In my latest house sit I’m having the experience of living off the grid, the slow combustion stove provides hot water, and the solar panels give me lights and power the washing machine. There is a generator that can charge up the batteries for the solar if needed, and which is also used to pump water up from the lower tanks to the header tank, from here the water comes into the house by gravity feed. I was a little bit daunted by all of this at first, I’ve been a city girl all my life and being practical doesn’t come naturally to me, but in the end it has turned out to be rather simple, even for me!
When we had those big storms back in January and thousands of homes lost power, phones and internet, in some cases for days, the people living in this house took a while to realise how bad the situation was. It’s a nice feeling not to be dependant on the system, and to know that being off the grid doesn’t have to mean living with less. This place has all the creature comforts, you can’t have anything with a heating element but the stove does a pretty good job of heating the house, especially in the upstairs bedroom where I’m sleeping, as of course, hot air rises. And if you really need it there is a dryer which can be used in conjunction with the generator.
There are many different ways of being off the grid, here I have all the comforts, and I’m only 12 minutes away from town where I can access pretty much all that I need. The following video shows a much more isolated place, where people are living off the grid in all sorts of diverse ways, some extremely basic, while others are living in luxury. Just goes to show, there are as many different ways to live as there are people!
http://www.vitalisnutrition.com/2011/07/30/lasqueti-retreat-unique-special-secluded/
They even have a yoga retreat centre on the island!
The island called Lasqueti, is home to
400 people, less than an hour away from
Vancouver.
It’s so secluded there’s no electricity,
there are no paved roads and in many cases,
no plumbing.
How do 400 modern Canadians make do off
the grid – year round?
Have a look!
Video: (14:21)
Through the Vortex 