Living off the grid

[sneak_e_pete]

Anyone thought of it? I seriously think about it for retirement. I am only 35, but child support for 3 kids means no Florida condo.

 

I have always been interested in it. Anyone else?

[bushart]

If you wait for retirement you may not live long enough to realize the long term benefits

 

It's a substantial initial outlay of $$ and you need to run it for some time to re-coop your costs---ie; no hydro bills

[irishfield]

My mother lived off the grid most of her young life and my Grandmother for most of her 80+ years... as did many members here parents / grandparents I'm sure.

 

All depends what you expect in your "off the grid". The only reason my grandmother ever had power was Ontario Hydro wanted to take a shortcut with poles, to get to Little Glamour Lake, and she allowed them to run across her property. Even with power we still had to fetch water with a rope and bucket from the hand dug well and put them in the pantry cupboard... to hand scoop with a ladle for a glass of water!

 

My Aunt bought Gramma an electric stove one year.... had it wired and I never saw it used. Wood fired cook stove.. nothing else was ever used to cook or for heat for that matter!

[bushart]

Yup I too have a story like this....

 

My uncle's farm----woodstove to cook and heat

 

Pails out to the well and hand pump your water

 

Milkhouse in sidehill for cold storage

 

Outhouse

 

oil or coleman lanterns

 

 

get this------gas engine wringer washer

 

and as a kid---I thought it was Heaven

[irishfield]

Yep.. cut blocks of ice out of Glamour Lake.. loaded the shack beside the barn and covered them with sawdust and prayed it made it through the summer as their fridge! Loved it there.... but not sure I could do it after the spoils of current life! lol

[bigugli]

It's a 14 hr a day, 7 day a week lifestyle, and there is no such thing as a day off. That is the settler's lifestyle.

[bushart]

One memory brings me back---a kinda cold RC cola in a glass bottle----brought out of the milkhouse after workin in the hay all day

 

Ah I could go long on this nostalgia trail but it's getting off topic with the grid question

[lowerunit]

A friend of mine has it was gonna cost $75,000. for hydro to put in 2 poles and bring power to his house. He went with solar panels,, wind generator, gas generator as a backup and propane for his fridge and stove.He also has a wood burning stove on the main floor and a propane fireplace in the basement. I dont think he spent what it was gonna cost for the hydro hookup to go green.

Edited April 20, 2014 by lowerunit

[iFish4real]

I think nowadays with solar panels and a geothermal system for heating/cooling you could get off the grid very easily. I am thinking about it and if could afford a house outside town I would do it for sure

still thinking to put up solars on my in-town townhouse

Edited April 21, 2014 by iFish4real

[jedimaster]

I don't think going off the grid needs to be expensive. Especially if you have a few hundred acres and water. Wood stove, propane fridge and stove, solar panels for lights and TV. Genny for backup.

[irishfield]

Why I asked how "off the grid" he wanted to be.

 

The main problems these days... unless you find an existing rural property with livable building... there are way too many mandatory items you must have to meet the building code and to obtain a move in permit to live the "old fashion" way.

[woodenboater]

Found this Kickstarter project today. Very interesting idea and would like to see it go into production as it would be extremely useful at the cabin during winter. Like many concepts, scaling up could lead to wonderful innovations. I'm pondering ponying up.

[sneak_e_pete]

I am more thinking solar, propane fridge/stove, composting toilet. Just a simple life.

[BillM]

I think some people's definition of 'off the grid' can be quite different, lol.

[woodenboater]

Off grid to me means no attachment to any municipal services so propane powered fridges/gennys etc are fine. I'd also invest in a small wind turbine if the property had enough consistent breeze to make it worthwhile. and possibly geothermal.

[manitoubass2]

Anyone here own a cabin? Lol. Is not that tough to sustain if you utelize some simple technologies. And a day actually feels like a day, not a few hours!

[raysfish2005]

Lol we did it..sort of.

 

We bought some land near parrysound, built a 16x20 cabin, I picked up a 250 watt solar panel,mpp controller, 4 deep cycle wallymart batteries and an inverter..cost$1000 bucks, this will be our second year and we will be adding a small dandy fridge, we never ran out of power for the lights or tv and we used it every weekend, we figure in july we will be even for the cost of staying off the grid.

now what I learned is solar does not work there in the winter as you cant keep the solar panel clean all the time, we have a genny to supply power when we need it and will be buying a wind turbin for winter use as there is more wind than sun in the winter.

saying that we are very happy being off the grid for our little cottage.

[lookinforwalleye]

I think some people's definition of 'off the grid' can be quite different, lol.

 

Yes indeed...I think the grizzly adams types here might want to check with their significant other and kids before thinking about a caveman life style.

[porkpie]

We have a large hunt camp that is completely self contained. We are almost all solar powered for lighting now. We do have a generator, but it's not often used these days. I could move my family into it if I wanted too. My wife would just have to overcome a few minor obstacles, but she is pretty adaptable! That's said, I'm not sure I'd want to do it LOL!

[Old Ironmaker]

Off the grid to me means having a shallow well pump and having to drive 500 meters to get the mail and take out the recycle and trash. That's about as much ruffing it I can take. But seriously looked at a wind turbine that ran about 60K 11 years ago with inverter, battery building and can't remember what else. We have plenty of wind here on the north shore of Erie. It wouldn't have taken us completely off the grid depending on high draw appliances. AC was out of the question and back up solar was suggested. ROI was very long term even factoring in 15% estimated rate increases annually. Maintenance of system and interest on the 60K and a 20 year estimated life span made it a break even after 20 years then your spending big bucks to upgrade to last another 20 years. A Mom and Pop marine operation that builds and refurbishes steel vessels put a similar system in 10 or so years back to run a few welders and he is very happy with it.

[esoxansteel]

One memory brings me back---a kinda cold RC cola in a glass bottle----brought out of the milkhouse after workin in the hay all day

 

Ah I could go long on this nostalgia trail but it's getting off topic with the grid question

 

 

Yummy yummy RC Cola do they still make that sweet knectar from God

[bushart]

maybe??

 

But it'll never be as good as when ya reached into the water filled cooler and grabbed the glass bottle

[aplumma]

nope I want a draft rootbeer with vanilla ice cream and a moon pie again.

 

Art

[bushart]

C'mon Art---lets keep it a secret to these kids that we grew up in the best times-----from The Beatles to the Mustang

[bigugli]

maybe??

 

But it'll never be as good as when ya reached into the water filled cooler and grabbed the glass bottle

as a kid, rowing over to Gerry Bye's store, after selling my minnows to the tourists, to pick up my weekend 6 pack of pop. Had to stand on a step stool in order to reach down enough to grab the bottles out of the big cooler. Man was that water cold. A lot of the bottles had unique patterning back then so you knew which bottle you were grabbing. Wilson's, Teem, Niagara Dry. Lime Ricky, Canada Dry Ginger beer......