How 'Off-Grid' can we really become? We are in times where technology is at the tips of our fingers. Electronics are cheap, almost disposable, we do not think twice about leaving the lights on all night or turning off the central heating system before bedding down for the night. You may think that living without mains electricity and a piped gas supply is nothing but a childhood dream but you would be wrong! There are actually people out there who generate their own electricity & gas.
The 'Green Revolution' is something that is no longer associated with Hippies in the 70's, more and more are moving away from traditional homes and purchasing land to build there very own 'Off-Grid' home from environmentally friendly materials and producing clean, green power.
The thing that ALL potential 'Off-Gridders' fail to grasp is that to become self sufficient one MUST reduce the impact they have on our planet. Not just cutting back on how many coffees they have a day, you have to look at your entire lifestyle and make huge changes to be able to live a happy life away from the power hungry energy providers. I will not, in this post, go into the details of how and why but this is the one thing you need to look at prior to trying to jump into Green Living.
Mains Electricity - We use and abuse electricity on a daily basis without even thinking about it. To live successfully away from the electricity grid you need to use it like you do when drinking the very best red wine! You simply can not leave appliances on standby, everything has be be energy efficient and every drop of electricity you generate has to be stored and used only when needed.
Natural Gas - there are 2 alternative ways to supply gas for cooking and heating.
1. Bottled propane, expensive and you have to haul the bottles back to the shop to be exchanged.
2. Methane Digestion - Using food waste and or manure you can generate methane that cab be used for cooking and heating! Is is a simple process which we will cover in further posts.
Examples
Lemar's Homestead
Green-Trust
Ken Boak
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