Living off the Grid.....

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


Recently I checked out the web-news in "Oh, Alaska", and found myself steered to a facebook page called "Living off the Grid".

I found it to be interesting. After you're on "Oh, Alaska", skip back a few pages, or just go right to facebook.

 

[dinosaur]

Well, I don't necessarily live off the grid but I do live well to the right of it. I produce my own power (electrical) from solar panels. I heat with wood I cut from my forest of hard maple, cherry, red oak, hickory and walnut. My water is supplied from collection of rain pumped via 12 volt bilge pumps into a water tower that holds a bit over a thousand gallons.

I eat what I take off the land but I still go into town and buy bread and toilet paper and a few cleaning supplies and bleach (sodium hypochlorite is a very useful chemical). Vinegar, although I can make it myself, is also very useful. Acetic acid is a necessary nutrient. Eat salads.

 

[Grandpa]

Grandma prefers I take a hot shower occasioally.:tinysmile_twink_t2: We live very much on the grid, but can go off whenever it's necessary.

 

[wvbreamfisherman]

Well, I don't necessarily live off the grid but I do live well to the right of it. I produce my own power (electrical) from solar panels. I heat with wood I cut from my forest of hard maple, cherry, red oak, hickory and walnut. My water is supplied from collection of rain pumped via 12 volt bilge pumps into a water tower that holds a bit over a thousand gallons.

I eat what I take off the land but I still go into town and buy bread and toilet paper and a few cleaning supplies and bleach (sodium hypochlorite is a very useful chemical). Vinegar, although I can make it myself, is also very useful. Acetic acid is a necessary nutrient. Eat salads.

It's not very economical, but you can make your own sodium hypochlorite from salt water.

Electrolyze salt water to sodium hydroxide and capture the chlorine gas in a gas holder.

Then feed the chlorine back to the sodium hydroxide solution and VOILA! Sodium Hypochlorite.

Not real economical on a small scale.

 

[Pathfinder1]

Hi...


I lived off the grid in my camp in Alaska's Interior for two or three years. And kept warm, too...!!

Hauled in food, water, fuel, etc. by toboggan. That kept me warm, too...!!

 

[Barney]

I just wish I had enough money and space to organize my life as some of you do. But living in an apartment doesn't allow you that much.

 

[ppine]

Dino,
That is why you really are a dinosaur. It sounds like you are good at it.

It is useful for everyone to understand the technology that works off the grid. One of these days we will be able to go to Home Depot and buy a solar kit to install in the yard or on the roof.

There is no reason to feel any guilt about having utilities. If it bothers you just make other arrangements and call the power company to turn off the power. Everyone has lots of choices in a free country.

Most bush solutions are either more expensive or more work than being hooked up. For those in remote locations they have no choice. We have whole neighborhoods in Nevada with a lot of houses on say 5 acres or more that have never had power. The cost of bringing the powerlines was not part of the original developments, and people can't afford to spend the $5,000 to 8,000 per household to bring the powerline. They usually have a mixture of solar and wind power with batteries and a controller.

There is a natural gas pipeline in our neighborhood that is inching closer, but it would cost about $6,000 for each house in our area to get gas. We are fine with propane but it is a lot more expensive. We burn wood for heat and use propane as a back up.

 

[ChadTower]

There is a sewer line that is constantly creeping closer to my section of town. When it does the town will probably force everybody to connect to it. $15-20,000 a house with no choice. Yeah, no thanks, my cesspool works just fine because I maintain it.

 

[carmen]

I know two people who have tried this, for one it worked out great and the other they went back to a normal life within two years. I guess for some they think jumping in is okay but most do not realize how much work is required to live this way.

 

[Greatoutdoors]

I think this is one of those things that sounds like a good idea to a lot of people until they try it. Once they figure out how much work it is it doesn't sound like such a great idea anymore!

 

[Simplify]

Personally, I think aquiring as many off-grid skills as possible is a very wise idea.

With the debt bubble, declining dollar, the European economic crisis and other economic storm clouds looming on the horizon there is no guarantee that all will continue as it has.

What I am shooting for is not being completely off-grid per se but to reduce grid dependence and not be utterly dependent on the grid for day to day necessities as if it were some sort of life giving umbilical cord without which you would die.

I have been taking incremental steps. Step one was sending my old pickup truck off to the junkyard a year and a half ago. For commuting and getting around town I can ride my bike or use public transportation. For long travel there is the bus, train, shuttle vans, or rent a car.

I am much more financially free now that I have turned to alternatrive modes of transport. No more fuel, insurance, or expensive repairs.

Another incremental step I am taking is to try to reduce dependence on the grocery store. Being an apartment dweller I cannot grow food but what I do is buy veggies and side dishes from the store but try to get as much of my meat supply as possible from fishing and hunting.

I am looking into finding areas where foraging for wild edibles is legal.

One has to look at the psychology of grid over-dependence. Many people are so utterly dependent on the grid that they have completely forgotten how to live without it. If it goes down for even a day or two they start to panic.

Also disruptions like rising fuel and grocery prices can cause panic.

In my former career in heating and air conditioning I dealt with people like that all the time. If their furnace went out and I ordered the part and found out it wouldn't be in for two days they would go into a tizzy fit.

They never bothered to prepare by having alternate forms of heating.

Grid over dependence leaves people vulnerable to any number of scenarios from economic recession/depression, natural disaster, civil unrest, tyrannical government etc.

Look at how many people's worlds were turned upside down after the Bear Stearns crash in '08.