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Page added on August 20, 2011
Living Off the Grid: No Longer Just for the Amish
Whether you’re reading this on your computer or mobile device, you needed electricity from the grid at some point in the process. Those electrons come from far-flung power plants, across miles of transmission lines, and out of a plug in your wall. This routine may seem like just another part of life, but it’s not the only option.
Some people have taken matters into their own hands, and haven’t paid a power bill in years. energyNOW! correspondent Patty Kim met some of the estimated 180,000 families across North America using clean energy technology to become self-sufficient and enjoy all the comforts of modern life, off the grid. You can watch the full video below:
Living “off the grid” may conjure images of counter-culture hippies or the old-fashioned ways of the Amish, but a growing number of people generate their own electricity and live in the lap of luxury without ever paying a utility bill. They’re called “off-gridders” and they look just like you and me.
Bill Kemp, an energy consultant and author of “The Renewable Energy Handbook,” decided to go off-grid when he found out running power lines to his new home outside Ottawa, Canada would cost a small fortune. Instead, Bill and his wife Lorraine decided to invest in renewables and energy storage. “A lot of people thought we were just plain crazy,” said Kemp.
Twenty years later, the Kemps are showing those doubters how off-grid living is done. Solar panels on their home and barn combine with two large rotating solar arrays to produce over 2,000 watts of energy, and a small wind turbine chips in 1,500 additional watts. On cloudy and windless days, a backup half-biodiesel, half-diesel generator can provide power.
All this renewable energy constantly charges a bank of batteries in their basement, storing excess electrons and keeping the lights on well after sundown. Maintenance is easy – all that’s required is distilled water for the batteries a few times a year. “It would be pretty tough to lose power here,” said Kemp. But the total cost for their system is no small change: $40,000 dollars.
But the Kemps aren’t the only ones finding success off the grid. Central Oregon is home to a thriving off-grid community of 300 homes. The Three Rivers Recreational Area is a gated community made up of million-dollar mansions, trailers, a fire hall, and even a yurt (traditional Mongolian home). “There’s nothing we do not have here,” said Elaine Budden, a Three Rivers resident. “Wireless Internet, washer/dryer, refrigeration – we have everything.”
Three Rivers was born of necessity, nearly 50 years ago. The 4,000-acre community was founded as a campground with individual lots for sale – but back then being off the grid wasn’t a choice. “There was no power here,” said Lorne Stills, a son of the community’s founders. “We had propane lights that put out about as much light as a cigarette lighter.”
But the community grew and was flourishing by the late 1970’s. Most homes and public buildings have their own solar systems, and wind turbines help meet power demand when the sun isn’t shining. Even though Three Rivers is 25 miles from the nearest Starbucks or supermarket, residents are happy. “The peace and quiet, the stars at night, the wildlife, we thought, ‘you know, we can make this work,” said Budden.
4 Comments on "Living Off the Grid: No Longer Just for the Amish"
sunweb on Sat, 20th Aug 2011 2:39 pm
I lived off the grid for 30 years. The first ten I had no electricity. I pumped my water by hand into a retaining tank that gravity fed. I cooked with wood and heated with wood. I cooled my food using evaporative cooling in my root cellar. I cut my first cord of wood by hand. I got a degree in psychology using kerosene lamps. For the next 20 years I had electricity from the sun and wind. At NO TIME was ever disconnected from the fossil fuel world. No matter the product, it was all made using fossil fuels. From extraction of minerals to processing to manufacturing to transporting multiple times to assembly to use often. This is an illusion.
There several billion people in this world that for sure live off the grid with little to no fossil fuel input. If you want to honest look at off-the-grid.
Solar and Wind are not renewable. The energy from solar and from wind is of course renewable but the devices used to capture the energy of the sun and wind is not renewable. Nor are they green or sustainable.
An oak tree is renewable. A horse is renewable. They reproduce themselves. The human-made equipment used to capture solar energy or wind energy is not renewable. There is considerable fossil fuel energy embedded in this equipment. The many components used in devices to capture solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy and biomass energy – aluminum, glass, copper, rare metals, petroleum in many forms to name a few – are fossil fuel dependent.
Wind used by sailing ships and old style “dutch” wind machines is renewable and sustainable.
From: Energy in the Real World with pictures of proof.
http://sunweber.blogspot.com/2011/01/energy-in-real-world.html
Alan Cain on Sat, 20th Aug 2011 7:19 pm
Solar and wind are not “renewable” – they are a flow. The controlled dissipation of their energies gives us “power” to accomplish our little energy concentrating or manipulating tasks. Trees to make wooden ships do not voluntarily split themselves into timbers or planks, and fibers do not wind themselves into ropes, nor plait themselves into sails or hammocks. There are no “pure” energy manipulation technologies; there are more efficient uses for materials and there are energy savings for recycling, re-using or re-purposing the detritus of previously energy imbibed assemblages.
I’ll tell you what ticks me off: my local dump won’t let me browse the materials gathered there to reuse. I might hurt myself. Waste has been elevated to a cultural value; combating it is an incredible battle, even before we take on the challenges of re-engineering a discarded device. Love your blog, by the way, Mr. sunweb.blogspot.com
DC on Sat, 20th Aug 2011 7:53 pm
You could have the best of both worlds, live off-grid and elimate some of the biggest energy hogs, convential washers and dryers are amount the worst. Elimateing powered devices at every turn would be idea, what I hear in this article tho, is you can have your cake and eat it too. Off-grid and every ‘modern convienence’. Id like to know how many off-gridders own dishwashers and other energy sucking arfifacts of the age-of-ease.
BillT on Mon, 22nd Aug 2011 3:07 am
Ask someone over 80 what appliances they had when they were young. Radio,lights, washing machine(wringer type), well pump for a few in the country,a small refrigerator that had to be defrosted, an electric fan or two if they lived in a hot climate.
Then take that list and see what you have. Anything NOT on that list is obviously not a necessity. Pare back the the necessities and there would be plenty of power for other uses and your electric bill would shrink dramatically.