What is Earth Ship? How it protects Environment?
Architecture is undergoing rapid changes with more and more understanding of climate change and cutting carbon emission in buildings. Among several building concepts, the “Earthship” is one that has evolved over last three decades and represents one of the pioneering form of zero carbon residential buildings.
Thus, an Earthship is a building concept in which a house is build with waste material such as tyres, can, bottles etc. combined with concrete, mud etc. It is made to use solar power and natural water. It looks like any other modern house but has key difference on how the house is built to conserve key limited resources.
The use of waste reduces the cost of construction. Once completed, the cost of living in such house is almost zero. In this house, the power is generated from passive solar panels and small windmill. There is no use of fossil fuel. Under passive solar heating, the sun facing window panes heat the home during the day. The heat remains trapped as the home is insulated from other sides. The air tunnels below the ground and above the roof help in maintaining the temperature. The waste, including solid waste and waste water is recycled within the premises only.
Rain and snow get stored in tanks. The rainwater is fit for use in kitchen and is filtered for drinking. The water from the kitchen, called grey water, is used for toilets after passing through plants that absorbs toxins or pathogens. The black water from bathrooms goes through a second round of filtration by series of botanical plants and fish species. The waste water, after feeding plants, goes into a septic tank which separates solid waste through anaerobic digestion. This solid waste is then used as fertilizer.
Note: Difference between Active and Passive Solar power
A passive solar system does not involve the mechanical devices to capture the solar energy. One example is of green houses. In green houses, the sun’s rays pass through the glass roof / windows and the interior absorbs and retains the heat. The passive solar energy collectors simply work on the basic law of thermodynamics that heat moves from warm to cool areas and surfaces. The passive collectors would pass on the heat captured from sun via convection.
In contrast, the active solar system uses external devices to collect, store and convert the solar energy. They absorb the solar energy, store it for later use and convert it to make it usable. These include photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power and solar water heating.
