The Off-Grid Homes That Cost Nothing to Run
Earthships provide comfortable and cosy living spaces which use eco building materials to create their structure and operate without any need for public utility resources including gas.
The systems operate independently because they generate all necessary power and heat through solar panels and wind turbines. The owners use indoor greenhouses to grow food while they also control sustainable systems for rainwater harvesting and sewage treatment.
How Are Earthships Made?
Earthships use salvaged waste materials which builders can easily obtain. The construction process depends on glass bottles, aluminium cans and old car tyres and reclaimed timber to build Earthships.
Read Also: How to Find Buyer for Commercial Real Estate Property 2025?
The Earthship design uses multiple hundreds to thousands of tyres which builders fill with dirt to create rammed-earth bricks.
People throw away tyres because they function as natural insulation. Earthship Biotecture estimates the United States currently holds 2.5 billion stockpiled items while people throw away 2.5 million more each year.
Who Founded Earthships?
The first Earthship was constructed by American architect Michael Reynolds during the 1970s. He completed his University of Cincinnati studies in 1969 after growing up in Kentucky and moving to New Mexico.
His first trash house construction occurred in 1972 when he used wired drinks cans as building materials to create 'bricks.' He discovered that all materials including tyres and plastic bottles could function as sustainable building components.
A Pioneering Company
He learned from news reports about rising trash problems and insufficient low-cost housing options that these two issues could be solved through their combined approach.
Reynolds established Earthship Biotecture which operates as the first company worldwide to build these types of structures. You can acquire Earthship plans for residential buildings at the company which also provides construction guidance and offers property tours and operates an environmental building school.
How Is Energy Produced?
Earthships use minimal resources because their design eliminates the need for central heating and air conditioning systems. The structures generate their own energy with the use of solar panels.
Which provide clean electricity for 30 years, while also helping to minimise global warming. Earthships produce electricity from both solar energy and wind power, which works together with their solar system.
The two energy sources work together to produce sufficient electricity which charges the building's power module batteries that supply electricity for home use.
How Is Water Collected?
Earthships operate without any external power sources because they produce all their water needs through their water collection systems.
The building collects rainwater from its roof, which undergoes filtration to provide water that the building uses for drinking and other purposes. Earthship homes utilize their collected water for four different purposes which start with washing and bathing and laundry and end with using the water to irrigate an indoor garden.
The system first sends the water to toilets which use it for flushing purposes and then the system returns the water to irrigate the outdoor garden area.
How Are Earthships Heated?
Earthships maintain their indoor climate through continuous temperature control which provides year-round comfortable living conditions for their residents. The building's position is very important.
You Must Also Like: How Real Estate General Partnership Contract Illinois?
With the glazing facing the right direction so that the sun's rays can enter and heat the walls, which are built with tyres for insulation. Now let's look at some amazing real Earthships around the world.
New Mexico’s Earthship Community
The Greater World Community in Taos, New Mexico, was the first Earthship community in the world and now boasts more than 70 awesome off-grid homes.
The community operates an academy for students and provides self-guided tours of its eco-friendly structures while some properties on the site can be rented through Airbnb. Let's take a tour of some of the homes you can find here.
The Euro, New Mexico, USA
Realtor Stephen Jewett describes this property as the most beautiful Earthship that has ever been constructed. The building maintains its highest level of operational performance and user satisfaction throughout its entire life span since construction.
The Euro house serves as the foundational Earthship design for Earthship Biotecture's Global Model which includes multiple Earthship designs that customers can select based on their financial requirements and geographic situation.
The home lies in the heart of the Greater World Community in Taos and comes with almost two acres (0.8ha) of land. The building uses exterior rammed earth tyre walls.
Which have a thickness of two feet (0.6m) to provide exceptional thermal insulation and acoustic soundproofing. The back section of the house uses earth-berming, which means that part of the structure lies underground.
Final Thoughts
The pad also includes three bedrooms together with two full bathrooms. The space for every room contains beautiful features that exceed normal expectations.
The living room receives bright light through thick bottle walls that spread colorful illumination, while white glass bottles decorate both the primary bedroom and bathroom.
The home features hand-trowelled natural adobe walls which create a charming atmosphere, while some surfaces have been finished with eco-friendly VOC paint. The house was on the market with Jewett and Jewett in January 2025 at a price of £520,000 which equals $685k.