# Living off the grid,my opinion.



## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

Living of the grid, wow, for many out there a dream but reality is another thing, it cost money to live off the grid if you want some kind of human comfort; sanitation, water, lights, comes to mind. As a child our home had no running water, no power, cooking with wood/charcoal stove, and small alcohol burners or kerosene, outhouse and a 55 gallon drum and rope pull shower head for bath times or the river, laundry was done by the river or the women wash with washboards and lots of hot water in big cans, lots of hand tools, food preservation/curing, gardening, butchering, milking,baking,just like a good old cowboy movie .Of course the times have change; solar/wind power, battery banks, computers ,cell phones and God knows what other gadgets to make off the grid a living Martha Steward dream, but they cost money, lots of money.
So why not make your present living conditions your off the grid dream by just making a few frugal changes in your life style and living arrangements like a simple land line phone service, a very very slow internet service, simple cell phones if any, mine is prepay by the way and I never use it, one TV in the house, energy efficient light bulbs, ceiling fans for the summer and air condition for sleeping only, learn to cook and preserved /cured/baked your own foods is fun for the family and you will save a bundle, learn to fix things like your car and appliances, lower your water heater temp,make a food list and menu just like a budget it works if you stick to it ,stop driving unnecessarily ,and eating out, if you are paying mortgage or renting stay home more and save a lot, living off the grid is a major investment and sacrifice ,making a few life changes is a lot simpler and easier on everybody at home.
My opinion.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

readytogo said:


> Living of the grid, wow, for many out there a dream; but, reality is another thing. It costs money to live off the grid if you want some kind of human comfort - sanitation, water, and lights come to mind.
> 
> As a child our home had no running water, no power, cooking with wood/charcoal stove, and small alcohol burners or kerosene, outhouse and a 55 gallon drum and rope pull shower head for bath times or the river. Laundry was done by the river or the women wash with washboards and lots of hot water in big cans. We had lots of hand tools and we did our own food preservation/curing, gardening, butchering, milking, baking, just like a good old cowboy movie. Of course the times have changed. Solar/wind power, battery banks, computers, cell phones and God knows what other gadgets to make off the grid a living Martha Stewart dream; but, they cost money, lots of money.
> 
> ...


It helps the reader if you break your thoughts into sentences and paragraphs. IMHO.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

Hey RTG, glad to see you back. As to your post, all good ideas


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## bbrider (Sep 27, 2013)

RTG, I understood your post. ;-)

And you're right. I lived on a homestead for several years as a kid in Alaska. A lot of what you talk about brings back memories. So much of our food preservation was like an assembly line; I learned my part but never the whole job. I have had to invite my mom, aunt and grandmother over to help me learn the missing parts. 
We are trying to cut back on our power, water, and gas usage. We are raising our chickens, pork and beef. Learning to cure a lot of the meat. 
We will never be "off the grid", but if it goes down, we should mostly be okay. 
Thanks for your thoughts.

Sent from my C811 4G using Survival Forum mobile app


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

readytogo, are you spying on us or secretly living in our woods? In just one thing to mention of the list which covers most all of how we do things is the fact that we use our driveway so little that grass is growing in the tire wallows. When I built our home I used a lot of insulation and what we do for cooling during the warmer summer month is to open a lot of windows so that the cool night breezes flow through the home, we also run a ceiling fan to mix the cool air around and no later than 9:00 AM shut everything up. Even on 100 degree days we stay close to 20 degrees cooler than outside. Doing the things on your list could save enough for putting in a smaller solar system, thing is design one that will take care of the absolute necessities and not the creature comforts like you mentioned. At this point the system I designed will take care of two refrigerators, a freezer and a few lights. It's designed not to tie into the grid but to pass through the inverter grid power to those appliances and if there is a failure of grid power then the solar kicks in. There are many nearly off grid things we do already that save a lot of money. We heat almost exclusively with wood and we hand cast a concrete 1,100 gallon water tank at the top of our property many years ago that is spring feed, so no electricity is needed at the home to supply the 25 psi we get in our water system. The overflow from the spring is used to water the fruit and nut trees and the garden.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

People have a lot of ideas about what living off-grid means and there are infinite ways to do it. When people generalize about "off-grid living" they are clumping together everyone from people living in a cabin in the woods with a wood stove to people in million dollar homes with generators, propane, and huge solar arrays. It makes for a rather difficult conversation at times.



readytogo said:


> Living of the grid, wow, for many out there a dream but reality is another thing, it cost money to live off the grid if you want some kind of human comfort; sanitation, water, lights, comes to mind.
> 
> Of course the times have change; solar/wind power, battery banks, computers ,cell phones and God knows what other gadgets to make off the grid a living Martha Steward dream, but they cost money, lots of money.


I would have to say that this is not the case imo.

Grid power costs money, no way around it, the bill comes in the mail and must be paid. Alternative energy and off-grid energy CAN cost more but done properly will SAVE money. Conservation and efficiency is great but with grid power in most places you will have a minimum payment no matter how little you use. A dollar spent on grid power is gone but a dollar spent on solar is still working for me decades later (this from personal experience).

Of course everyone's situation is different. For instance for many who live in rural areas sanitation, running water, etc are already their responsibility while for others water and sewer may be as simple as running a line. If a person has a well then it is no great expense to run it with solar for instance, in fact it will cost much less in the long run if done right, the same with septic.

Like with most preparedness related areas going "off-grid" can SAVE money for many people if that is what they want to do.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

I agree with CH on this one. Living off grid can be fairly cheap if you learn to conserve electricity. But if you try to make a solar power system equal to the grid then you'll be spending a pile of money. But even then it's an investment similar to making payments on your own home vs. renting a home. Each is expensive but at least you'll eventually own your home. Rent for 30 years and all you'll have is a handful of receipts.

