offthegrid Archives - Living Off the Grid: Free Yourself

Self-Sufficiency

Soaraway Sun plugs 3D printed homes

Britain’s Sun newspaper is known as narrow minded and bigoted. So it was a surprise to find it extolling the virtues of off-grid, 3D printed homes yesterday.

Somebody at the Sun had not got the memo – because the paper described “incredible homes of the future, which cost just £26,000 and can be 3D printed homes in a matter of hours.”

Ukranian company PassivDom offers the unique product: a completely self-contained home, designed to function anywhere in the world.

Robots 3D print the cosy homes in a matter of hours after they are specified and ordered.

“For anyone who has ever dreamed of living off the grid, the company offers an affordable solution, which cuts out the hassle of building your own home,” the paper says.

A 3D printing robot can print the walls, roof and floor which slot together. Then a human worker can add the windows, doors, plumbing and electrical systems to finish off the build.

The homes can withstand even the most hostile conditions and prices start at just $31,900 (£26,000) and are available to be pre-ordered in Ukraine and America, with the first of the houses delivered later this year.

Aside from the price tag, the most impressive thing about the homes is the fact that they can exist with no need to connect to external electrical and plumbing systems.

The self-powered properties are airy and light, with a solar panel and battery allowing residents to experience all the mod-cons without a connection to the national grid.

And the houses are also completely mobile, and designed to offer a comfortable standard of living in some of the planet’s most inhospitable environments.

A filter converts humidity in the air into water, with the manufacturers boasting that their product is built to withstand even Arctic conditions.

PassivDom offer a number of models, with the smallest measuring 380 square feet and setting you back £26,000.

Without a separate bedroom, residents in the 3D printed homes would kip on a sofa bed, although all models do come with bathrooms – as well as the necessary tech for you to control your appliances via a smartphone.

Buyers can also request bigger, or even custom-made models, which can cater to the tastes of all prospective homeowners.

The firm’s founders hope that their products can solve global housing crises, as well as giving people more freedom to live wherever they want at a reasonable price.

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April 8, 2017 2 Comments

Digital Detox, phone, smartphone, social media, internet, camp, off-grid, technology

Spirit

Digital Detox: let your mind off-grid

Rising heart rate, a sense of panic, breathing becoming shallow and inconsistent. It is highly likely that you have experienced these very symptoms at some point during your life. Perhaps you were in a confined space, feeling claustrophobic, or you were in a large crowd feeling disorientated….or perhaps you misplaced or lost your smart phone. Maybe you hadn’t even lost it, but the battery symbol was flashing red – oh no my cell’s going to die! If this sounds like you or someone you know, chances are you have smartphone separation anxiety – a.k.a. “nomophobia”. This has led to the need for us to have a digital detox.

What is “nomophobia”?

This term was coined in 2010 and relates to the feelings of anxiety linked to losing your phone, having no network coverage or when your battery is running low. Researchers at Iowa State University have found that there are four main components to nomophobia. The first is the fear of not being able to communicate with people or being in contact; the second is losing connectedness in general; the third not being able to access information and the fourth is not having the convenience that a smartphone brings. Watch the video below from Iowa State University to find out more about nomophobia.

But why does this anxiety happen?

Smartphones and technology have many benefits, but it has also infiltrated every aspect of our daily lives. Let’s face it, we rely on our phones an enormous amount – because they can do so much! Need directions? Check a date in the calendar? Don’t know the answer to a question? Need to make a call? More often than not, we all reach for our phone. If we think about it, they organise and navigate our daily lives more than we think.

Research has shown that we rely on our devices as much as we rely on a life partner. That is a scary thought – surely a device can’t replace someone as important as a spouse or significant other? The psychology behind this subconscious thought process though is very interesting. If we have a reliable source of external information on a specific topic, then we are less motivated and likely to remember that information for ourselves. If we need the answer to something we go to our reliable information source.

