To: assistance@liberal.ca
Dear: Rt. Hon. Justin Trudeau and Catherine McKenna,
Make off the Grid Homes a Federal Mandate across Canada- Maybe a Tax Rebate, Too!!!
I love Earthship Houses and It saves the Environment too!!!
Not allowed in Ontario and Nova Scotia!!
Soo Sad!!
Dennis Weaver and Dick Clarke built them,Too!!
'It's my house': N.S. woman fights to live off the grid
Cheryl Smith planned to move "off the grid" and into a small house near Clark's Harbour, N.S., a year ago.
But thanks to Canadian building regulations, the four-by-six metre structure remains half-built and empty. Beside the door are two signs on neon paper. One says "Freedom of Rights Denied!" and the other reads "Work stopped."
The signs went up when Smith was forced to put her moving plans on hold. The homebuilder says she was denied an occupancy permit because her dream house plans don't include electricity.
PHOTOS
Cheryl Smith's tiny home sits empty near Clark's Harbour, N.S.
Cheryl Smith explains why she would like to live off the grid.
Canadian laws require living spaces to have access to power to run smoke detectors and air exchange systems.
But Smith said the point of moving into her tiny home was to disconnect from the power grid.
"I just don't want to leave a big footprint on the earth," she told CTV Atlantic.
"If what we're trying to do is move the world into a greener place and make it more environmentally friendly so there's something still left for our children, then why am I being forced to rely on electricity or fossil fuels?"
Smith is part of a growing movement of tiny-house enthusiasts in North America and around the world. Proponents of the housing trend preach minimalism, environmentalism and simple design with creative storage options.
Smith's father, Don, tried to help her install wiring in her home, but he said she was firm that she wanted her house to be electricity-free – even if that meant a battle with building regulators.
"She wants to live the way her grandparents did back then," Smith's father said. "It's a decision a lot of people may not agree with, but, I mean, it's not a decision that's going to hurt somebody."
Clark's Harbour's Mayor, Leigh Stoddart, said he admires and empathizes with Smith's desire to go green.
However, local officials are unable to change the laws to accommodate her house, he said. The regulations requiring electricity apply Canada-wide, Stoddart said, and the city can't make an exception.
"Rules are rules, unfortunately," he said. "But I know what she's trying to do and I applaud her effort because she wants to get off the grid, get back to nature."
Left to wait for Canada-wide change, Smith said she doesn't plan to back down in her fight for the right to live an electricity-free life.
She's hoping that, as tiny houses and off-the-grid lifestyles continue to gain popularity, Canadian regulations will catch up to the trend.
"Somebody has to say 'Enough, that's enough,'" she said. "It's my right. It's my house. You didn't contribute to it financially. You don't get to tell me what to do."
With files from CTV Atlantic
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Mar 26
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https://www.google.ca/search?q=stars+with+earthship+homes&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=I0IKUra7Earj2wWLq4HoDw&ved=0CDEQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=775
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkbHR16FGpE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ENIhmDskmY
http://www.youtube.com/user/earthship?feature=watch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=9cUSgtUDw5Q
Earthship Volunteer helpers, help each other build homes from all over the world.10 Reasons Why EarthShips Are F!#%ing Awesome
Earthships are 100% sustainable homes that are both cheap to build and awesome to live in. They offer amenities like no other sustainable building style you have come across. For the reasons that follow, I believe Earthships can actually change the world. See for yourself!1) Sustainable does not mean primitive
When people hear about sustainable, off-the-grid living, they usually picture primitive homes divorced from the comforts of the 21st century. And rightfully so, as most sustainable solutions proposed until now have fit that description. Earthships, however, offer all of the comforts of modern homes and more. I’ll let these pictures do the talking…2) Free Food
Each Earthship is outfitted with one or two greenhouses that grow crops year-round, no matter the climate. This means you can feed yourself with only the plants growing inside of your house. You can also choose to build a fish pond and/or chicken coop into your Earthship for a constant source of meat and eggs.3) Brilliant Water Recycling
