Off-grid houses are never done

I was talking to another off-grid home owner. I'd gone over to help with a minor electrical problem.

Most people move into a typical house, connect the cables, wires, and hoses and rarely give much thought to how things run. Occasionally a high utility bill may give them a rude awakening, but they usually go right back to sleep.

Those of us living off-grid you know where every watt, calorie of energy, and drop of water comes from.

Most people would be satisfied to have installed a really efficient propane fired water heater. Not my friends. They are looking into heating their water with a combination of solar and wood heat. They can't make propane on their homestead, so want to use even less of it.

They have a very nice shallow well with good water. The well pump works fine, but they are thinking about a source of water that would be gravity feed, to simplify things even more.

Once you go down the self reliance road, you never really stop thinking about it. There are always ways to be more self reliant and efficient.

So what's the pay off for this type of thinking?

They do live in a house with no mortgage. The husband works a seasonal job. The wife just cut down her work week from three days to two. Didn't need the extra income and rather have the time to pursue her own interests.

Looks like a good pay off to me.

-Sixbears