Living off grid

[Potter]

I've half-heartedly looked at this over the years and never really done more than that, my view was that in principle it sounds romantic but in reality it's probably lots of sitting in cold damp sheds and not changing your underpants for several weeks, but this fella actually makes it look pretty good.

[weeksy]

Can't even begin to see the appeal myself.

I like creature comforts too much.

[Potter]

Can't even begin to see the appeal myself.

I like creature comforts too much.

Me too really, as you get older you get softer and having to pop to an outside khazi to do my morning ablutions would probably finish me off now.

I think for me the appeal is leaving the rat race, throwing the phone into the sea and not having to answer to the board or a moaning employee. I often feel like life is too much about work and accountability to someone else.

I suppose we should be careful what we wish for though, as a young bloke I might have been a lot less worried about having to scratch about for my supper.

He does make it look fun though, some of his inventions and engineering look like a good way to spend your time.

[MrLongbeard]

My BiL lives off grid, I reckon he's getting on for 60 now, between the caravan and a couple of barns / sheds he's built he lives comfortably enough, not luxury by any stretch but I wouldn't say he's living in hardship

[demographic]

For years its looked a pretty shite option but I imagine that with far cheaper solar panels and Tesla Powerwall (or the same by another manufacturer) makes powering a house simpler.
Decent 3-4-5 G capability in some areas sorts out most of the conectivity issues leaving sewage and water.
Sewage can just be a septic tank which most houses in the country have anyway.
I lived in a farmhouse that used to get its water from a tank on the fell and that worked Ok.
More recently the same house gets its water from a pipe that comes from a flooded mine and as I know a bit about those mines I'd be interested to know its lead and arsenic content.

Got a mate who looked at a place near Spadeadam that didn't have lecky or phone years ago and at the time it wouldn't have worked out for him but nowadays the house is occupied so someone seems to be managing it.
When I was about 16 or so I picked up a load of pitch pine from a farmhouse that was off grid but had a diesel generator which unless I had access to masses of waste vegetable oil and time to spare seems like the worst option, noisy as feck and just too much like hard work.

Never been keen on the idea of off grid just for the sake of it but if you have a bit of land in the middle of nowhere it might be a simpler option than paying for services.

So all of that^ is a definite YesNoMaybe.

[Horse]

By browsing watching a video posted on the web, doesn't that say "on grid on grid on grid"? ???

I thought it meant keeping out of sight of The Man?

[WheeliePig]

I guess it depends on what you are happy with in life. I have two family members that aren't quiet "off-grid" but live in what most people would think untenable (and old double decker bus and a 40' static caravan that is falling apart).

Whilst this life seems very attractive in some ways, the constant scratching around for firewood, not having a decent hot bath and having a life dictated by how fucking cold it is, doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. Wood fires are lovely yes, but when its your only real source of heat, they can suck, unless you have a woodland that is yours to cut down as you see fit.

I'm like weeksy, creature comforts meant too much to me, I even HATE camping. Never have seen the appeal of going on "holiday" to only end up living in a field like some kind of hobo, eating crap that you can just about manage to heat up in one saucepan.

No thanks.

[Potter]

Well it seems most aren't keen.

I've watched loads of his videos and 99% of the stuff he does looks like loads of fun, at least to me anyway.
He rebuilds a tractor on some of them.

I think I'd probably like to live like that, as long as when it gets a bit too much I can jump in the car and go back to my normal life for a rest.

[Yambo]

The whole idea sucks for me. OK, come the apocalypse I'll set to with a will if I'm still around but now? why bother.

I have a very comfortable, simple life, made simple by electricity, gas (in bottles) and sewers. Give all that up so that I can say I'm doing it all myself? Nah, like you said Harry, I've got old and soft and I quite like it.

[cheb]

If you buy somewhere properly remote you can live like that, but in a proper house.

I've known quite of lot of people who wanted to, or have done, the off grid thing. They all had their reasons and they all decided against it, or stopped doing it. Possibly the stupidest reason, IMO, is wanting to sticking it to the man about the price of electricity, the biodiesel fora well full of people thinking this. Me, I'm glad I can boil the kettle when the washing machine and fridge are both running.

He seems a lot more logical, realistic and cleaner than most.

[demographic]

Oh and I forgot to mention, any offgrid house absolutely has to be efficient. None of this old country house guff.
Chopping huge quantities of wood just to stay warm is shit. We did it when I lived on a hillfarm and it just wears everyone down, doing it into retirement is a mugs game.

Newbuild with SIPS panels or something with proper insulation and that can pass a decent airtest.

Ancient houses look nice from a distance but when you pay for heating oil to keep em warm it gets old fast.

So, efficient. Maybe ground or air source heat pump and underfloor heating.

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

Until the age of 7 (1967 to 1974) I lived (with my family) in a caravan with no plumbing, no fridge that was 1 mile down a dirt track from the nearest village, it sucked, in 1974 we moved into a council house, and that was heaven by comparison (even though we got ice on the inside of the windows in winter)
You can shove living in caravans, sheds or old vehicles up your arse, it's for people who want bronchitis

[Taipan]

I lived in a mobile home for about 6 months whilst we was buying and doing essential work on a bungalow before moving in. Thought it was great in the summer but then winter came. I moved into the unfinished bungalow with no heating as it was still a hell of a lot warmer than a mobile home and actually retained heat for more than the 10 seconds a mobile home does! The mobile home had plumbing and was on main drains, but even then it was about as near to being off grid as I ever want to be.

We had caravan holidays in the same place in Spain for a good few years. We got to know a Dutch guy who lived in a camper and roamed around Europe. He returned home once a year to stay with family, service his camper and check on his house that he had rented out. It was supposed to be a years thing but he had got right into it and didn't see himself going back to a house anytime soon. He mainly wild camped, but paid to come onto the campsite in Spain we used, from June to October, as he met up with the many Dutch, english and german friends he'd go to know over the years.

He had some good stories but the reality was he'd often been driven into cheap hotels due to bad weather and the odd breakdowns but he still preferred the wandering life. It did sound good initially, but then the reality of emptying toilets or shitting in woods and bushes and being stuck in a tin box in bad weather kicks in and I no longer fancy doing it, although might try it for a summer if we ever go house hunting in Spain, but long term off grid in ashed/tent/caravan/camper, no thanks.