StatCounter

Monday, July 15, 2013

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

15 comments:

  1. Sounds like they're enjoying living life.
    It's all about priorities.
    They've got theirs sorted.
    Please give them my best wishes...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good for them (and you)! The less you have to depend on paid services, the better.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's saved me a lot of grief more than a few times.

      Delete
  3. Lucky boogers....then again, luck is usually the result of hard work...good for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They worked hard and had luck -both good and bad.

      Delete
  4. It would be very satisfying to be self sufficient. Other than fuel, I am that way when in my motor home.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now all we have to do is to convert that big diesel beast of yours to run on waste veggie oil.

      Delete
  5. Why don't they go back to slavery 5-6 days per week? Then they could have plasma TV in every room, a fleet of SUVs, a brace of shiny new iThings every 6 months and several wardrobes full of only-worn-once fashion items...oh, and be owned by the banks.
    Mrs Dweeze and I did laugh lots went the local grid went down recently for several days. Our solar powered fridge and freezer hummed along nicely while everyone else lost tons of food.
    Off grid FTW...

    ReplyDelete
  6. The title of this post made me feel a little nervous at first. Then I quickly realized "Hey, I love working on my off-grid house".

    ReplyDelete