The (Greensboro) Earthship, profiled in VTDigger Sept. 27, is a woo-woo dead end for those seeking all the wonderful and worthy attainments it promises. This I know, since I built one in 1994 in Wilmington, and have tracked its history since then.
I’m not a hippie-dippy one-off builder; I’ve designed & built over 130 homes in Vermont in the past 45 years.
Post-construction problems abounded in Wilmington; we have much more lingering snow in New England than does the Southwest, so the roof must be designed for a much greater snowload (why is all the plaster blowing off the interior walls?). Ditto for solar gain; where is all the sun in the winter and why are the electric and heating bills much higher than promised? The list of failures is long.
To be fair, perhaps much has changed in the past 25 years. What I do know is that Vermont designers and builders have a really superb grasp of the best way to design and build super energy-efficient, affordable, and environmentally friendly housing.
Peter Vandertuin
Brattleboro
