torus or a hyperion design, though I'm leaning towards the hyperion. It allows for mostly southfacing windows, a courtyard feel at the central main entrance, keeping an attached garage on one side, and still having some amount of privacy from the rest of the house to the master bedroom on the far side.

[timbau]

I just wonder what the costs will be to add the solar components? They tout that earthships costs as being the same as a typical home. I plan on taking a trip this fall to Taos to ask some questions & see if these are really as good as advertised. I've some doubts concerning the issues with building in a hot high humidity area of the country. They said they built an Earthship in East Texas. However, I've not been able to see any comments on how well it's held up to our hot humid summers. It seems these buildings don't have HVAC.

I don't think it would be a problem to bury the dome or to use the dome for rain water catchment. While visiting Italy TX I visited one of the domes that was catching rain water to use for watering the field next to it. I watched a vid about a guy that is off grid with his dome & uses solar. However, he's in a place that doesn't really need AC.

SO I'm truly interested in seeing what it would cost to get these amenities in a dome. BTW I feel the domes are a better solution. To much labor involved with the Earthships.

Just my 2 cents ....

[Necoras]

Yeah, my biggest question has been how much HVAC I'll need. I'll be building in Aubrey TX, and it's 105 outside right now. I just don't believe that I'll be able to get away without an A/C system of some sort, even if it's just a few window units. Heat's another story. We turn the heat down pretty low and use space heaters in our current stick house (which is very new and has good insulation).

I want to bury mine as much for aesthetic reasons as for insulation ones. I want to be efficient, but I want my conveniences as well.

[timbau]

Yeah, my biggest question has been how much HVAC I'll need. I'll be building in Aubrey TX, and it's 105 outside right now. I just don't believe that I'll be able to get away without an A/C system of some sort, even if it's just a few window units. Heat's another story. We turn the heat down pretty low and use space heaters in our current stick house (which is very new and has good insulation).

I want to bury mine as much for aesthetic reasons as for insulation ones. I want to be efficient, but I want my conveniences as well.

It seems that the Earthships are diametrically opposite of Domes. As I understand it, domes get their high R-value form the foam insulation backed by the thermal mass of the thin shelled concrete walls. Where the Earthship become a part of their environment & depend mostly on the the mass of the earth. Using PAHS they get a boost from the heat sink. While I think this would be great in certain regions, I feel that air tubes & PAHS would be a problem removing excess moisture & dealing with mold. Mr Reynolds, I'm sure, would disagree. Yet I've spent some time in New Mexico & find it a bit warm. Here in TX we can get into a AC cooled home, mall, etc. Out there many of the homes don't have AC's.

I would like to do something in the near future on some land I have in East TX. So if I could apply some of the best from Earthships & meld them with the Dome I would be happy.

[mkrepel]

There's actually an outfit that is using domes in conjuction with earthship-syle design features. I saw a post somewhere on the BBS with a link to their site. It looks pretty good, but the information they put on their website is pretty slim because they want you to take their training course.

I have put some thought into the semi-subterrainean domes with a PAHS-type heating and ventilation system. I think this would require some modification of an ecoshell-type construction so that you could marry the heat sink of the earth with the dome. That would require some special treatment for the open side(s). Probably some external spray foam with stucco over the top. I was trying to think of a way to install foam inside the airform on only one side, but that may cause a shear plane situation in the concrete. Shear planes cause failure, so a structural engineer would need to look at the plans and try to run a finite element analysis of the shell structure. At any rate, with some careful planning and construction a dome should be well-suited to earthship enhancements. I do not think the two are diametrically opposed, but placing a hemispherical object only partially underground without a direct heat link to the outside via concrete/reinforcement to hold the dirt away from the exposed side of the home definitely presents some challenges.

Earthship design (and PAHS) is theoretically possible even in East Texas. However, you might want to limit the south-facing windows a little bit. It is possible shade the windows enough to keep the temps from spiking inside. This limits the heat storage, but keeps the inside of the building a little more comfortable. Regardless, there would be times when it would be uncomfortably warm in the summer and, possibly, uncomfortably cool in the winter. It all depends on how much personal discomfort you will endure in order to reduce your energy bills and get closer to nature. Personally, I think if you really want to get closer to nature and make the environment work for you, you will need to endure quite a bit of discomfort. Look at what the Eskimos used to live in...earth homes that were damp and cool all year long. However, they were able to survive with only a small cooking fire that was supplied by drift wood picked up during the summer months. They supplemented the small amount of heat they were able to generate with a high fat diet and animal skins that they practically lived in all year. They also spent a lot of time outdoors...something most Americans don't do anymore.

Don't give up on your dream and let the rest of us know what you come up with. Some of us are thinking along the same lines.

Mike

[Necoras]

I'm not particularly interested in giving up comfort to get back to nature. I like my creature comforts. That said, I do want a home that is efficient, strong (we get our fair share of tornadoes), and aesthetically pleasing. Honestly a standard single dome home looks a bit to much like a Super Mario background for my taste. On the other hand, a partially buried home looks like part of the landscape.

I'm going to head to Italy next weekend and check out all of the different designs they have in place. On my way home I'll be stopping by the "Robot Ranch" home which looks to be fairly similar to what I want to do. Hopefully I can get some new ideas, understand some of the difficulties involved, and avoid making mistakes when I get around to building.

[mkrepel]

Going to Italy? Do you have time to visit Switzerland while you are in that part of the world? I think Peter Vetsch designs/builds some of the most attractive earth sheltered homes on the planet (inside and out!). I can imagine that it would not be too hard to add some earthship features to some of his designs. He also uses shotcrete extensively in the construction of his buildings.

Have fun overseas,

Mike

[timbau]

Going to Italy? Do you have time to visit Switzerland while you are in that part of the world? I think Peter Vetsch designs/builds some of the most attractive earth sheltered homes on the planet (inside and out!). I can imagine that it would not be too hard to add some earthship features to some of his designs. He also uses shotcrete extensively in the construction of his buildings.

Have fun overseas,

Mike

Mike I was speaking of Italy TX. The home of the dome.

[Necoras]

Heh, yes Italy Texas. I live about an hour north of Monolithic headquarters.

[timbau]

Heh, yes Italy Texas. I live about an hour north of Monolithic headquarters.

As do I.......

[mkrepel]

Duhhhhh! Sorry guys.

Mike