Hi!

My family and a friend family are considering building a pair of Earthships in Jasper, Alabama.

Our main concerns are getting a building permit in a backwater area like this and affording the solar/wind/water filtration packages.

I was wondering if anyone can give me an idea of where to look to determine the absolute cheapest way to attain these parts of the Earthship design? We're a pair of very poor families with children and we are thinking about trying to turn our lives around with the Earthship design.

My husband and I are interested in continuing after that in helping others to build Earthships to help spread the idea. If we can manage to produce our Earthship, we will be able to devote a lot of time to helping build further Earthships so I'm trying to get an idea of whether we can manage it somehow. We would even like to get my MIL into an Earthship for her retirement.


Any information would be awesome.

Shei

The absolute cheapest way to go is to build it yourself. Get a few batteries, a few PV panels and go from there. But living in a construction site isnt always what is best for a family...

Another option is to pool resources with a group of people in your area to have a few Earthship Biotects come out and help you get started.

Are there any incentives from your state? from your county?

Look at the home you live in now... what are the biggest expenses? How can you reduce/eliminate them? Can you retrofit your existing building? Can you set yourself up now to reduce your expenses, then move those expenses to pay for your earthship?

There isn't one way to go from a conventional building/lifestyle to a sustainable one. Every person's life is unique, therefore the path to get to sustainable living for each person is unique...

Please post here so that we can help you...


thanks!

We currently live in an apartment building on housing authority subsidized housing. Our expenses are low... Power and Phone and internet (which is necessary due to my online college course). We don't spend much money and we have almost none to spare. My husband is severely social phobic to a point of disability and is working on his case for Disability benefits. If we get that, we should be able to save a few months and pay for the things we can't get salvaged, I would think.

The real question I'm asking is how much does it cost to get the necessities for off-grid living besides salvageable materials? Solar Panels, Wind Generators, Batteries, Systems and Filters, Water Tank etc... As for the Solar Panels I read that a company has made liquid solar panels that are going to be 50%-90% cheaper than current panel style solar collectors. That's due to come out in March or so, therefore, I think I'll be waiting for that innovation to purchase solar collectors.

I really would just love someone to say "Reasonably, you could probably build an Eartship off-grid for $xxxx-$xxxx or something similar to that price range." It doesn't have to be an official statement, and I don't care if you totally disclaimer it as just a basic estimate thrown off your cuff... I'd just like for someone to throw some numbers at me to give me SOME idea of what I might spend to make my own earthship. My husband, a few friends and I will be doing the building and we will salvage all we can. I just want an idea of how much we need to buy the non-salvageable materials so I can save up before we get into building and find our project half-done and unfinishable.

One more question while I have your attention... has any research been done about how these homes hold up in more HUMID climates? I saw another thread on that question but it NEVER got answered so I would really like to bring it up again here since Alabama is SEVERELY humid. Often we get up to 80% humidity. This won't just melt the Adobe or something will it? Please let me know..

Thank you!

People have built their own earthship for as little as $10k. This is one room with basic facilities. This is also AFTER working on other earthships.