offthegridbuild
New Member
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| 15 Feb 2011 01:34 PM |
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Hi Everyone, I just bought a piece of land in Taos, NM and am beginning construction on my off the grid home in April. I'm building the most recent version of a building called an Earthship. It will have rain water catchment, passive solar/geothermal heating and cooling, solar and possibly wind powered electricity and a gray/black water system. I am going to be documenting the entire process on the Web. I'm posting here because I imagine this could be a helpful resource for those thinking about building their own off the grid home. I'm very interested in being self sustainable and I want to raise some animals and have a small scale farm, so once the house is done I'll move on to documenting that as well. I've been building Earthships with the Earthship Biotecture crew for the past couple of years so I'm going into this with a decent background, but I know it's going to be quite a journey nonetheless. So I hope you find this helpful. I'm also accepting volunteers that want to help build the house, so if you or anyone you know wants learn how to build their own just let me know! Check it out http://www.offthegridbuild.com! Dan |
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 15 Feb 2011 01:51 PM |
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I'm also accepting volunteers that want to help build the house... Wish I could get the "Tom Sawyer" thing going on my build.....
How deep do you have to go for water there? |
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offthegridbuild
New Member
Posts:7
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| 15 Feb 2011 01:56 PM |
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I know there are wells out on the mesa here in Taos but I don't know how deep they are. My house is not going to have a well. It's strictly rain water catchment! All of the other Earthships our here are set up the same way. I will have two 2,500 gallon cisterns for a 900 sq foot studio. |
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 15 Feb 2011 05:28 PM |
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I want to raise some animals and have a small scale farm, I think the rainwater catchment is great if you have only the residence and human needs to think about, but I have no idea how you are going to have animals and any farming without a well. |
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offthegridbuild
New Member
Posts:7
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| 15 Feb 2011 06:02 PM |
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Posted By ICFHybrid on 15 Feb 2011 05:28 PM
I want to raise some animals and have a small scale farm, I think the rainwater catchment is great if you have only the residence and human needs to think about, but I have no idea how you are going to have animals and any farming without a well. Yes, good point. I may eventually have to drill a well. The other options are building another structure to increase catchment surface area or expanding on my existing area with a faux rooftop, and of course adding another couple cisterns specifically for the plants and animals. I only intend to have a few animals and a humble greenhouse so that may be enough. And there is also a public, membership based well down the street. Do you know any estimates on how much water a cow/goat/pig/chickens/ consume? |
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 15 Feb 2011 06:56 PM |
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Do you know any estimates on how much water a cow/goat/pig/chickens/ consume? It's not so much the water they drink as the water that is required to grow the feed. For example, a chicken might need several cups of water a day, for about 50 gallons a year. It also consumes about a bushel of corn which might require 3,000 gallons to grow. The bigger animals need about 10 - 20 gallons per day just in water and maybe 50 lbs of forage. |
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offthegridbuild
New Member
Posts:7
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| 15 Feb 2011 11:40 PM |
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Posted By ICFHybrid on 15 Feb 2011 06:56 PM
Do you know any estimates on how much water a cow/goat/pig/chickens/ consume? It's not so much the water they drink as the water that is required to grow the feed.
For example, a chicken might need several cups of water a day, for about 50 gallons a year. It also consumes about a bushel of corn which might require 3,000 gallons to grow.
The bigger animals need about 10 - 20 gallons per day just in water and maybe 50 lbs of forage. Chickens are definately feasable out on the Taos Mesa, but larger animals are definately pushing it without a well. Thanks for the info! Raising animals is unexplored territory for me. |
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 16 Feb 2011 12:30 AM |
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Raising animals is unexplored territory for me. You might be able to grow a few vegetables for your salad with catchment water, but it would be impossible to come anywhere near "self-sustainable" without a well or surface water rights. |
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offthegridbuild
New Member
Posts:7
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| 16 Feb 2011 12:40 AM |
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You'd be surprised at how much we have grown just inside a single Earthship. Keep in mind that the water used to grow the plants is gray water and has already been used for washing in the shower and bathroom sinks, so that alone increases water capacity. Also, the way water is used is extremely efficient. A 1,000 gallon resevoir is maintained in an EPDM rubber lined planter that slowly makes it's way to be recirculated or pumped to a toilet, and the plants roots grow down to it and sip from it resulting in very little evaporative loss. If you know what you're doing, you can grow all the vegetables for a single person to survive on in a studio 900 sq ft earthship. If you add on extra rain catchement and storage for an outside greenhouse, you can easily double that.
I definately agree with you that larger animals would require the well. |
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 16 Feb 2011 01:02 AM |
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Oh, that's interesting. So the one cistern has roots down in it and is fed by gray water and from there back to feed the toilets?
What about more sophisticated hydroponics? |
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offthegridbuild
New Member
Posts:7
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| 16 Feb 2011 01:10 AM |
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Posted By ICFHybrid on 16 Feb 2011 01:02 AM
Oh, that's interesting. So the one cistern has roots down in it and is fed by gray water and from there back to feed the toilets?
What about more sophisticated hydroponics? The cisterns are where where rain water is stored. It is then filtered to domestic water and used for washing. It then makes its way to the gray water planter cell resevoir. I'm not trying to shunt you off on some web link, but I wrote a great article with photos and video on the Earthship water path. That shows the gray water cells very clearly. http://www.offthegridbuild.com/?p=62You could totally incorporate hydroponics into this, however, that would probably be best served for a seperate greenhouse. The gray water planter cell in the Earthship greenhouse is a vital part of the water path. |
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ICFHybrid
Veteran Member
Posts:3039
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| 16 Feb 2011 02:14 AM |
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That's pretty inspirational.
So, how much water can those outdoor black water planter trenches handle?
Let's say you had 50 gallons a day leaving the septic tank. How many feet of planter trench would that keep moist before it dried up?
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offthegridbuild
New Member
Posts:7
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| 16 Feb 2011 12:20 PM |
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Posted By ICFHybrid on 16 Feb 2011 02:14 AM
So, how much water can those outdoor black water planter trenches handle?
Let's say you had 50 gallons a day leaving the septic tank. How many feet of planter trench would that keep moist before it dried up?
I'm sure you could figure out a close to exact formula for this, but it's really more of a "get a feel for it" situation. Initially, you run your water system in the house to fill the black water planter cell with water. Depending on temperature and humidity outside, and how many plants you have growing on top of the cell, evaporation and evapo-transpiration will vary, as will the water level of the cell if you don't use the system all too much. ideally, you use the flush the toilets enough so the cell stays pretty close to full. You will know if you need to run the system more if your plants aren't doing well. If you have a larger system, you can daisy chain black water cells with overflows. To keep in accordance with building code and to prevent sewage overflow into the yard, the last black water cell must overflow into a leech field, but very little, at any at all should ever make it there if you did you design right. |
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