Is it feasible to live 'off grid'?

Nope, I'm not opting out of society. That would be deleterious to society and I did say that I'm not interested in that - the opposite is true.

I'm self employed anyway, I haven't had a credit card since 1999 and I have no problem with the advantages garnered through having a bank account.

I don't see living off grid as opting out, just as living with a light touch in a manner that is complementary to the people and places I encounter as well as myself and those I care about.

You could still have that - take a look at what this bloke has built.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2039719/Simon-Dale-How-I-built-hobbit-house-Wales-just-3-000.html

As stated in my later post, I would no longer be capable of doing anything of this nature. I used to do everything from gardening to plastering and joinery around the house, but it's all pretty hard to do with one arm.

 

The main challenges appear to be:-

- A home

- A place to work

- Water, both potable and grey

- Energy for electricity and warmth

- Food

 

How could I deal with those in the city?

you buy them like everyone else

it depends how much space you have

fruit/veg is easy just use your garden and/or an allotment

solar, and tonight at least, wind are options for electric

if you live near a stream/river then you possibly have the option of water power

you're probably best staying on the mains for drinking water, though you could use collected rain water for watering the garden and if you're up for a bit of plumbing flushing the toilet and such like.

A few years ago, (about 35 actually) we baked our own bread, though we had to shop for the flour and yeast etc, made our jam, ate our own vegatables, swopped for eggs.

We had to buy meat though, as we did not fancy butchery.

I used to scavenge for thrown away broken flowers, so I could plant them and grown them up into decent flowers, it dosent take long, for a cut bulb, or a thrown out plant to grow to glory.

It was funny when I told our neighbours we had no TV.

They brought one round for us, and would not leave until I accepted it.

They were much older than us, and did not understand.

But they are great friends to this day.

you buy them like everyone else

 

it depends how much space you have

 

fruit/veg is easy just use your garden and/or an allotment

 

solar, and tonight at least, wind are options for electric

 

if you live near a stream/river then you possibly have the option of water power

 

you're probably best staying on the mains for drinking water, though you could use collected rain water for watering the garden and if you're up for a bit of plumbing flushing the toilet and such like.

Sounds fantastic Tony. With all this outside work I'd be concerned with the weather in this country though, its cold, windy and rainy pretty much 9 months of the year. Alope to Spain perhaps?

A lot of this 'light touch' idea is easier to implement if you start with a large injection of cash.

Build your house (or modify it) to have solar water heating, solar power, highly insulated, etc... Use reed beds to process your sewage, collect rain water from the roof along with grey water recycling (in theory that could provide your entire water supply if you're prepared to treat it).

Make sure you buy a big enough plot to create a large vegetable garden, have some chickens, maybe even a goat.

You still need to buy feed for the chickens (and goat) and seeds for the veg, but you've got fruit/veg, eggs, milk, butter (if you make it), heating and power.

Power at night is a bit harder, but if you don't mind consuming from the grid when you've been exporting to it during the day then that's okay, or alternatively you can use a battery setup that you charge during the day and consume at night.

I've got one of those wind-up torches in the car, and a solar powered calculator by my PC. I think I'm pretty 'off grid'.