Living Off the Grid

[In the guest commentary below, Ricks Picks forum regular ‘Oregon’ details some of the steps that he and his family have taken to live off-the-grid. Try to imagine what your life would be like if your home were without power for days or even weeks or longer. The author has done many things to insulate his household from such a catastrophe while saving serious money on utility bills. He has also gained the peace of mind that comes with simplifying one’s life. Perhaps his experience will inspire some of you to take steps of your own toward self-sufficiency. RA]

What is off-grid living?  In the simplest terms, off-grid living is taking responsibility for one’s way of life, which means sustaining one’s own water, energy, and waste systems.  Although off-grid living means there is no one to yell at if the power is out, the water isn’t running, or the s**t isn’t running downhill, it also means peace of mind when nearly everyone else is without one or more utilities.  Other benefits include no one demanding payment each month for utilities, nor having to give legal easement to utility companies. The on-site production of food, building materials and an income source will round out true off-grid living, but makes it far more complex.

As with any major decision in one’s life — and the decision to move off-grid is indeed a major decision — you should “know thyself” before attempting it. Can you handle the role of systems manager?  Can you simplify your lifestyle; become more efficient with your time and energy?  Can you afford it?  Often overlooked, the upfront costs for living off-grid are huge and obtaining conventional loans is difficult at best and should be avoided.  The major theme here is to live more simply, and starting with a loan payment flies in the face of that.  Unless one has a rock-solid plan to make money from home, or a long-term acceptable alternative, the better option is to start small and simple with a plan that can expand as resources become available.

Covering the Basics

The basics of off-grid-living:  One will need a water source (well, spring or rainwater), energy sources for electricity and heat, waste treatment, and communications.  If you take one piece of advice from this article, start with a subscription to Home Power magazine. I have found no better nor cheaper resource for all the information one will need to inspire, design, build, maintain or simply validate electrical, heating, and other associated systems for the off-grid home.

Having the basic resources for off-grid living may dictate where you live.  Most places have enough sun to make power, a few have enough water for hydroelectric generation, but what about heat?  If you live in the tropics, fine; have geothermal, great; but otherwise, a large thermal solar/hydronic system and/or firewood supply will be necessary to keep warm.  I haven’t figured out how many acres it will take to supply a home with firewood in perpetuity, and of course there are many variables, but I will guess at least 25 acres to supply the average home, north of 40 degrees latitude, with firewood without having to look at a clear-cut for a wood lot.

For the off-grid home, efficiency is paramount.  ‘Energy Star’ ‘Green’, ‘Blue’ or whatever the enviro-awareness color of the year is won’t cut it;  proper site design, extreme insulation, LED lighting, and high efficiency appliances are required.

Conserving Power

Our family of four, including two children under 12, made the leap off-grid almost four years ago.  We are building a 3000 square foot straw bale home, with approximately five kilowatts of solar-power collection and an 1150 amp/hour battery bank, along with various charge controllers, inverters, etc.  We also utilize an 8000 watt propane generator for the low-production winter days. This winter I ran the generator less than 100 hours, which is about average, and haven’t used it since February.  We will also have five 4’x8’ thermal solar collectors for hot water that will supply domestic hot water and hydronic heat to the daylight basement slab.  Additional hot water will come from a wood fired boiler (custom built) and space heat from a masonry heater (custom built).  As a last resort, although primary at the moment, we have propane water heaters to boost, or supply, domestic and hydronic heat if we aren’t using sun or firewood.  We have very good southern exposure and many acres of quality firewood, so that when the whole system is up and running we should need very little propane, and mostly for cooking.

We make slight adjustments to live off-grid.  In the winter we don’t vacuum, use a toaster or hair dryer, etc. until the sun is on the solar panels.  Also, we only pump water to our holding tanks when the sun shines.  Basically we carefully consider every electric appliance before use, keeping us very conservative, but still allowing the modern comforts. Energy independence is not as difficult as it may sound, and has worked for us.  Less time on the omputer, TV and other devices, has certainly made us a stronger family, and I feel the long-term benefit to my children far outweighs some of the “social networking” they may be missing.