Two years ago I volunteered on the first Earthship building the UK that was built as a residential home and met domestic building regulations. This build was initiated and led by first time self builders Heidi Pavlou and her Husband Savas Pavlou. They were both committed to the Earthship approach, so much so that they sold their home to finance the build and lived with their parents and in a small tent whilst they built. I have great respect for them, not least because of their conviction and dedication to completing the job with very small budgets. They worked with volunteers and low paid workers for much of the grunt work, and I was very happy to assist them in the early stage of the build.
One of the main concerns when self-building is meeting building regulations. These days the building codes and requirements are quite unforgiving, and if you step out of the norm it can be very difficult to satisfy the building codes. A lot of the energy efficient calculations are based on computer algorithms (SAP), based on predetermined energy efficiencies of known materials. Whilst this can be very useful for estimating the energy efficiency of a building before it is completed, problems do arise when you are using previously untested materials such as glass bottles and indeed tyre walls! Whilst i was volunteering we were visited by the building inspectors and I got to see first hand how the process went. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The building inspectors were very friendly and not nearly as imposing and harsh as I had imagined. I think they were actually very supportive of the project, and wanted it to succeed. Whilst they can't bend the rules for you, they definitely made the effort to support the project by giving good advice opportunity to fix things that they were not overly satisfied with. It seems to me that half of the reason for your success or failure in meeting UK building regulations is purely one of character! Sav and Heidi are really wonderful people with great character and local community connections. Due to their pleasant and positive nature they were able to befriend the authorities and get their advice and help at all stages of the build. It was easy to see why many people have failed in their efforts simply because they lacked the communication skills to speak to people in a way that lends them to wanting to help you. Maybe this is one of the great secrets to a successful life! A I wrote some time ago, the end of Education is Character! So IF you are self building and will end up having to deal with the authorities, be aware of this simple but very important message.
While I was assisting with the build we worked mainly on the insulation and berm around the back of the house. It was great to see first hand how much insulation and foam was used to seal this house up. The back had a good 8 inches of insulation, as well as about 2 feet of dirt. All of this was meticulously sealed up so that there was not even the slightest path for air to leak out of the house. The reason that Earthships are SO well insulated and bermed (partially buried) is that they are build to perform in even the harshest climates without any need to heat or cool them. Of course most people Do add some additional heating in the winter, but IF you don't or can't you will find that you can still live quite comfortably. Heidi confirmed this to me a few weeks ago when she explained that they had all moved into their Earthship before the wood burner was installed and working. It was -5 degrees Celsius outside and yet inside they were all quite comfortable. There isn't any other building option that I know of that can offer this kind of performance. When you do heat an Earthship like this, you HARDLY need any fuel to heat it up as it is SO well insulated and sealed. In fact, just body warmth can make a significant difference!
So, I am Very happy to share with you the latest Government reports on Earthship Sheppey! Bear in mind that the average home is responsible for around 6 TONNES of CO2 per year! Earthship Sheppey on the other hand is responsible for ... wait for it... -0.01 Tonnes of CO2, with the potential for a further 2.3 tonnes of CO2 to be removed in the future. That is really incredible, and having a negative carbon footprint is something that Heidi and Sav should be extremely proud of. How can it be that two people with very limited building skills and a VERY small team are able to achieve figures that totally wipe the floor with anything that these huge building companies can offer.
How is it that an Earthship can actually provide for you, keep you warm, watered and even fed with no bills or maintenance when a conventional house is essential a matchbox that does nothing except suck power and resources and spit out toxins and problems for the planet. This is a revolution folks, and here is the proof. Why should we spend our money and time on heating and cooling, polluting the planet and contributing to global warming when we can do this instead. It really does boggle my mind why the adoption of Earthships is so low, which is why im writing this post! This is nothing short of a miracle in my mind!
SO now i will share the reports with you! Please do share it if you know people who understand these numbers as there are VERY few such reports since there are so few Earthships, especially in the UK and Europe.