Before now, these reliable sources of information would take the form of people, and to some extent still do. For example, my dad knows a lot about cars I however, live in blissful ignorance and know very little. But I know all too well I can go to him for help so I am less motivated to learn and retain information about anything car-related. The exact same process happens in our brains except now we don’t turn to people for help, we turn to our smartphones. Why should we bother remembering …

April 4, 2017 1 Comment

Community

Where to drop out in the USA

Does your life ever get you to the point where you want to just drop out and leave the system behind? Here are four options for starters. There are many more – you can hook up with others using our free classified ads service or posting on our searchable map – landbuddy.com

NIPTON
In the Mojave desert town of Nipton, the spirit of the western frontier has transformed a forgotten outpost into a self-sustaining ecotopia where the dream lives on.
A former long-haul trucker with a bowie knife strapped to his hip, Jim Eslinger serves as caretaker and hotelier of Hotel Nipton, its existence marked by a wagon-mounted sandwichboard that reads:
WELCOME TO NIPTON, CA B&B HOTEL & ECO-CABIN STORE, RV PARK & CAMPING RESTAURANT
Eslinger added a cluster of tented eco-cabins, outfitted with platform beds and wood-burning stoves.
A faded settlement of about 20 permanent residents, the town consisted of an assortment of structures, some solid and occupied, some as vacant and splintered as an Old West movie set. Computer Gamers might know Nipton for its cameo in Xbox 360’s Fallout: New Vegas, where it played a post-apocalyptic wasteland infested by giant mantises. But otherwise it was your typical drive-through desert community, fixed at the crossroads of Nowhere Special and Wherever You Were Going when Eslinger arrived. There was one notable exception: Nipton, and everything in it, was for sale.
There a cluster of tented eco-cabins, outfitted with platform beds and wood-burning stoves. Popular with today’s 30-something crowd, the cabins were based on a design by Frank Lloyd Wright. There is a solar plant, which produces 40 percent of the town’s power. It sits on the outskirts behind a barbed wire fence, its rows of reflecting harvesters mirroring the sun as it moves across the sky.
There is a hydrogen system in order to store clean energy.
The town of Nipton is for sale.

KALANI HONUA
A solar-powered village tucked away on 120 acres of lush Hawaiian rain forest sounds a lot like Lost: Season 3, but it’s actually an eco-minded retreat center in one of the best areas in the state to drop out. Here in the heart of the Big Island’s Puna District, residents and volunteers are busy harvesting papaya and avocado, cooking farm-to-table meals, and taking classes in hula and tauhala weaving. Book a night in one of their cottages, pop in for a gong bath, or grab some honey produced from the on-site apiary. From $95; kalani.com.

SYNCHRONICITY
There’s no rule that says you must drop out in a rural location with hippies running nude through the woods. Case in point: Synchronicity, a creative community set in L.A.’s bustling Koreatown. Though a small group of artists calls it home, the door is always open to guests, who can stop by for weeknight dinners and a monthly art salon. There’s even a private room …

March 31, 2017 2 Comments

Solar

Spain’s Sun Tax to be axed

In October 2015, Spain’s Council of Ministers approved a controversial tax on those using electricity produced by their own solar installations. However, a new government says solar panel owners could soon see the back of the so called sun tax.

What is the sun tax?

This legislation causes those with self-consumptive photovoltaic systems to pay the same grid fees as those without solar panels. This covers the power contracted from an electricity company. But they also have to pay a second “sun tax” which means solar panel owners pay for the electricity they generate and use from their PV systems, even though it doesn’t come into contact with the grid.

There are other facets of the legislation which also caused more outrage. Photovoltaic systems up to 100 kW are not able to sell any excess electricity they produce. Instead, they must “donate” the extra to the grid free of charge. Systems over 100 kW must register if they wish to sell the extra electricity. Community ownership of PV systems, of all sizes, under this legislation is prohibited. Not only this, but the legislation is retroactive; meaning installations prior to the introduction of the tax must comply. If the conditions are not met, then the PV system owners are subject to a penalty fee of up to €60 million ($64 million). To put this in perspective, this is twice the penalty of a radioactive leak from a nuclear plant. Unsurprisingly, this caused outrage.

