Jed from “This Permaculture Life” says Earthships can leak toxic gases, encourage terrible toxic mould problems in wetter climates, underperform, be overly hot in summer and cold in winter AND cost so much in battery replacement every 5 to 10 years that you may as well just use utilities power. (So much for off-grid living!) The author DOES NOT like having toxic tyres in the walls that are decaying and could leak toxic gases throughout your home if there is even the tiniest crack. Some recommend replastering their homes every year to ensure no cracks have developed!
“Frankly, I don’t recommend Earthships as a building method, especially for people unfamiliar with good construction techniques who want to build one themselves. There are more recent, better passive solar designs that have fewer issues.”
While I’ll always be a fan of energy efficient passive solar design for housing, I’ll be removing Earthships from my blog.
