Off-the-grid
Encyclopedia
The term off-the-grid (OTG) or off-grid refers to living in a self-sufficient
manner without reliance on one or more public utilities
.
Off-the-grid homes are autonomous
; they do not rely on municipal water supply
, sewer
, natural gas
, electrical power grid, or similar utility services. A true off-grid house is able to operate completely independently of all traditional public utility
services. The idea has been recently popularized by certain celebrities including Ed Begley, Jr.
who stars in Living with Ed
television show on the Home & Garden Television
network. Actress Daryl Hannah
promotes off-grid living and constructed her home in Colorado according to those principles, as does survival expert and co-star of Dual Survival
Cody Lundin
can be generated on-site with renewable energy
sources such as solar
, wind
or geothermal
; with a generator
and adequate fuel reserves; or simply done without, as in Amish
and Old Order Mennonite
communities. Such a system is called a stand-alone power system
.
sources can include a well, stream, or lake. Depending on the water source, this may include pumps and/or filtration. Rainwater can also be harvested.
reported that there were "some 180,000 families living off-grid, a figure that has jumped 33% a year for a decade," and cited Richard Perez, publisher of Home Power Magazine
, as the source. Assuming the same rate of growth, there would be a quarter million off-grid households in the United States by late 2007. Because many Third World
citizens have never had the chance to go on the grid, current estimates are that 1.7 billion people live off-grid worldwide.
and wind
power generation that is connected to the electrical grid to avoid the use of toxic lead acid batteries for night time storage. Grid-tie systems are more expensive due to the extra hardware costs (such as a grid-tie inverter) especially when old car batteries
that can no longer supply enough current to start a car are reused.
Going off-grid can be done for altruistic reasons or to lower the environmental impact of living, as the typically limited amount of on-site renewable energy available is an incentive to reduce its use. But if energy usage is not reduced, going off-grid actually has a larger environmental impact versus using the grid, due to the lower efficiencies of the components. It is often done to residential buildings only occasionally occupied, such as vacation cabins, to avoid high initial costs of traditional utility connections. Other persons choose to live in houses where the cost of outside utilities is prohibitive, or such a distance away as to be impractical. In his book "How to live off-grid" Nick Rosen
lists seven reasons for going off-grid. The top two are saving money, and reducing the carbon footprint. Others include survivalists
, preparing for the collapse of the oil economy
and bringing life back to the countryside.
, sun
), and the cost of a grid connection. For example, in certain remote areas a grid connection would be prohibitively expensive, resulting in grid parity being reached immediately.
, small inexpensive Chinese-made solar electric systems became available, and as of 2010, they were being installed on mudhuts in villages in Kenya
, and other countries. Inexpensive solar panels and LED lights make the systems affordable.
Self-sufficiency
Self-sufficiency refers to the state of not requiring any outside aid, support, or interaction, for survival; it is therefore a type of personal or collective autonomy...
manner without reliance on one or more public utilities
Public utility
A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service . Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies...
.
Off-the-grid homes are autonomous
Autonomous building
An autonomous building is a building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, gas grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, storm drains, communication services, and in some cases, public roads.Advocates of...
; they do not rely on municipal water supply
Water supply
Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...
, sewer
Sanitary sewer
A sanitary sewer is a separate underground carriage system specifically for transporting sewage from houses and commercial buildings to treatment or disposal. Sanitary sewers serving industrial areas also carry industrial wastewater...
, natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
, electrical power grid, or similar utility services. A true off-grid house is able to operate completely independently of all traditional public utility
Public utility
A public utility is an organization that maintains the infrastructure for a public service . Public utilities are subject to forms of public control and regulation ranging from local community-based groups to state-wide government monopolies...
services. The idea has been recently popularized by certain celebrities including Ed Begley, Jr.
Ed Begley, Jr.
Edward James "Ed" Begley, Jr. is an American actor and environmentalist. Begley has appeared in hundreds of films, television shows, and stage performances. He is best known for his role as Dr. Victor Ehrlich, on the television series St...
who stars in Living with Ed
Living With Ed
Living With Ed is an American reality television show.It was originally shown on HGTV in 2007. In 2009 a new version began showing on the new Planet Green channel....
television show on the Home & Garden Television
HGTV
HGTV , is a cable-television network operating in the United States and Canada, broadcasting a variety of home and garden improvement, maintenance, renovation, craft and remodeling shows...
network. Actress Daryl Hannah
Daryl Hannah
Daryl Christine Hannah is an American film actress. After making her screen debut in 1978, Hannah starred in a number of Hollywood films throughout the 1980s, notably Blade Runner, Splash, Wall Street and Roxanne and Kill Bill.-Early life:Hannah was born in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Susan...
promotes off-grid living and constructed her home in Colorado according to those principles, as does survival expert and co-star of Dual Survival
Dual Survival
Dual Survival is a documentary television series on the Discovery Channel produced by Original Media. The program follows two survivalists showcasing contrasting wilderness survival skills: Cody Lundin, a minimalist and primitive skills expert, and Dave Canterbury, a military-style survival expert...
Cody Lundin
Cody Lundin
Cody Lundin is a minimalist and primitive skills survival expert and author of two books focusing primarily on survival topics. He is currently a co-star of the Discovery Channel series Dual Survival...
Electrical power
Electrical powerElectric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
can be generated on-site with renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
sources such as solar
Solar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
, wind
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
or geothermal
Geothermal power
Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. Thermal energy is the energy that determines the temperature of matter. Earth's geothermal energy originates from the original formation of the planet and from radioactive decay of minerals...