Even the most arid of climates can provide enough water for daily use through only a rain-harvesting system. The entire roof of the Earthship funnels rain water to a cistern, which then pumps it to sinks and showers when required. That used ‘grey water’ is then pumped into the greenhouse to water the plants. After being cleaned by the plants, the water is pumped up into the bathrooms for use in the toilets. After being flushed, the now ‘black water’ is pumped to the exterior garden to give nutrients to non-edible plants.4) Warmth & Shelter
The most brilliant piece of engineering in the Earthship is their ability to sustain comfortable temperatures year round. Even in freezing cold or blistering hot climates, Earthships constantly hover around 70° Fahrenheight (22° Celsius).This phenomenon results from the solar heat being absorbed and stored by ‘thermal mass’ — or tires filled with dirt, which make up the structure of the Earthship. The thermal mass acts as a heat sink, releasing or absorbing heat it when the interior cools and heats up, respectively.The large greenhouse windows at the front of the house always face south to allow the sun to heat up the thermal mass throughout the daytime.5) Energy
Solar panels on the roof and optional wind turbines provide the Earthship with all of the power it needs. As long as you’re not greedily chewing through electricity like a typical first-world human, you’ll never be short of power.6) Freedom
With all of your basic needs provided for and NO bills each month, you’re free! You don’t have to work a job you hate just to survive. So you can focus your time on doing what you love, and bettering the world around you.Imagine if the entire world was able to focus on doing extraordinary things instead of just making enough to get by. Imagine if even 10% of the world could do this. What would change?7) Easy to build
At a recent Earthship conference in Toronto, Canada, a married couple in their forties shared about how they built a 3-story Earthship by themselves in 3 months. They had never built anything before in their lives and were able to build an Earthship with only the printed plans. They did not hire any help, nor did they use expensive equipment to make the job easier.If one man and one woman can do this in 3 months, anyone can do it.8) Cheap
Earthships are exorbitantly cheaper than conventional houses. The most basic Earthships cost as little as $7000 (The Simple Survival model) with the most glamorous models costing $70,000 and up, depending on how flashy you want to be with your decorating.With these cost options, Earthships can fit the needs of everyone — from the least privileged to the most worldly.9) Made of recycled materials
Much of the materials used to build Earthships are recycled. For starters, the structure is built with used tires filled with dirt:If there’s one thing we’re not short of on Earth, it’s used tires! There are tire dumps like the one pictured here in every country in the world. There are even places that will pay you by the tire to take them away.
The walls (above the tires) are created by placing plastic and glass bottles in concrete. When the Earthship team was in Haiti after the earthquake, they employed local kids to both clean up the streets and provide all of the bottles required for building their Earthship. Plus, they look pretty sexy.10) Think Different
The most powerful thing Earthships do is force people to think differently about how we live. If housing can be this awesome, and be beneficial to the environment, then what else can we change? What else can become more simple, cheaper and better at the same time?It’s time for us to re-think much of what we consider normal.——————–Think Earthships are cool? Me too. That’s why I’ve joined up with some people to create a community of Earthships and to make sustainable communities go mainstream! It’s something we call the Valhalla Movement.Want to know more? Read more about it on ValhallaMovement.com, and like us on Facebook.'Earthships New Solutions' Official Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEg74ZMP4tM#at=28
Earthship build in BC Canada 1 of 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k-TXNngKDU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf8ADS0IGc4http://earthship.com/simple-survival
Can be replicated to create larger buildings. Aimed at being the cheapest and most affordable Earthship possible.A very simple set of details to put together.
Radically Sustainable Buildings. The Most Versatile and Economical building design in the world.
