All you need to go off-grid

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Courses, guides & tutorials

Looking for Real Families living off the grid

alaska bush peopleThe success of Alaska Bush people on Discovery TV has pushed off-grid living up the agenda. But its another example of choosing off-grid people because they are half-crazed and will say things the media love.

We are looking for Real families – who do not talk like Jess Ventura – who live TOTALLY off the grid – away from the system – using guns rather than washing machines, solar panels and not cellphones.

Please send photos now – contact nick@off-grid.net…

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September 10, 2014 8 Comments
$700 energy gather and storage
Courses, guides & tutorials

Cheap portable solar power setup

The chatter about solar power and energy storage over the last few years, might make you come to the wrong conclusion that such systems are neither portable nor affordable.

But testing out an off-road, off-grid solar power setup, we recently came to some interesting conclusions. Like many who read this, we like the outdoors but our kids tend to destroy the calm with their demands for the comforts of home. To tell you the truth, I believe that every single camping trip I’ve ever been on has been in the rain, so I can understand why bringing along some of the comforts of home can be attractive. Unfortunately, those “comforts” might include things like the laptop, a television, or a refrigerator. Going beyond this, what happens when the comforts of home are taken away by power outage, whether by storm or blackout?

This tends to happen regularly at my place in the highlands of Majorca’s Tramuntana mountains, such as last night when we lost power for a few hours. Candles only go so far, and do nothing for the refrigerator, laptops for work, cell phones for communication (the local cell tower has backup power) or the electric shower. A cheap Chinese 800W generator is a little over $150, not to mention fuel costs. On the other hand, depending on how much power you need, a small solar power system and energy storage could be all that is required.…

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August 31, 2014 1 Comment
Communities

Get to know your property before you build

wind and rock

OK, you have purchased your land, you are all excited about getting your off-grid homestead going, but before you set your first post, before you lay your first board, there are some things you should do first, taking these steps will help to insure your place will be the best place it can be.

The first thing you should do is walk your land, especially if there is acreage concerned, you need to get to know your land as best you can, pick out more than one potential spot, then camp out on your land, as often as you can, for as many seasons as you can. Try to be there during rain, wind and such. The reason this is important is you NEED to know where the winds blow, the direction, you need to know how the drainage works, you don’t want to build where it’s going to flood.…

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August 23, 2014 2 Comments
Communities

Living and building off-grid on the cheap

Going off-grid on the cheap, it’s possible to do, but you should be creative and flexible, the property was the biggest expense, buying a property with “issues” made that expense much less than it could have been.

Our property’s issue was the access, it has a seasonal creek that runs across the front/bottom of the property, so driving up on the property is tricky if not impossible. We didn’t mind, the rest of the property was great.

One of the things we do to build cheap (sometimes free) is to constantly be on the lookout for free materials to recycle or re-purpose. It’s not the same as going to the lumber store and buying what we need, we often are gifted with material that would normally go to the dump at odd times, this material has its issues, the lumber is rough, has nails, screws and other hardware, sometimes ends of lumber are rotten, damaged or cut off, as I said, you need to be creative.…

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August 16, 2014 4 Comments
Communities

A bridge to Bobbage

PICT0152

Living here going on 8 years and we still have to hike up to the sky castle, the reason is because of a seasonal creek that runs in front of the property near the road, it can be navigated if you have 4 wheel drive and the creek isn’t running (which it isn’t most of the year). It isn’t the water that makes it difficult though, it’s the depth of the creek bed.…

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July 20, 2014 1 Comment
Communities

How to build your own water cistern system

01
What Is A Water Cistern System?

Those living in a municipality often take for granted utility services that many rural property dwellers are not privileged to enjoy. Many people living in rural regions are extremely fortunate if they are able to afford the huge expense to drill a water well and even more fortunate if the drill actually strikes good potable water. For those rural proprietors or tenants who are challenged by the absence of a drinkable water source on their property a cistern system is a practical and economical alternative.…

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July 10, 2014 4 Comments

Off-Grid village planned for New South Wales

doone wybornAs Australian power prices rise and alternative-energy technologies progress, a growing number of Ozzies are opting to disconnect.