Exceptions to the tax

There are some circumstances where the tax does not apply. Fear not off-gridders, this tax is only for those connected to the grid. If you run an off-grid system then no grid tax needs to be paid at all. Installations smaller than 10 kW are also exempt from paying the second sun tax. The Canary Islands and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla (Spanish territories in Africa) are also exempt from the second tax. Mallorca and Menorca pay the second sun tax at a reduced rate.

The Spanish government defended the legislation by saying the fees contribute to overall grid system costs. However, the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF) pointed out how uneconomic the new law was. Their spokesperson stated, “Each kWh imported from the grid by a self-consumer will pay double the tolls compared to a kWh imported from the gird by another consumer.”

Change on the horizon

The current legislation is an unnecessary burden placed upon solar consumers who want to be more economical and environmentally friendly. This has been recognized by opposing political parties and other unions and consumers. The political party which initially brought in the sun tax is now a minority. Therefore, there is now the opportunity for all opposing parties to remove this expensive and impractical legislation.

In January 2017 a law proposal was registered in congress, beginning the process of the sun tax removal. The urgent changes …

March 29, 2017 4 Comments

Community

Calor Gas offers up to £5,000

Bottled Gas supplier Calor Gas is offering funding of up to £5,000 for schemes that will improve life in off-grid communities.

Calor Gas spokesman Paul Blacklock said: “We provide energy to homes and businesses and understand the challenges country living can pose, especially when it comes to community facilities. Projects we support could be anything from community centres, village halls and sporting venues to youth clubs and Scout groups, or they could be initiatives to support the elderly.

“Entries open on April 3. We will be encouraging the whole community to get on board by voting for their favourite.”

Calor Gas Limited (Calor), a subsidiary of SHV Holdings N.V. is an energy service company that provides liquefied petroleum gas supply and other energy services. The company offers products and services such as home energy supply, boiler and heating services, gas bottles, Calor liquefied petroleum gas autogas, and renewable energy for residential customers. It offers LPG solutions for FLT, fork lift truck training, heating solutions, radiant heating, warm air heating, wet system heating, water heating, farming wit LPG, and servicing and maintenance, among others to business customers. The company also sells gas cylinders, outdoor living, commercial appliances, in the home, and solid fuel pallets. Calor is headquartered in Warwick, the UK.

Calor Gas Limited Competitors include

Alpha Petroleum Resources Limited

FCL Petroleum Limited

Gasrec Ltd

Linton Fuel Oils

Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation

BOC Group Limited

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March 25, 2017 No Comments

Community

Do what you love, love what you do

What is your passion? If money were no object (and just what does that actually mean anyhow???) what would you be doing right now? Now, how can you turn this passion into your living?

Something I enjoy doing is taking pictures, I fully intend on turning this passion into a living. The first thing that makes this possible is I have to take better pictures than the average person, my photos have to be of a quality that someone will want to part with their money to posses one of my photos.

Most EVERYONE has the ability to take pictures with little trouble, nearly everyone has a smartphone and some of the those phones can take some great pictures. But not everyone knows how to take really good pictures, look on most phones and you will find dozens of selfies and mediocre shots.

I did not go to school to learn how to take pictures, what I did was I looked at other photographers to see how they take fantastic pictures, I looked at how they framed their shots, I have learned about lighting (morning and evening tend to be the best times to take outdoor pictures), framing and lighting are the 2 biggies, being in the right place at the right time, I am always making note of a particular place that would make a good shot, but knowing I’ll come back at a time of day when the lighting would make for a great shot.

I have also learned about filters, color enhancing, basically taking a good picture and making it fantastic, something special. This requires a LOT of experimenting, taking lots of pictures, lots and lots. I would say that if I would take 1 picture of a scene, I actually take 20 or more shots of that same scene, using different filters, different angles, sometimes the difference between a mediocre shot and a prizewinning shot is just a matter of a slight angle change.

