If you are into new technologies and energy efficiency I am sure that you heard about earthships.
What is a Earthship?
Defining an earthship is not easy because is a open source concept. We should better start with the principles that are founding this idea: defining a new housing concept.
More than 50 years ago the American architect Michael Reynolds started to think about a new way of building houses. He wanted to find a cheap and technically easy way to build a house. In addition to this he also wanted to make the house totally efficient and indipendent about energy, water and waste management.
He based the concept on six pillars:
*Natural or recycled and cheap materials
*Harvesting water from the environment (rain and condensation)
*Creating its own energy with solar and wind power systems
*Managing its organic waste and sewer creating fertilizers
*Producing food on the site
*Incredible thermal and ventilation performance by design
In order to do this it was needed to think about new ways of building. Reynolds decided to use soil as a material and used tyres as the main structural component.
He moved to New Mexico to have more freedom since this State had a more open policy on contruction.
He started making experiments and started building his firsts earthships.
Throughout time this new technology adapted to different weathers and now we wonder if this is possible even in the tropical environment of Panama.
Can we build a Earthship in Panama?
The answer is yes since we don’t have too much papers to push specially if we want to build it in the woods or in a rural area. In Panama you will experience atop of the tops freedom compared to the US or Europe. I am italian, I now what I talk about.
One of the big challenges of building a earthship in the Republic of Panama is the extreme heat.
We have to make sure that the house will have a proper roof. You can definetely install a cheap metal roof on your earthship in Panama and than apply on it our Liviatecho system to make it insulating and waterproofing. This way you will increase the thermal mass of your roof and make it resistant to the extreme UV rays of Central America
Making your own earthship in Panama is the best idea that you can have since electrical bills here are the most expensive of Central America and the temperature is very high.
Try to look for a property with red soil. It will help you a lot, specially to plaster the outside of your tyres walls. Your earthship in Panama will look like a traditional mud house
You have to remember that you will have an amazing sun all year around so you should better place the main wall of your house, the one not made with tyres but of glass instead, to the north. Temperatures get serious here in the afternoon.
Try to make it green, but remember that you will have a lot of bugs, so think about solutions to control this. You will also have to think about a smart way to manage water supply during dry season. You could experience zero rain for 4 months straight, maybe you will need a well.
Moisture is another issue, here in Panama goes up to 100%. Ventilation is going to be key.
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