Living off the Grid
Why is everyone living off the Grid?
It is probably no surprise in today’s world that more and more people are living of the grid. Rising prices, depleting stocks of fossil fuels and oil wars around the globe mean that those thinking of the future would rather make their own provisions for fuel. This then is living off the grid, basically running you home free of energy provided by the large utility companies.
The actress Daryl Hannah is one of the more high profile celebrities who are promoting the practice of living off the grid. She has lived a vegetarian and green lifestyle for many years, and has been vocal about her off the grid lifestyle since giving interviews on the subject back in 2005. See her talking about how and why she has been living off the grid in the video below.
Not all of the people who are now living off the grid have Daryl’s long-held green instincts. It is becoming easier to see the impending danger if we all continue to rely on fossil fuels, and also how hard it is becoming to pay regular energy bills. This is what, I think, is behind the growing popularity of living off the grid.
It is hard to get an accurate figure for the households who are currently living off the grid. In 2006 USA Today estimated that around 180,000 households across America were living that way. Once can only assume that that number has increased significantly since then given the ongoing sales of solar and wind power systems, as well as the advances in technology and greater availability of components that mean that making your own wind turbines and solar panels is now easier than ever before.
If you have plenty of money to spend then it is quite easy to fit all the equipment that you need to generate enough power to run a small (or even a large) home. However many people who are planning to live off the grid as doing so because the cost of fuel has got so high, and this is stretching their household budgets. For the householder in this situation, the cost of commercially available solar panel and wind turbine systems can be a crushing blow. Several thousand dollars to buy and fit these systems is beyond the scope of most.
The good news is that the sort of person who is prepared to buck the system and contemplate living off the grid is normally a fairly resourceful guy or gal. Hence the popularity of blueprints that show you how to build your own solar panels and wind turbines with parts that can be purchased individually for around a hundred bucks or so. Sales of these manuals have rocketed in recent years, and with it the number of people who are building solar panels and wind turbines to power their homes and significantly reduce their energy bills.
Not every body who builds a turbine or panel ends up living off the grid. But you can be sure that all those who are living off the grid have one or more of these items powering their home.
I bet Daryl Hannah has a number of them!