I also know that some days I may come home with a memory stick full of duds, and that’s OK too. I am not at a point where I can just go out merely to snap pictures, but since the job I do requires me to drive all over west Texas in some very scenic areas, and since I have a very flexible schedule, I have the opportunity to get some wonderful pictures. Honestly I would be taking these pictures anyhow, I love doing it, it’s my passion and in the year I’ve been doing this, my skills have improved greatly.

So now I have all of these pictures, how do I get money for these images? I plan on turning my photos into postcards and such for the tourists that pass through our towns. Living in such a scenic area, much of the income that comes into these towns come directly …

July 30, 2015 No Comments

Water

A Shower in a box

If you need a portable shower, or a way of cleaning food or dishes – or even dogs – on the move, RinseKit is a portable, pressurized water tank with a hose hidden inside.

It opens like a toolbox. The company markets the $90 unit to surfers, fishermen, campers, and anyone who needs a spout off the grid.

You can fill it up at home or on the move, connecting the RinseKit to a garden hose with an included attachment piece. Add up to two gallons of tap water to the box, which then can be squirted out for a couple minutes before the reservoir goes dry.

No batteries are required, no pumping is involved. Water pressure from the tap is essentially transferred into the RinseKit. The box has a chamber that maintains about 65 psi of water pressure, guaranteeing a healthy spray.

Users who tested it out over a month were happy with the product. The RinseKit, invented by a surfer in California, is well-built and easy to use. It has come in handy across a range of outdoor activities.

At a beach, the hose is long enough for an ad hoc car shower. For camping you can use it to wash dishes. Or spray off a dirty mountain bike after a muddy trail day.

The hose head is a garden-style sprayer with settings from a light mist to a muddy-bike-cleaning “jet” mode. You do need to conserve the water, as it drains quickly on the high-power settings.

But its banked two gallons will last for up to three minutes of constant spray when set to a shower mode.

There’s a built-in ruler to measure fish. A solid handle folds up for carrying, and the hose coils to tuck inside when not in use.

The box weighs about 24 pounds when full of water. It sits in the back of a family van pressurized and at the ready.

For its price tag ($90) the RinseKit may seem a bit much for portable water. But it’s a treat for anyone tired of dealing with sand, grit, mud and other debris that a squirt or stream of water could easily wash away.

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July 23, 2015 No Comments

Sandfire Resources, DeGrussa Copper Mine

Energy

Huge copper mine goes off the grid

Increasingly it is big business that is taking a leaf from the off-grid philosophy.

Australia’s largest integrated off-the-grid solar power system will be up and running in 2016 at a copper mine in remote Western Australia.

The 10.6 million megawatt station, which is part financed by Government green loans, is expected to provide Sandfire Resource’s DeGrussa mine with 80 per cent of its daytime energy needs and slash carbon emissions by 12,000 tonnes a year.

Construction work on what will be one of the world’s largest integrated solar installations used to power a mine is due to begin in late July.

Sandfire’s chief operating officer Mike Spreadborough said the power station will reduce the mine’s reliance on diesel fuel.

“By integrating diesel with solar power we’re significantly saving, it’s much cheaper than the historical costs of other fuels,” Spreadborough said.

“It’s a double-whammy result in lowering energy costs with significant environmental benefits.”

More than half the A$40 million ($44.6 million) solar power and battery storage facility’s cost was funded by federal Government loans, with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) putting up nearly A$21 million.

The federal Government’s other green lender, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), committed up to A$15 million while French renewable energy firm Neon, which will own the power plant, made up most of the difference.

Details about the project follow the federal Government’s decision to redirect wind farm funding to bolster large-scale solar projects.

The decision to direct the CEFC to pull funding for wind farms in favour of large-scale solar projects and new technologies drew criticism from the Greens, opposition and the Victorian state Government.

ARENA was also instructed to refocus on larger-scale solar and thermal energy products.

Sandfire’s sprawling project will feature 34,080 solar panels spread over 20ha.

The company hopes the solar plant, which will be about 900km northeast of Perth, will set new benchmarks for mines around the world using renewable power.