Earthships can be built in any part of the world, in any climate and still provide you with what you need to survive, with 'modern' amenities, if desired. The Earthship building method has been evolving for over 40 years.
http://earthship.com/simple-survival
Category
Licence
Standard YouTube Licence
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTqSpx0Vgv4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8RYLpNuiPQEarthship Codes, Permits, Regulations and Laws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znAX13Q6AKQ
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship
building plans
http://earthship.com/design-principles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=_ozX_nt5A4o#at=283Earthship Survives Earthquake in Chile
3072012Example of an Earthship TirewallEarthship Tire Wall Withstands Chilean Earthquake 6/7 on Richter
This message from an Earthship Chilean survivor just plucked from Earthsip’s latest newsletter: from Earthship Chile: I’m from Chile two weeks ago we had an earthquake of 6/7 richter, our tire wall stand without problems and our wall is just tires no concrete on it … enough evidence for me that Earthships are earthquake-proof .
Sorry about my English not mi native language hope you understandYou can see a 1 & half minute video on Earthships New Solutions Below. More great Earthship vids will appear in the window when this vid is over!!! check it out – It’s huge fun. You can subscribe toEarthships Biotechture newsletter here . . .CA Academy of Sciences Largest LEED Platinum Certified Building | LEED Consulting Firms
After a major San Francisco earthquake destroyed the museum, the California Academy of Sciences trusted Siemens as a LEED consulting firm to help them create "the ultimate green space" and became the largest public space in the world to be LEED Platinum Certified.http://w3.usa.siemens.com/buildingtec...Category
World's greenest museum: Renzo Piano's CA Academy of Sciences
Haiti Earthship Project: Contained Sewage and Roof Insulation
w.youtube.com/watchv=YFP4Q0UDZpU
1) Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling
Earthships maintain comfortable temperatures in any climate. The planet Earth is a thermally stabilizing mass that delivers temperature without wire or pipes. The sun is a nuclear power plant that also delivers without wires or pipes.2) Solar & Wind Electricity
Earthships produce their own electricity with a prepackaged photovoltaic / wind power system. This energy is stored in batteries and supplied to your electrical outlets. Earthships can have multiple sources of power, all automated, including grid-intertie.3) Contained Sewage Treatment
Earthships contain use and reuse all household sewage in indoor and outdoor treatment cells resulting in food production and landscaping with no pollution of aquifers. Toilets flush with greywater that does not smell.4) Building with Natural &
Recycled MaterialsHouse as Assemblage of by-products: A sustainable home must make use of indigenous materials, those occurring naturally in the local area.5) Water Harvesting
Earthships catch water from the sky (rain & snow melt) and use it four times. Water is heated from the sun, biodiesel and/or natural gas. Earthshipscan have city water as backup. Earthships do not pollute underground water aquifers.6) Food Production
Earthship wetlands, the planters that hold hundreds of gallons of water from sinks and the shower are a great place for raising some of the fresh produce you’d like to have in the winter, but find expensive or bland tasting from the supermarket.Radically Sustainable Green Buildings.
". . . the Earthship is the epitome of sustainable design and construction. No part of sustainable living has been ignored in this ingenious building."Earthships can be built in any part of the world, in any climate and still provide electricity, potable water, contained sewage treatment and sustainable food production.Retrofit your building with Earthship Biotecture.
Add some or all of the Earthship Systems to your building.
- Reduce and even eliminate your utility bills.
- Get ALL of your electricity from the sun and the wind.
- Catch water from the sky for drinking, bathing, cleaning, showering, washing, flushing, etc.
- Contain and treat ALL of the sewage you produce in a healthy and beautiful way.
- Maintain comfortable temperatures in your building ALL year long, in any climate. Reduce or even eliminate your heating and cooling bills.
