Living off the Grid, and How to Do It
Isn’t living off-the-grid every man’s dream? Be self-sufficient! Pay no more utility bills! Have power during the rolling blackouts and winter storms! It’s all so grandiose, and for most people, so completely out of reach.
But never fear; there is still hope. Even a city slicker can do things that decrease their dependence on the grid. But first, let’s break the issue down into manageable parts, with help from the experts at Evergreen Mountain Labs and http://www.EvergreenGasLabs.com, and look very briefly at each puzzle piece in turn.
There are basically five items to address in order to live completely grid free and independent. You can implement one, two, or even all five, items, but the secret is to start somewhere.
1. Cooking
2. Heating, Cooling
3. Electricity
4. Food
5. Water, Sewer, Laundry
1. Cooking Needs. It all boils down, no pun intended, to how you use energy. Find the cheapest way possible to cook your food. For some people, this means getting a wood cook stove. For some it means getting a propane camp stove and learning to use it. For some, it means getting a solar oven (assuming of course that you get lots of sun). And for everybody, it means eating dried goods and fresh fruits and vegetables, and cooking less often, or only cooking one pot of stew or something in the morning, and then serving from it all day. Electric stoves aren’t really even an option here; they just plain use too much electricity to operate.
2. Heating/Cooling. For space heating and cooling, you need several things. If you can find a wood stove and firewood, do so. If you can swing a swamp cooler versus an air conditioner, do it. And insulate everything, to the maximum. Well-insulated items take less energy to keep them at the proper temperature, than do poorly insulated ones.
3. Electricity. It seems that you simply have to have electricity to survive in today’s world. So the trick is to minimize its usage wherever possible (heating, cooling, cooking, entertainment, etc.) And the first thing to remember is to CONSERVE electricity however possible, with energy efficient everything (including lights). The second thing to remember is NEVER use electricity to heat up anything; it’s too wasteful. Find alternatives. As for generating electricity off the grid (including for apartment people), get at least one 12volt, deep cycle battery, one solar panel you can place in a window to keep it charged (or one of the small, pollution free ones being developed by Evergreen Mountain Labs), and a 300Watt Inverter to power whatever it is you need. If something uses more than 300Watts, you can probably do without it – with the possible exception of your laundry washer. You can get a small 5KW generator for things like that, but NEVER run them indoors, and then find a good way to store or procure fuel for it. A diesel one can even run on biodiesel that you can make yourself or often get for free at local restaurants.
4. Food can be a bit of a trick, but there are still ways that you can raise enough of your own food to survive, even in a city apartment. Forget meat unless you can stomach mouse and rat de la creme, and focus on vegetables and fruits. Start with tomatoes grown upside down from holes in the bottom of hanging pots. They produce like crazy, and will cover many of your daily vitamin needs. The thing to remember is to focus on plants that produce vegetables on an ongoing basis, without needing lots of space to do it in.
5. Water and sewer can also be a problem sometimes, but there’s still hope, even for the city dweller. Rain water, snow melt, and even creek and pond water can all be stored and filtered (or boiled). So start by getting yourself a high quality water filter (distillers take power), with a supply of replacement cartridges. As for sewer, get an odor free, indoor, self-composting toilet, and you suddenly have a fertilizer as well. Laundry, since it uses so much water, can be an issue. The only thing I can offer there is learn to do it by hand if the need arises, because your washing machine simply takes too much power too.
By addressing all five areas of grid dependence, and by learning to conserve and live simply, anyone, including city slickers, can learn to live off the grid and be energy and grid independent.
Some of the products mentioned in this article are, or soon will be, available at http://www.SurvivalOffTheGrid.com, along with more info, ebooks, and more.
