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Living in the Love House My First Year as a Resident of Earthaven Ecovillage
The founders of Earthaven shared an environmental ethos and decided early on that they wanted this community to be “a living laboratory for a sustainable human future.” Built in 2008 by Brian Love, the home is powered by the sun, heats water with solar collectors and the wood cookstove, and provides delicious spring water flowing from the taps. SAM RUARK PHOTOS
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BY SAM RUARK t’s a warm spring day full of new and green growing life, and the sun is pumping clean energy into the off-grid house where I live at Earthaven Ecovillage. Earthaven was founded in 1994 by 12 people seeking a better way of living than the typical urban, suburban or rural modern lifestyles which are often designed in ways that disconnect humans from each other and the natural world. The founders of Earthaven shared an environmental ethos and decided early on that they wanted this community to be “a living laboratory for a sustainable human future” that would not only teach why sustainability is important, but show how we can live in good relationship with the land, our food, housing, and each other.
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Video Tour Watch a video tour of this home at greenbuilt.org.
There are many types of innovative living situations here. Singlefamily homes, co-housing units, microhuts, tiny houses, and other light-on-the-land dwellings make up 12 different neighborhoods and a village center. With vibrant creeks, several springs, a few ponds, and significant rainfall, this is a place with an abundance of water moving through it. No power lines come into the community of approximately 115 people, so Earthaven has had to figure out how to get much of its electricity, hot water, and heat from the sun, streams and forest. The off-grid community is powered by two micro-hydro systems and a multitude of home and neighborhood-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems. There is a commitment to intelligently designed and smallspace living and village-style density to minimize our footprints and share resources commonly. The average home here is much smaller than the American average, and many residents share kitchens and bath houses. As the village matures, so does the housing. Innovation guides the builders and renewable-energy specialists who are actively building in the community and have been using Earthaven as a learning opportunity for more than two decades. In August 2020, I moved with my family to Earthaven into the Love House, which was built in 2008 by Brian Love. My home is powered by the sun, heats water with solar collectors and the wood cookstove, and provides delicious spring water flowing from the taps. The neighborhood microgrid (a 7kW PV system) powers the barn, our water system, the Love House, and two small cabins. The feature that I’m most impressed by is the passive-solar design. On a sunny winter day, even if the temperature is in the 30s, we don’t need a fire to stay warm. The sun coming in through the massive windows with high Solar Heat Gain Coefficients soaks into the concrete thermal mass floor and countertops during the day, then slowly radiates out at night. So even on a morning when it’s 28 degrees outside, it will be 65 degrees inside with no supplemental heat other than the sun. Passive solar works, people! I’ve
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