Retired scientist and businessman Doone Wyborn and his wife Carol are two of those people. Their vision is for twenty other couples to join them.

They bought an 800-acre parcel of land in rural northern New South Wales almost 10 years ago and plan to turn it into a self-sufficient rural cooperative community.…

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July 8, 2014 6 Comments
Communities

Short cycling? Problem solved :)

1x1placeholderShort cycling, it makes me think of riding a bike a very small distance, or someone riding a really short bike…. actually it’s when a motor or compressor runs for a short period of time and is off for a short period of time. This will shorten the life of said motor or compressor.

We have had our current/new freezer to fridge conversion for a couple of months now, as the weather began warming up, I noticed the box ran more often than I thought it should, so I really started paying attention to the cycle. I didn’t officially time anything, but I estimated it was coming on for only a few minutes at a time every 5-10 minutes, that was definitely wrong. Of course this was during 100 degree days, it was also happening that way whether I opened the lid or not.…

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June 13, 2014 No Comments
Communities

Keeping it clean…

shower

Hygiene while living off-grid, especially if you are living rough and/or just starting out, keeping clean can be one of the challenges. When PB and I first moved to our off-grid home, it was little more than a box on stilts, one room. We had a double sink on the “kitchen wall”, but it wasn’t hooked up to running water or even to a drain.…

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May 30, 2014 3 Comments

Tiny home UK – £2500

Apaulafallowshome quiet corner of a farm near Birmingham has become a workplace for a busy mum-of-two.

Just 20 yards from her house is Paula Fallows’ office, inside what looks like a beach hut.

It took about three days for her and her husband to build it.

“It’s really good because it’s totally separate from the house,” she says. “You can go in there, work away and shut the door at the end of it. You don’t cross that line of having your work in your house.

“But you don’t have very far to go, it’s just across from the house, literally a 20 yard walk. For people who do work from home, the cost savings are enormous and the commuting time as well.”

Paula put the hut on wheels to avoid planning permission problems – and to make the most of the sun.

She designed the chassis and recycled other parts, including the wheels to cut expenses, with the finished hut costing £2,600.…

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May 19, 2014 1 Comment
Willand Devin couple win court battle - go off the grid
Courses, guides & tutorials

Devon smallholders win right to build home

A young family has won the right to live off the grid on their smallholding after a battle to get planning permission.

Dinah and Stig Mason were refused permission to build a house on the four-acre site in Willand, classified as open countryside.

Changes to planning laws mean the Masons can now convert an old barn on the site.

Mrs Mason said: “We’re ecstatic. We can finally live the life that we choose.”

We are going to have to spend a lot more money, but we have got our dream”…

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May 14, 2014 3 Comments
Communities

New golf cart batteries

gcb1

Today was the first full day on the new batteries, we had everything hooked up to them, including the new chest freezer to refrigerator conversion, about a month (or so) ago our old one smoked on us, fortunately it happened during the day and I was there to catch it, it might not have gone any further, but as far as I’m concerned, when you see smoke, fire usually comes next. I’ll do another writeup on the new fridge very soon, until then you can read about how I DIY’d the conversion here and here.

Our previous batteries were marine type deep cycle batteries, I’ve been told on more than one occasion that those types of batteries aren’t true deep cycle batteries, in fact the newer ones being sold have cold cranking ratings on them instead of amp hours, and that has little (or nothing) to do with being deep cycle, that has to do with starting motors and such. Those are a hybrid of regular and deep cycle batteries, more robust than a standard car or truck battery but not as heavy duty as a true deep cycle battery.…

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April 20, 2014 2 Comments

How We Went Off-Grid

Order Here How We Went Off-Grid

20 x 8 Ft. Outdoor Storage Shed, Desert Sand

Order Here 20 x 8 Ft. Outdoor Storage Shed, Desert Sand