Quote:
Originally Posted by Xist
Personally, I do not want to live in a death trap.
I explained the idea of an earthship to my girlfriend. I thought that she would love the idea because she is a crazy hippie and I told her that it did not need air conditioning. She said that she would never visit me because she needed air conditioning.
Did I describe it poorly or does she just not speak Xist?
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I don't think they are
necessarily death traps, only that the limitations imposed by standardized building code - while they chill innovation - also protect us from those who would build a four story house out of Aquafina bottles and toilet tissue only to have it catastrophically collapse at the cost of property or human lives. Less dramatic but of no less importance are effects like ventilation to limit exposure to combustion byproducts when heating or cooking, exit opportunities and rescue personnel safety in the event of fire, and other such considerations that a professional architect would employ as a matter of routine but may not even be considered by an amateur builder high on self-confidence and low on experience.
I trust most peoples' sensibilities in building a nest, and I'm certain
most currently occupied earthships are as safe as they need to be for the occupants who build them - after all, we exist today after countless generations before us built their own nests and succeeded to thrive.
Air conditioning is a funny thing, last Wednesday during midday, Phoenecians pumped 13,800,000,000 watts of electrical energy into town - much of it in the pursuit of cooler air. But an air conditioner doesn't create cold, it just moves energy from inside the room to outside the room - the net result is almost fourteen billion watts of energy distributed around sixteen thousand square miles, or about 575 space heaters per square mile worth of heat added to an already hot desert. That doesn't take into account the 6 million gallons of gasoline we burned - contributing the equivalent of another 61 space heaters per square mile worth of thermal energy to the city - nor the black pavement absorbing solar radiation which would naturally be reflected by lighter colored rocks and plants - so the desert is simply less hot outside of town.
Phoenix was settled without a/c, and it was hot - but not as hot as today's local warming and houses built for heat pump efficiency rather than ecologic efficiency.