Spreadborough acknowledged without Government finance, the renewable energy project would have had trouble getting off the ground.

However, he was adamant Sandfire didn’t receive a free kick.

“CEFC and ARENA are expecting a return, with ARENA expecting to use the product to refund,” he said.

Spreadborough hoped once the solar farm proved successful, Sandfire would attract other financiers for future projects.

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July 15, 2015 No Comments

Micro-hydro has the Duracell effect - it just keeps on and on

Energy

125 watts of Hydro is plenty for a family

Murray Peden, runs an off-grid auto repair workshop in his home in the hills high above the isolated rural community of Little River, Banks Peninsula.

He has lived here off-grid for 17 years, with his wife, Tori, and their two young children.

The steep southeast-facing section is 700 metres from the nearest power supply. “I thought that could either be a disadvantage or an opportunity. I looked at it as an opportunity.”

Peden realised the potential of the site when he saw the small spring-fed creek running through it. This provides their drinking water and has also been harnessed to drive a mini hydro plant.

Although the unit produces only 125 watts, which is less than that required to operate a large household light bulb, it is sufficient. The electricity is stored in a bank of batteries, and because it is charged 24/7 the battery pack doesn’t need to be large to cope with the fluctuations that would come from only using solar-powered photovoltaic panels, as most systems use.

His system has since been reinforced with 450 watts of photovoltaic panels, but as they receive only three hours of sunlight during a winter’s day, the hydro is essential.

“The idea of not having power, not being able to turn lights on, doesn’t appeal. I did research and worked out we could set up here and live, not just survive. I want to have the TV and a microwave, but the idea of not paying power bills is always appealing.”

A coal and wood-burning range heats the water, warms the house via under-floor heating pipes, and cooks the meals.

Operating an automotive workshop on alternative power has required some clever thinking. Most commercial machinery requires three-phase power, and this isn’t available from Peden’s system.

His vehicle hoist, essential in a workshop, operates on hydraulics, which require an electrical pump. A part from a forklift has been modified to do the job, and the A-grade mechanic is proud of his handywork. “I sometimes work in town, and their hoists are a bit slow. Mine’s better,” he grins. Tyre machines and compressors have also been bought with their power requirements in mind.

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July 6, 2015 No Comments

Community

Please support our Kickstarter campaign to finance off-grid film

We have shot most of our film about the freedom to live off the grid with interviews with Noam Chomsky and other leading intellectuals.
Please spread the word about our film about an eco-village under threat.

Last month the residents of Runnymede Eco-village won the right to appeal at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. See details Latest news on court battle

The film follows 40 activists living in woods next to historic Runnymede where the Magna Carta was signed. We see how they live, and watch them battling for their human rights to live off-grid under ancient laws protecting woodlands.

Please contact us via nick@off-grid.net if you want to help campaign, fundraise or make this film.

Follow this link to see the trailer and the appeal: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/off-grid/noam-chomskys-magna-carta-eco-village

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July 3, 2015 3 Comments

Cheap living, tightwad, saving money, cutting costs, living cheap, offthegridnews, off the grid, offthegrid, living off the grid

Community

The Bottom Line: Save Money by Living Off-Grid

Everyone has their motives for moving off-grid. Mine can be boiled down to freedom – and saving money.

This post is a very dirty assessment of how off-grid living has saved me money and can help you do the same.

All my estimates will be for an average 4 person home in the United States. While the results will vary based on country, and locality, the overall premise will remain the same.

Alright, so my disclaimer: I’m not a scientist. I don’t pretend to be and I would rather never be one. I am an average, albeit hyper-logical, American so for my purposes, all of my numbers are very crude. I literally Google searched averages and I used the data from the most reputable looking website that came up. That said, we aren’t working on nuclear fusion, so I think crude logic is enough for our purposes here. Take all the averages with a grain of salt.

Also, I am using my home for the final calculations and comparisons. It is a 1400 sq ft earthbag construction open floorplan home, 50% bermed into a hill, with south-facing windows, and an energy efficient design. Your home may be bigger or smaller, so again, your numbers will vary.