http://earthship.com/a-look-at-the-models-of-earthshipsA Look at the Models of Earthships
Earthship designs are constantly evolving because they are decentralized and many are built each year. This allows for constant evolution. We have many models in our history which all played their part in our on going evolution. We have presented here our favorite models which have very pragmatic reasons for being favorites.Climate, budget and your individual needs play a big part in determining which Earthship prototype is right for you.The Custom EarthshipA custom Earthship is the most expensive and time consuming approach. These are possible in any climate and can include any and all of our various inventions and ideas over the years. They can be built and will function in any climate. Money is the only barrier in this scenario. Many people want a custom Earthship but their budgets says otherwise.Design is the first step in a custom Earthship. This phase can cost $10,000 or more. Construction drawings are next and depending on the size and degree of customization, these drawings can cost from $15,000 to $50,000. Construction itself would start at around $250 per square foot and go up from there. Custom buildings take much more time in every phase and time is money. There is no limit to what can be done in a custom Earthship, however, we can hardly make them perform any better than our common models as they are designed for performance. So... a custom Earthship is worth it if you want what you want.
The Phoenix Custom EarthshipGlobal Model EarthshipOur most universal model for the developed world is the Global Model. It can be modified for almost any climate and comes in many sizes. It can also come in custom sizes. It has been built enough times that it has become a well oiled machine both in terms of performance and production. It costs around $225 per sf. The construction drawings range from $5,000 to $10,000 depending on size. Most models can be built by our crew in one month anywhere in the world. In this scenario you must add travel and accommodations for our crew. Of course our drawings are aimed at owner builders doing this themselves as well. This can cut costs by close to 40%.
Earthship Biotecture Designs
Designed to meet Standard Building Codes.
{pgslideshow id=28|width=300|height=220|delay=3000|image=L}
Construction Drawings
Construction drawings are designed to meet standard building code requirements so you can get a permit no matter where you are.
(does not include the Simple Survival model)
(see: media resume)Earthships provide security in economically unsecure times.
Earthships cost about the same as a conventional home, but a conventional home does not come with all the electricity and water you will use. A conventional home is bad for the planet, is not strong and uses materials that require a lot of fossil fuels to manufacture and get to your building site.We can customize any floor plan for the Global model, we have versions with garages and other options as well.This can make the drawings cost a few thousand more but does not necessarily increase the build cost.Tropical EarthshipIn the case of tropical environments we prefer one and two story round models because a solar face is not necessarily needed for heating. We use the round shapes because they are efficient and more hurricane resistant and the tropics are known for hurricanes. These buildings costs are comparable to the Global model both in terms of building and drawings. They take a similar length of time to build as well. They come in all sizes and again the drawings are aimed at owner builders participating.
Below is a tropical plan example.Simple Survival ModelsThe minimal budget applications first of all require a no building permit situation. We are mapping what we call “pockets of freedom” all over the USA and the world where an owner/builder can construct their own home with no regulations. Believe it or not, there are many such places all over the world.We have developed these models for climates with four seasons as well as for tropical areas. The tropics models would be a bit cheaper because you do not have to deal with freezing and this allows for a lot of indoor-outdoor spaces that cost much less than spaces that must be protected by an entirely enclosed environment.These buildings have been designed for bare essential levels of living as a beginning to your home. The idea is to get in one for very little money and then add more to it as you can afford the expenses. We have built these models in many places and they are quite livable. Our crew is envious of people we have built these for because in addition to being very delightful buildings, they leave the owner with no debt and an easy, burden free life.These models are the way of the future. They take the systems and size and details down to a minimum but they perform as well as any Earthship. They use methods that never wear out and cost a fraction of the code monitored buildings and systems. For example, they use both bucket flush toilets and bucket showers. Believe it or not, these both can be presented in a very pleasant way. I have personally become a fan of the bucket flush toilet and the bucket shower due to the experience, the cost and the lack of maintenance.Drawings are $2,000 to $5,000 and can be negotiated.
Building cost can range from $50,000 to $100,000 if you have us build it. If you build it yourself (and it is aimed at this) you can expect to pay half of that or less. This is a home. A living module that can be replicated and will take care of you.Customization of any kind on these models quickly brings the cost right back up. The following is a floor plan of the tropical model with outdoor spaces and the generic four seasons model with a double greenhouse. Both with bucket shower and bucket flush toilet.
