Living Off Grid
Living off grid today is much easier than it was 15 years ago. There are still many challenges but living off grid in today’s world means better renewable energy equipment and thankfully much better communication equipment.
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These advances have made living off grid, not only possible, but very comfortable. Let’s deal with renewable energy equipment advances for living off grid first. I hate to admit it, but big business has helped spur on this revolution in quality and pricing of solar panels, wind generators, inverters and batteries.
Today it is possible to buy a solar panel that is nearly twice as efficient and half of the price (stated in $ per watt of power output).
Thank you to all of those hard working people who have worked to make solar panels affordable. Living off grid is much more cost effective now.
Wind generators for living off grid have made the same amazing advances. Better, stronger materials and constant testing has made living off grid with a wind generator very comfortable. Some of these new wind machines are so quiet you don’t even know they are there.
It’s such a beautiful sight to see that perfectly tuned blade spinning silently producing power that used to be ‘gone with the wind’ (I couldn’t resist).
Want to Build your Own Wind Generator?
Check out these Wind Generator Plans
Inverters for living off grid have probably improved the most. Now available in higher voltages and higher wattage outputs they allow us to use regular off the shelf AC products available anywhere.
Most are cheaper in Price, be we do still prefer DC for lighting because they use less energy and don’t drain the batteries as fast. Living off grid is much simpler when you can use AC products.
Batteries are the heart of any system and we have found that this is the least understood and most often neglected part of any Renewable energy system.
Don’t scrimp on the batteries for living off grid. There have been significant advances in this sector, so take advantage of them for living off grid.
Living off grid used to be fret with hardship. The days are gone (remember the 70’s?) when long haired types went into the bush and carved out a home with a pocket knife and a piece of aluminum foil, although Jane and I did nearly that using only a chainsaw and a wheelbarrow.
Come to think of it, my hair was quite a bit longer back then too, and there was significantly more of it too.
Today, living off grid means cell phones, satellite internet, satellite TV and no power grid. Communication has taken leaps Jane and I could not have believed when we first started our dream of living off grid in 1985.
A phone hooked up to my computer? Come on, it doesn’t work with the satellite internet yet, but soon we are told Voip technology will be able to do that too. High speed internet and Satellite TV make it comfortable to be living off grid. My friend Michael Campbell recently dropped a nugget of wisdom in my head when he said, “build it once and forever reap the benefits.” Granted he was talking about his own business, but the similarities are profound.
How right he is. Build that dream of living off grid and make it happen- once!