; with a generator
Engine-generator
An engine-generator is the combination of an electrical generator and an engine mounted together to form a single piece of equipment. This combination is also called an engine-generator set or a gen-set...
and adequate fuel reserves; or simply done without, as in Amish
Amish
The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...
and Old Order Mennonite
Old Order Mennonite
Old Order Mennonites is a branch of the Mennonite church. Although the term strictly refers to one particular group, it is often used to refer to those groups of Mennonites who practice a lifestyle without some elements of modern technology.-Overview:...
communities. Such a system is called a stand-alone power system
Stand-alone power system
A stand-alone power system , also known as remote area power supply , is an off-the-grid electricity system for locations that are not fitted with an electricity distribution system...
.
Water
On-site waterWater
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
sources can include a well, stream, or lake. Depending on the water source, this may include pumps and/or filtration. Rainwater can also be harvested.
Rainwater harvesting
Rainwater harvesting is the accumulating and storing of rainwater for reuse before it reaches the aquifer. It has been used to provide drinking water, water for livestock, water for irrigation, as well as other typical uses. Rainwater collected from the roofs of houses and local institutions can...
Popularity
On 13 April 2006, USA TodayUSA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
reported that there were "some 180,000 families living off-grid, a figure that has jumped 33% a year for a decade," and cited Richard Perez, publisher of Home Power Magazine
Home Power Magazine
Home Power is a bi-monthly American magazine. It is based in Ashland, Oregon. Circulation is greater than 100,000.Published since 1987, Home Power has promoted a goal of reducing the use of fossil fuels for electricity generation by replacing fossil fuel generation capacity with currently available...
, as the source. Assuming the same rate of growth, there would be a quarter million off-grid households in the United States by late 2007. Because many Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
citizens have never had the chance to go on the grid, current estimates are that 1.7 billion people live off-grid worldwide.
Environmental impact
The State of California is encouraging solarSolar power
Solar energy, radiant light and heat from the sun, has been harnessed by humans since ancient times using a range of ever-evolving technologies. Solar radiation, along with secondary solar-powered resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available...
and wind
Wind power
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
power generation that is connected to the electrical grid to avoid the use of toxic lead acid batteries for night time storage. Grid-tie systems are more expensive due to the extra hardware costs (such as a grid-tie inverter) especially when old car batteries
Car battery
An automotive battery is a type of rechargeable battery that supplies electric energy to an automobile. Usually this refers to an SLI battery to power the starter motor, the lights, and the ignition system of a vehicle’s engine...
that can no longer supply enough current to start a car are reused.
Going off-grid can be done for altruistic reasons or to lower the environmental impact of living, as the typically limited amount of on-site renewable energy available is an incentive to reduce its use. But if energy usage is not reduced, going off-grid actually has a larger environmental impact versus using the grid, due to the lower efficiencies of the components. It is often done to residential buildings only occasionally occupied, such as vacation cabins, to avoid high initial costs of traditional utility connections. Other persons choose to live in houses where the cost of outside utilities is prohibitive, or such a distance away as to be impractical. In his book "How to live off-grid" Nick Rosen
Nick Rosen
Nick Rosen is an author, campaigner and award-winning documentary-maker. His latest book "Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America" is published by Penguin Books and was released July 27, 2010.His series of short films about Chinese...
lists seven reasons for going off-grid. The top two are saving money, and reducing the carbon footprint. Others include survivalists
Survivalism
Survivalism is a movement of individuals or groups who are actively preparing for future possible disruptions in local, regional, national, or international social or political order...
, preparing for the collapse of the oil economy
Peak oil
Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. This concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, projected reserves and the combined production rate of a field...
and bringing life back to the countryside.
Economic consideration
In situations where grid parity has been reached, it becomes cheaper to generate one's own electricity rather than purchasing it from the grid. This depends on equipment costs, the availability of renewable energy sources (windWind
Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...
, sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
), and the cost of a grid connection. For example, in certain remote areas a grid connection would be prohibitively expensive, resulting in grid parity being reached immediately.
Africa
In AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, small inexpensive Chinese-made solar electric systems became available, and as of 2010, they were being installed on mudhuts in villages in Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, and other countries. Inexpensive solar panels and LED lights make the systems affordable.
See also
- Autonomous buildingAutonomous buildingAn autonomous building is a building designed to be operated independently from infrastructural support services such as the electric power grid, gas grid, municipal water systems, sewage treatment systems, storm drains, communication services, and in some cases, public roads.Advocates of...
- Domestic energy consumptionDomestic Energy ConsumptionDomestic energy consumption is the amount of energy that is spent on the different appliances used within housing. The amount of energy used per household varies widely depending on the standard of living of the country, climate, and the age and type of residence...
- Electrical grid
- MicrogenerationMicrogenerationMicrogeneration is the small-scale generation of heat and power by individuals, small businesses and communities to meet their own needs, as alternatives or supplements to traditional centralized grid-connected power...
- Stand-alone power systemStand-alone power systemA stand-alone power system , also known as remote area power supply , is an off-the-grid electricity system for locations that are not fitted with an electricity distribution system...
- SurvivalismSurvivalismSurvivalism is a movement of individuals or groups who are actively preparing for future possible disruptions in local, regional, national, or international social or political order...
- Wide area synchronous gridWide area synchronous gridA wide area synchronous grid, also called an "interconnection" in North America, is a power grid at a regional scale or greater that operates at a synchronized frequency and is electrically tied together during normal system conditions...
- Zero energy buildingZero energy buildingA zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy building, Net-Zero Energy Building , or Net Zero Building, is a popular term to describe a building with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually. Zero energy buildings can be independent from the energy grid supply...