Four Season Survival ModelThe EVE Project
(Earthship Village Ecologies)RationaleThroughout the last forty years Earthship Biotecture has been working toward developing a fully sustainable prototype home that has a zero carbon footprint on the planet. We arrived at this in the early 2000’s and are still perfecting and refining it. We have a building prototype that harvests its own electricity and water; contains and treats its own sewage; and heats and cools itself without fuel and produces a significant amount of food.The building is built from 45% recycled materials... thus starting the construction of the building with a negative carbon footprint. Discarded materials take the place of new materials that require energy to produce. Also, once used, discarded materials, would have taken energy to dispose of. There is no energy required to reuse existing materials. This further contributes to a negative carbon foot print at the birth of the building.read more at earthship.com/earthship-village-ecologiesEscape from EconomyIn late 2008 and early 2009 the economic crisis on the earth has become so significant that it, however shallow, has begun to overshadow even the climate crisis. The EVE project will address the economy of people living in harmony with the planet and with each other but much more independent of the global economy and thus not near as dependent on it. This village will aim to finance itself. We already make buildings that make their own power, harvest their own water and heat and cool themselves so there will be no utility or infrastructure expense. We’re building with 45% recycled materials so that eliminates some of the cost of new materials. We, Earthship Biotecture, have a growing number of interns coming to learn the methods of Biotecture living. We will use this small army to launch the EVE project. This will result in very affordable housing for these people. The interns that work on EVE will live at EVE. They will be eating food from the planters of the buildings they live in. They will be using water from the sky here. They will be using electricity from the sun and wind. They will be using the toilets here and taking showers and making the plants grow from their waste water. It will be a self-contained system based on the six design principles of theEarthship concept. It will address the issues people need for sustenance. What we are trying to do here is illustrate that the sustenance of people (shelter, water, energy, sewage, food and comfort) should not be subject to an economy.The economy is a game. This game should be about nonessential things (motorcycles, computers, televisions). A person feeding their family, staying alive, having shelter, those elements should not be subject to an economy. We should have truly sustainable villages that provide a life independent of the economy and what better way to create them than to have a building prototype that doesn’t need any utilities, produces food, is made of recycled materials and is easy enough to build that unskilled people can do it. The whole EVE concept embodies an education that can be shared around the world. People can come for short or long periods of time, live incredibly cheap in terms of a rent payment and everything else is provided. They can eat here, they can drink here, they will have all of the basic essentials of life here. We’ll have flat screen televisions and high speed internet which are essential to some. We will have so much of what people need here that they won’t have to take trips in to town as often. We will be providing in our own "insignificant economy" the things that people need in a green and sustainable way.As the years went by in the development of the Earthship concept, and more and more global problems were presented by the media, we kept incorporating solutions to these problems into the Earthship concept. This is how we developed the six design principles. Now there is another problem which has become the sole highway on which all of life is delivered, it is called the economy. We are taking a left turn off of this eroding highway and carving a path out into the mesa and beyond. We are calling this path E.V.E..Global Model for a Good VirusI am hoping that we can do this in multiple formats throughout the world and that it will make such a statement that global regions such as; Australia, Asia, Europe and the Americas will look at this possibility... neighboring, sustainable, independent villages that constitute a town or a city.It’s not about making anybody rich. It is not about tax dollars. It’s about the sustenance of people. If governments all over the world subsidized these methods of people taking care of themselves in carbon zero village formats instead of subsidizing wars over resources; then we walk out of jeopardy and into a long lasting peace on earth. Currently, since survival depends on economy, we have people all over the world who are starving, don’t have enough water, have no shelter and live in constant stress and misery. This effects the global ambiance. Now it’s even happening in the US. Homelessness is more severe than ever. There are tent cities. Desperate people, like any one of us, who used to have a life. Then all of the sudden they