Bugout Cheap, Bugout Green!

    So I have discussed bugging out to a home or property, but now I want to touch basis on different options that are available for building your home away from home, or even your actual home. Below are the top cheap, and green, methods I have found for building unique energy efficient homes or cabins.

Earthship

     As described by their web site:

"An Earthship is a building that will take care of you, while still being sustainable, affordable, strong and meeting your local building codes."

      Earthship's are homes built with natural and recycled materials. They are probably the most expensive building method I will be covering in this post, however it is still a great deal cheaper than other typical home building techniques, and you can get a better financial return of having a home that is almost entirely energy self sufficient. These homes are all equipped with solar panels and/or wind turbines. They come in a variety of designs and layouts, and you can even work with the designers to create your own custom plans. They are also built to meet standard building codes.

    Additionally, as you can see in the picture above, most Earthships come with some form of greenhouse/porch combo. A useful feature for preppers.

Earth Bag

    

      Earth bag building is a very cheap and very simple form of construction. It actually takes the earth from the building site, and fills it into long bags, varying in makes and material, and these bags can be shaped to build a wide variety of homes. You then coat them with plaster/stucco.They are more resistant to earthquakes, and maintain a more stable temperature throughout the year, cutting on heating and cooling costs.

Earth bag building can be shaped into a number of designs and sizes. You can also build them yourself with a little self education. This may be the cheapest method of building. Below are a couple more pictures of some size and design variations:

Cob House

       

        Lastly, the cob house. Now the cob house may take longer to make, and may be more labor intensive, but this is another do it yourself building style that when completed can look like something straight out of The Brothers Grimm books. The cob home may be one of the oldest building styles to still be used in the world today. It is a made of clay, sand, straw, and water, and many times you can use some of the material from the building site for ingredients. But just as with the earth bag building, you can fully customize your own home designs and build your home for much cheaper than a standardized homes, and it shares the same energy efficient strengths as earth bag building. Below are some pictures showing other options with cob building:

Stay prepared, stay safe!

Check out these sites for more information on these building methods.

www.earship.com

www.earthbagbuilding.com

www.thiscobhouse.com