Earthship Dome

[tyguy04]

I asked this question in Keepin' It Green but am asking it here in hopes of generating some more response.

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?

[timbau]

Wow I was just going to ask the same. I had contacted Nick (Ghostwood) to see how his efforts were coming on his weaning his dome from the grid.

I'm also interested in Net Zero domes. Can the grey water, rain water catchment & purification, PAHS, etc be built into the dome.

I feel that Earthships have a lot going for them. However, they seems to utilize PAHS & heat sink instead of insulation & concrete. I worry that the Earthship design will not sufficiently remove moisture in our hot humid climate. I would hate to think how many Solar cells would be needed to run an AC unit as well as all the electric. Still if it can be done I'm sure we have folks on this forum who can provide us with the pro's & con's.

Maybe Mr South, Jim, & Nick would like to comment on this.

[tyguy04]

I'm less than concerned about the need for AC in an Earthship. The designers have become experts at using airflow and temperature differences to keep the air circulating enough that it isn't an issue to me. It would be more of an issue to me in a dome since (as far as I've read) they aren't designed with a big emphasis on passive airflow. Am I wrong?

[timbau]

I'm less than concerned about the need for AC in an Earthship. The designers have become experts at using airflow and temperature differences to keep the air circulating enough that it isn't an issue to me. It would be more of an issue to me in a dome since (as far as I've read) they aren't designed with a big emphasis on passive airflow. Am I wrong?

I'm not sure what you mean by passive air flow.

All the domes I've been in have ceiling fans. Many have ERVs if they're over a certain size. All this could be done with the air tubes or with a central vent. Open the vent in the ceiling & open a few windows. However, that won't be much of a help in the summer when it's 95 degrees & 80% humidity. I've a friend with the earth tubes & he's had a ton of trouble with them & they don't really work that well down here in TX.

I don't really see a problem with adding the same systems that the Earthships have to a dome. I just wonder about the costs.

I looked at some of the Earthships that are for sale in Taos. Compared to here they're high.

I'm hoping that we get some feedback from some of the others that have off grid domes.

[tomslate]

http://www.biotechturetraining.com/

These folks claim to be building a new hybrid earthship / monolithic dome home.