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Episode-1116- Gene “Evil Roy” Pearcey on Earth Sheltered Homes and Cowboy Action Shooting

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A Performance Building Systems Earth Sheltered Home

A Performance Building Systems Earth Sheltered Home

After a heavy-hearted day yesterday this is a fun interview on two great subjects, one is a total bonus.

Gene Pearcey has built earth shelter homes for over 30 years.  His company, “Performance Building Systems, Inc” manufactures a patented structural system used to build earth shelter arches and domes used mainly for homes and some all out shelters.

They do this by producing steel structural systems that with concrete forms a shell rated in excess of 4000-psi. When sheltered with earth, the home benefits from the constancy of the earth’s temperature, greatly reducing heating and cooling expense. Additionally, the strength of the shell and the shelter provided by the earth combine to protect both the home and occupants from harm.

By designing for the advantages of thermal mass and passive solar, these homes benefit from energy that is clean, abundant, reliable, and free. In fact, their system received an Award of Energy Innovation from the Department of Energy. They have also been featured in Popular Science, U.S. News & World Report, Newsweek International, Entrepreneur, Better Homes and Gardens Building Ideas, and many other magazines and newspapers.

In his other life under the name of Evil Roy, Gene is an Overall World and National Champion shooter in both Cowboy action and Wild Bunch shooting.  He has his name on pistols holsters, targets.  Gene is also a regular firearms expert on The Outdoor Channel’s “Gun Stories” hosted by Joe Mantegna best known for his roll on the Criminal Minds TV show.  He was also inducted into the SASS Hall of Fame in 2006.

Resources for today’s show…

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Comments

Episode-1116- Gene “Evil Roy” Pearcey on Earth Sheltered Homes and Cowboy Action Shooting — 21 Comments

  2. Just wondering if Gene’s ever heard of insulating the thermal mass of the earth 20 feet around the home to elevate the earths natural temperature to around 74 degrees F- I read a book on the subject called Passive Annual Heat Storage by John Hait and I think it should work but won’t know until I build my house in a couple years. Gene, think it has any merit?

    • That has been done but it adds cost. The earth has to be compacted, graded, insulated. The percentage of increased performance is very small as the home is already very efficient. I can’t tell much difference in utility bills. I’m sure there would have to be some gain but I suspect not much. We normally apply urethane form to the outside of the shell and waterproof over that.

  3. Excellent! The earth home is right up my alley of need-to-know information. Loved the shooting, followed the link and watched several more. A shame we don’t have some reps in Washington with his kind of wisdom and logic. Considering the mass stupidity that runs rampant, I suppose that would be counter intuitive, considering who is up there in Never-land now.
    (caution-Rant)
    Congrats progressive liberals (socialists) everywhere. Your secret plan for dumbing down America and destroying our core values has succeeded. May you truly be worthy of the whirlwind your actions will reap. Unfortunately, we are in for the same ride.

    Jack, another great podcast and please also accept my condolences concerning your furry friend. I lost my buddy three years ago and have yet to replace him. Eventually though, another will fill that hollow. Regards, Rick

  5. Awesome – I’m really looking forward to listening to this episode! I just happen to have built a house from one of Gene’s kits. 🙂

      • I built it for myself, with the intermittent help of a couple neighbors. When I started, I had really no construction experience at all, and I was able to learn everything as I went. The main structural shell was actually very simple, although it’s a lot of work for one or two people. Gene isn’t exaggerating at all when he says that DIYers can build his kits. I hired a shotcrete crew to do the actual concrete spraying (they were used to making swimming pools, but handled the house shell just fine). Learning how to put together plumbing and electrical systems was much more complicated than the shell.

        I did the bulk of the work back in 2009, and the finishing work has been going slowly since then simply because I have been living elsewhere pursuing other things (like my web site) and working on the house on weekends. I did put together a video about the project for GetRichSlowly.com, and it includes a photo montage of the construction process:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ6uyFdRvs0

        • Forgot to mention – I finally got the structure buried/bermed this past winter, and Gene is also not exaggerating about the temperature. I have no insulation on my shell, and about 2 feet of dirt on top of it. The chimney is still just an open hole in the roof, and yet I have never seen it colder than 54 inside, including mornings after nighttime temperatures in the teens. My place is in the high desert, a bit above 6,000 feet elevation – not brutally cold, but certainly an environment where everyone else is running wood or propane heat in the winter.

  6. Couple comments on the gun things: First Gene mentioned that ‘some fool will trey to do a push against gun powder’. Already happening. Within days Frank Lauteberg from (say it with me) ‘new jersey’ is reintroducing a bill that got laughed out of congress previously. (http://www.lautenberg.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=341435&amp😉 .
    Other point was the one about Columbine being the ‘poster child’ for high capacity magazine bans. The other irony is the ENTIRE ‘Brady Campaign’ fight against semi autos and assault weapons was caused by brady begin shot by a .22 revolver.

  7. Awesome show! I could have listened to that for hours. And after a trip to YouTube, I want to be a cowboy action shooter!

  8. So, I guess you could put swales on your roof, and permaculture it. Talk about zone 1.

  9. Gene mentioned an Oak Ridge report with guidance for appraisers of unusual/energy efficient structures…

    Need it…

    I’m working my Google Fu, but it has its limits. Jack, can you contact Gene to see if we can get a link? Or Gene, if you’re reading this can you provide a link to this report?

    Thanks.

    • What a load of crap, the article says that criminals didn’t choose the locations because they were gun free but doesn’t bother to say how many of them WERE GUN FREE ZONES. I hope you don’t believe this bullshit Luis.

    • The shooting in Aurora was a posted gun free zone. All the school shootings were gun free zones. If you were going to shoot up a place would you prefer that no one had the means to defend themselves or would you prefer folks shoot back? Proven fact: less guns more chance of a gun crime. The safest place you can be is a shooting match where there are hundreds of armed folks with lots of guns and ammo. No robberies, no violence, hardly ever an argument. Chicago and New York City have every gun law one can think of and also the most murders in the U.S.

  11. Love a good show on earch sheltering. I dont normally mention these sort of things, but in the future could we try not to call some anonomyous guy “some jew reporter”. I’m not saying anything was meant by it, but maybe something to try not for in the future.

    • That’s not what he said. He said that “Forbes sent a little Jewish guy out to the shooting school out in Cheyenne” to interview him. Remember ” ” Means: this is exactly what he said. The way you had it worded, it sounds dismissive, as if the guy didn’t matter because he was a Jew.
      As a ‘some Jew’ myself, I wouldn’t take offense at either, because when I came up folks still taught me that ‘sticks and stones might break my bones, but names will never hurt me’. By the same token, ‘Jew’ isn’t a ‘name’ or something bad, it’s a designation or descriptor. The thing on my end is, as soon as he said that, I could see this ‘little Jewish guy’ with a notepad, talking with this weird cowboy dude in a Woody Allen meets John Wayne kind of scene. It lends context and ads an additional flair to the ‘Forbes never talked to me about all my business but interviewed me once I because a cowboy’ story. That’s how I took it anyway.
      Not trying to correct you (other than the quote itself) or be argumentative, just perhaps another way to think about it that is less worrisome or whatever.

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