The country’s first fully sustainable building has launched a crowdfunding campaign for £20,000 of urgent repairs to keep it running.
The Low Carbon Trust needs to upgrade Earthship Brighton’s energy and water systems, which help it get all the electricity and drinking water it needs from the sun and rain.
Built in 2006, it was the UK’s first off-grid building, made using waste car tyres and other recycled materials and using plants to treat grey waste water.
The money will be usd to acquire a new ultraviolet water filtration system to purify rainwater for use inside the building, purchase new batteries to store electricity generated by the solar panels,and to build a straw bale unit to securely house the new batteries.
A spokesman for the Low Carbon Trust said: “With this new lease of life the Earthship will be able to empower community projects to use the building for their own events; run more eco-education events and natural building courses; and inspire all visitors by showing what low-carbon living looks like in practice.”
Located in the South Downs National Park the Earthship is used as a demonstration site to show how buildings can have a low impact on the planet.
The crowdfunding campaign launched last Tuesday on Buzzbnk andwill run for 30 days.
Oh the irony – typical of Green Party ideals – chuck enough money at it its viable
A building which needs £20,000 spent on it less than ten years after being built hardly seems sustainable.
Considering ten years of no power bills or water rates the economics don’t look as bad as they first appear. Also considering the initial outlay to get power and water to the site, going off grid can make sound economic sense.
I agree that it is a little disappointing to hear that such systems need upgrading this early on but I hope and trust the newer systems would be an improvement on the old both in quality, design life and cost effectiveness. Using Moores law one would kinda hope so anyway.