New Earthships capture more energy, water & food at lower cost
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters recommend the channel's alternative-living videos, and this one for its look at a net-zero desert home.
What it is
Kirsten Dirksen tours new Earthships, homes built from tires, bottles and cans that generate their own energy, collect water and grow food. The video covers the newer, cheaper Encounter model and its passive systems.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2020 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec culi · 2026-07 · on “Forestiere Underground Gardens”
Almost all the videos on this channel are fascinating btw. Greenhouses enveloping entire houses/villages[0][1] in northern Europe to earthships[2] to someone growing citrus in Nebraska using trenches[3] to entire villages underground in Australia[4] [0] [LINK] [1] [LINK] [2] [this video] [3] [LINK] [4] [LINK] I'd also recommend the channels FLORB and Happen Films though they're admittedly a little corny. [LINK] [LINK] Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't recently did a tour of an interesting alt home as well. [LINK]
Recommends 205guy · 2020-08 · on “Arcosanti”
Kirsten Dirksen Seems to be finding and documenting them on her YouTube channel: [LINK] Many are just individuals in alternative living situations or creative housing, but some are communities or -in-the-making: Earthship community in Taos New Mexico: [this video] Back-to-the-traditional-village in Portugal: [LINK]
Recommends somethoughts · 2022-02 · on “Separating urine from sewage could mitigate some environmental problems”
Kinda of reminds me of this fun video about a net zero desert house(/commune?). They proposed/demostrated a cycle that is basically Shower -> indoor plants -> toilet -> outdoor plants New Earthships capture more energy, water & food at lower cost [this video]
Cites cookiengineer · 2022-10 · on “Geothermal may beat batteries for energy storage”
This reminds me a lot of the Earthship community in the middle of the desert, which always focusses on smart ways of reusing water for different purposes, and by not wasting water as much as possible. The houses usually have a clean/grey/blackwater + a rainwormbox system to process fecals and reuse it for growing plants. Their air conditioning system is basically just a pipe in the ground where the hot air flows through, cools down, and automatically gets pushed through the house when they open the windows on the roof. I was always wondering why there are no systems converting the unused electricity in potential energy by moving water to a higher ground. And more importantly: Why there are n