lost their jobs and their mortgage and consequently their life.Life should not float on an economy. Life should have its own wings.E.V.E. can provide those wings to all people.So every step of this EVE project is about learning to live without dependence on any other systems; political, economic or utility. The village is the system. It can be replicated and grouped with other similar villages to become a town. This can happen on a larger scale with many villages becoming a city. Then it can happen on a country or a global scale but it starts with sustainable villages that provide for themselves via the Earthship concepts that have already proven themselves to be able to stand alone. E.V.E. is a petri dish for the development of a good virus.We are talking about eliminating the stress of living, on the people and on the planet. If countries make their first priority providing people with the knowledge of how to provide for themselves in a village model, then the people's livelihoods will not be subject to the ups and downs of an economy. All the thinking and energy goes towards evolving the village toward the care of people and planet. The Native Americans taught their children how to survive on the Earth. The E.V.E. project will present to people the knowledge of how to survive in a situation that does not depend on the economy, politics or fossil fuels.Reduction of CO2 Footprint:Another issue that is coming in to play in conventional building is freight; the shipping of materials from China to the US or from Taiwan to the US or even Oregon to New Mexico is being viewed as an energy waste and a negative CO2 impact. We should be building with materials that are all from within one hundred miles of the place they are used regardless of whether they are manufactured materials or recycled materials.The same is true for food. It is ridiculous to buy food grown thousands of miles away, even hundreds of miles away. That is again, an energy waste and a CO2 impact. We can grow everything in the Earthship homes that you can grow anywhere in any tropical climate. That eliminates freight. E.V.E. will eliminate the giant carbon footprint of a banana from South America or a building product from across the country. We will harvest all kinds of food from E.V.E. and building products from the near by town of Taos, New Mexico. You take our EVE grown banana and put it right next to a grocery store banana that came from South America and you have a giant carbon footprint on one banana and no carbon footprint on the other. The same is true of a building product. The village produces what it needs and maybe trades with other villages near by. The strength is in the independence from centralized utilities and food production. There will be an inherent "insignificant economy" that is woven in to the natural phenomena that already exist on the Earth.So the E.V.E. project is about all of these things, power, water, sewage, food, recycled materials and the resulting insignificant economy. The EVE project is a way to live that is more like what I would call direct living, direct soft impact living. It puts people in a position that they can relate to the economy as if it were a swimming pool that they can dive into for a swim if they want to, but when they want to get out, their life is out of the swimming pool and remote from it and not dependent on it. Swimming in the economy is a game, it’s a recreation, it should not be the thing between us and life. That is a big part of what the EVE project is all about, evolution beyond economics made possible through a living vessel that provides all of the essentials and has no carbon foot print.E.V.E. ... this cluster of twenty-five people living on two acres will be a seething, intense hive of human activity that will be on display to some extent. It’s not going to be luxurious, but it will be magnetic in terms of pulling in energy from congruent quadrants of logical thinking. “Live simply so that others may simply live.” The less you have, the less you have to lose.
Earthship Newsletter
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Preview YouTube video Earthship. Build a house out of tires and dirt!
Preview YouTube video Earthship Living
Preview YouTube video Live Free. Thanks for Sharing Earthships
Preview YouTube video 'Earthships New Solutions' Official Trailer
Preview YouTube video Earthship build in BC Canada 1 of 2
Preview YouTube video Earthship build in BC Canada 2 of 2
Preview YouTube video Simple Survival Model Earthship
Preview YouTube video Texas Earthship Tour: Day 15.
Preview YouTube video Earthship Codes, Permits, Regulations and Laws
Preview YouTube video Earthship Design Principles
Preview YouTube video World's greenest museum: Renzo Piano's CA Academy of Sciences
Earthship. Build a house out of tires and dirt!
Earthship Living
Live Free. Thanks for Sharing Earthships
'Earthships New Solutions' Official Trailer
Earthship build in BC Canada 1 of 2
Earthship build in BC Canada 2 of 2
Simple Survival Model Earthship
Texas Earthship Tour: Day 15.
Earthship Codes, Permits, Regulations and Laws
Earthship Design Principles
World's greenest museum: Renzo Piano's CA Academy of Sciences
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