Johhny Electriglide wrote:
Earthship Design Principles
1) Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling
2) Solar & Wind Electricity
3) Contained Sewage Treatment
4) Building with Natural &
Recycled Materials
5) Water Harvesting
6) Food Production
Along with these, it is a given that each building has a stable amount of people, staying within the range of its support mechanisms.
Rainfall change is something that affects this amount. The passive solar is affected by prolonged cloudiness, and backup systems by local and outside resources.
My only problem with high-mass buildings is they are difficult to make in a typical city lot. Of course it would be ideal if we could just start over and make new cities designed for solar but that is not going to happen. The second issue with high mass is only how much mass is needed based on the level of insulation used. In places where there is a high difference in daily highs and lows but minimal difference between average temperature and desired room temperatures, high mass is the ultimate answer (and is dirt cheap using tired old garbage for a couple of puns). A bit further to the North, we have John Hiat's "Passive Annual Heat Storage" in Montana and Amory Lovin's "banana farms" in Colorado mountains. These designs use a bit more insulation and a bit less use of high mass walls. They needed more insulation to deal with a low average temperature in their area and thus had less need for thermal mass. "Passive annual heat storage" method has been shown effective in Alaska but the land mass needed was bigger then a city block that required buried foam insulation. This is even less practical in a city. I hope to solve that problem and I will explain using your list of design principles but listed in a different order for ease of explaining the thought process
6) Food Production
A city lot is rather small and generally the front yard is not available for any above-ground use so the entire back yard needs to be greenhouse as a given.
4) Building with Natural & Recycled Materials
The primary garbage in a converted city will be these old inefficient buildings. Building upgrades has to be the first line of action. There are many forms of insulation made with recycled materials (paper, glass, cotton fabric) and others with low embodied energy made with abundant or renewable materials (like volcanic rock and soybeans).
5) Water Harvesting
The biggest problems with cities is the rain runoff... I will catch it all and store it and use it. Eaves and cisterns were common practice only a few decades ago... my house is about 100 years old and had a very large cistern that was cemented over about 45 years ago (date on the cement patch) Adding a greenhouse gives more rain-catching surface. Under the unused front yard, large water storage tanks can be buried (look at the designs that use what looks like milk product delivery square plastic things to provide a square shape and strength to hold up enough dirt above it to get beyond the frost line).
3) Contained Sewage Treatment
Composting toilets that do not use water are commercially available and have be been for used for decades now for testing and long warranties. Grey water reusage is a bit trickier due to safety regulations but I think shower water can be reused for showers then used up by cloths washing with high efficiency washing machines and that waste water sent to the greenhouse for filtering and use. Sink water (drinking, hand washing, washing dishes) can be a primary water usage with a purification system or if I am forced to, use city treated water... but that is a small portion of the water and still within the scope of using all the waste water on the greenhouse.
1) Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling
This is where the insulation and air-tightness is so high that the building is heated by body heat. Some solar thermal will be used for hot water but much of the hot water used for showers will be retained by the reuse of that water for showers. This leaves more of the limited roof space for concentrating solar for stored high heat used for cooking and powering refrigeration and for PV
2) Solar & Wind Electricity
Wind power is not as applicable within a city but roof-peak wind energy gathering turbines have been invented that might be visually acceptable and be used for pumping and electricity. PV will be used to provide lights, alarms, and thermal solar controls and pumps but purchased electricity might still be financially prudent for heating backup and high power items while the building is already hooked to power lines. Of course the goal of independence will provide the push to go 100% PV for electricity as long as the thermal solar needs are covered. Note that cooking and refrigeration energy was covered by solar thermal methods above.
This is why PassivHaus building standards are popular in Germany and other parts of northern Europe and required on new buildings in many countries now... high insulation can eliminate 90% or more of the heating and cooling needs of a typical building leaving the remaining 10% to come from waste heat from solar hot water and heat created by the electronics and lighting that is powered by the PV.
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