Plus, your "power bill" with solar power will remain relatively stable whereas you can count on paying more every year for the electricity you purchase from your local power company.

Solar power isn't an expense ... it's an investment.


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## musketjim (Dec 7, 2011)

Always looking to live a little more frugally here at the house. BOL is off the grid and I spend my summers there, and as much time as possible in winter. We heat with wood there as well as use our wood fired hot tub for bathing or boil water for a shower if desired. We still use propane for cooking and we do have some propane lights, but have found our LED's running off batteries are actually better for reading. This allows us to save our propane for cooking. We also cook over open fire or on top of woodstove. Being off the grid without access to gasoline or propane, would definitely be a game changer. 50% of time would be spent getting firewood and 50% would be spent getting food at least up here.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

mosquitomountainman said:


> I agree with CH on this one. Living off grid can be fairly cheap if you learn to conserve electricity. But if you try to make a solar power system equal to the grid then you'll be spending a pile of money. But even then it's an investment similar to making payments on your own home vs. renting a home. Each is expensive but at least you'll eventually own your home. Rent for 30 years and all you'll have is a handful of receipts.
> 
> Plus, your "power bill" with solar power will remain relatively stable whereas you can count on paying more every year for the electricity you purchase from your local power company.
> 
> Solar power isn't an expense ... it's an investment.


You are absolutely right, our power bill seems to go up sometimes by the month. The power company has tagged on a fee for two dam removals and they sneak in other little fees. Even changing to LED lights which has reduced our overall lighting wattage by half, doesn't keep up with increases, but I'm sure it helps.


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## FatTire (Mar 20, 2012)

For me, living off grid is the dream, not because of the money, but because its the only way to live that I can see that is actually liberating. The more you can do for yourself, the higher your level of liberty. I dont have on rose colored glasses about it, I know some things will be sacrificed, I know there will be lots of hard work. I look forward to those things. Ive worked hard my whole life and have very little to show for it, to be able to live off the grid, with a few solar panels and a little cabin that are actually mine.. Yeah thats the dream.. 

The reality is, tho, I suck with money and women.. Still, Im working towards the dream. The montana state electrical board will hopefully approve my paperwork and ill have a test date soon for my journeyman card, which will mean making more money, at which point I will be saving every nickle to buy land.


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## mosquitomountainman (Jan 25, 2010)

FatTire said:


> For me, living off grid is the dream, not because of the money, but because its the only way to live that I can see that is actually liberating. The more you can do for yourself, the higher your level of liberty. I dont have on rose colored glasses about it, I know some things will be sacrificed, I know there will be lots of hard work. I look forward to those things. Ive worked hard my whole life and have very little to show for it, to be able to live off the grid, with a few solar panels and a little cabin that are actually mine.. Yeah thats the dream..
> 
> The reality is, tho, I suck with money and women.. Still, Im working towards the dream. The montana state electrical board will hopefully approve my paperwork and ill have a test date soon for my journeyman card, which will mean making more money, at which point I will be saving every nickle to buy land.


You should check into certification/licensing for home or industrial solar power installations. The guy in Eureka could use some competition.


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## FatTire (Mar 20, 2012)

mosquitomountainman said:


> You should check into certification/licensing for home or industrial solar power installations. The guy in Eureka could use some competition.


Yep thats on my list, its spendy and takes time, but if i can find local work ill be doing just that. Most likely tho, Ill be doing a lot of traveling, sort of a gypsy electrician for a while, thats pretty much the nature of the business right now


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## Jimmy24 (Apr 20, 2011)

Seems kinda like preaching to the choir for some...

Yes having some creature comforts would be nice, but not completely necessary. I've had a small solar setup for many years now. It can handle my lights (all LED), 1 very good fan, my tool charger, my very small High efficiency fridge (converted 3.5 cuft chest freezer) and a small led tv with dvd player.

Have approximately $700 invested in it. Now having said that, I'm hoping to upgrade my batteries soon to some golf cart types batteries. I have 3 Deep Cycle 12 volt Marine batteries now, but they have had to be replaced once already. The golf cart type should give me much better life. I also have purchased a 750 watt wind gen ($550). I hope to have it up as an additional charging source soon also. 

Living off grid for me is more a mental exercise than anything. I have to practice it complexly from time to time. Which means main breaker off for oh 2-7 days, at least 3 times a year. I gets your head right...

Yes if you want to keep your lifestyle off-grid as it is on-grid you will spend a large amount of $$$. But if you work at it, you might be able to get along with a lot less.

2 cents worth.


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## catdog6949 (Apr 25, 2012)

*Off grid in town.....*

We currently have a small apartment here in Seattle, it has window's that face the Sun during most of the day. We hope too be able too lower our Electric Bill some and also have light's and entertainment and New's.

So we have a folding 7 watt panel along with a Battery pack it charge's, this Charge's our Cell Phone's and Tablet's right now! Were hoping too add a Folding 13 Watt to Gang too the 7 Watt for 20 Watt's! Then run their 12v. Power too an 18 amp Battery Box, we want too power(This also has a. Internal 250 watt inverter on it) for small AC stuff!

Our Goal is to power a LCD small Tv we have and a small rechargable radio w/ 2 battery powered Speaker's. We think if this will do this and Recharge the Box We could deal with Short Term Power Outage's!

This would be Phase 1 of our Power Independence Plan? Then Phase 2 would be too add an actaul Solar Panel High wattage too be hooked together with the other's too both Power our 2.8 Amp Vacume (it's small). And also a small 12 v. Chest refrig!

I belive this with some LED Light's would get us thru even a Long term(several month's) without power?

Just an idea were going too try this year.

Cat and Sleepy Turtle ( in Seattle)


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