Land

I will start at the beginning. Land. For our purposes, I will assume both properties will be on the same land. While in real life, someone living off-grid has very different land needs than someone linked-in, land varies in price so much from place to place that we will leave it as a constant in this example.

So both our example houses are built on a $20,000 20-acre plot of land. Difference= $0

Construction of linked-in home: (US avg) $200 per sqft x1400sqft = $280,000

Construction of Off-Grid home: (mine) $36 per sqft x1400sqft = $50,000

Savings: Off-Grid $230,000

Mind you the construction process was much slower and I had to do almost all my work by hand, the savings from construction of a home made of dirt compared to one made of conventional wooden frame and insulation are obvious.

Next are the infrequent expenses. Listed below are the appliances and expenses that one will have different than the other.

Linked-In		Off-Grid
Toilet ea. (conventional)	$200	Toilet (homemade compost)	$15
Oil Tank	$700	Solar Electric System	$10,000
Water Heater (elec)	$600	Solar Water Heater	$9,000
Space Heating	$4,000	Radiant Flooring	$5,000
Air Conditioner	$750	Cisterns (13,000Gal)	$6,400
Total	$2,650	Total	$30,415

Difference: $27,765 in favor of conventional homes. Ouch. The Linked-In setup has a much cheaper initial set-up price but if we look at the difference in cost of construction from above, I think we have this extra expense covered. Let’s see how we do when we look at our long term living expenses.

	Linked-In (per year)	Off-Grid (per year)
Water (non-toilet)	$360	$0
Water (toilet)	$109	$0
Space Heating

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July 1, 2015 No Comments

Community

The Process of Moving Off-Grid: How to Begin

Considerations:

Is off-grid living right for me?
What degree of off-grid living am I comfortable with?
What are my options?
How much money do I have to dedicate to moving off-grid?
Can I cut down and downsize?
Where do I want to live?
What kind of lifestyle can I have there?
What do I need to be careful of?
What do I want to do on my land?
What are my skillsets?
What do I need to learn?
How will I sustain myself over time?

The reason I am emphasizing the decision process so much is because it is the main bottleneck in the process.

People see the appeal of living off-grid and then hesitate because they don’t know how to proceed or even what kinds of things to worry about. My goal is to lay out all the questions and considerations ahead of time because, as a Marine, I firmly believe that the more prepared you are, the easier time you will have, and the more successful you will be.

Long live the prepared!

Read over the questions above. You don’t need to have answers for them just yet but those are ultimately things that you will need to consider over the course of this process. It is a journey, a marathon, not a sprint. It will take time and will be easier sometimes and harder at others. In the end it will be worth it.

The first question is: “Is Off-Grid living right for me”. As I stated previously, I believe everyone should live off-grid to a degree. I want to emphasize that. Some people have more know-how with tools than others. Some people may have responsibilities that keep them in the city or are allergic to sunshine. (It’s a real thing; look it up. I would be devastated.) Obviously these challenges may cause this process to be almost insurmountable. Think to yourself. What is holding you back? What keeps you from advancing? Is it flexible? Is there a way to adapt it to an off-grid lifestyle?

If you cannot adapt your circumstances to an Off-Grid life, then see question 2 above. What are you comfortable doing? Maybe you are in a wheelchair. If so, can you garden in your backyard? I found a video online of an inspiring guy who built raised beds the height of tables in a horseshoe design so he could wheel into his spot, put his chair in park, and spend the afternoon planting without leaving his chair. That’s super motivating for weirdos like me. I don’t know why but I very much enjoyed watching that. I am going to cater my advice towards full-blown off-grid living but I fully support you to do whatever it is that you are comfortable doing and to take things slowly.

Living off-grid means being independent. You no longer rely on others …

June 30, 2015 6 Comments

offthegrid

What is “nomophobia”?

But why does this anxiety happen?

What is the sun tax?

Exceptions to the tax

Change on the horizon

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