Comments on: Living Off the Grid: How to Generate Your Own Electricity

By: Ben Erickson

Ben Erickson — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 13:32:16 +0000

Hi Jim, Wow, way to go! It sounds like you're really living the green life. You can find all our eco-friendly articles, from how to save energy to ways to recycle to tips on improving your indoor air quality, on our Your Green Home page. In addition, our Thinking Green section has lots of videos tips from Danny on how to live a greener lifestyle and help the environment.

By: Jim Kalbfell

Jim Kalbfell — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:29:33 +0000

Like a few others , this is my first time on this site. I live in the city, and rent, so my options on living off the grid pretty much don’t exist. I do however take every possible step I can to reduce my energy costs and reduce my carbon footprint that I can. I thoroughly believe in green technologies. I keep lights off whenever possible, use florescent bulbs everywhere at the lowest wattage possible. I only use the AC when absolutely necessary and at the warmest tolerable. I prefer to keep the widows open and use the cross wind. If necessary I will use a window fan. In the heat of the summer when there is no breeze, I will draw all the shades to keep the sun from heating up the house so as to try and not need to use the AC. I purposely chose a place with an electric furnace to try and lower emissions into the air a little, if that helps, I,m not sure if it really does or not. I keep the furnace clean regularly. I seal the windows during the winter and use air seals on all doors and windows. I changed my shower head to a water efficient shower head and use as little as possible. I try to cut corners everywhere I can. Heck, I don’t even drive anymore. I prefer to take the public transit because in my city our buses use soy diesel and that is a green, renewable fuel source. If possible, I will walk to buy my groceries, all organic, or any where else I can, or ride my bike, great exercise. I can’t do a lot living in the city and renting but I try all I can, so wish me well in my struggles.

By: chance says

chance says — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:12:54 +0000

we live on a farm in saskachewan we burn wood in a wood furnace in the basement and put the majority of the heat into the basement first we dry 80% of a landry this way in the winter time and we used to dry all are cloths this way for a while saves alot of power so we woudnt need alot of power if we went to propane range and fridge to get power put in here would cost around 15000 for half mile run and 30 dollars a month just for the meter charge i would like to go to other alternatives so were trying to ween are selves of things we dont really need such as dishwasher and large bathtub i dont know how i would weld or do shop work though of the grid it dosnt sound very inticeing to have to run every thing of of a generator well by for now p.s. our tempature gets to -40 in the winter a times

By: Arijit Mitra

Arijit Mitra — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 07:30:35 +0000

Hello,

Consider bio gas generated from composting toilets and your kitchen waste. If you have so much land, consider raising some animals, chicken etc. whose waste would add to the bio gas production. Plus you have your own food! You also get fertilizer, rich in nutrients for your plants. That’d supplement some of the power (not sure if your generator runs on gas). Eventually you might need a higher backup…

By: lynne

lynne — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:33:36 +0000

It is unbelievable that the author actually thinks he is living “off-grid”!The wife treasures her dryer,he has a very expensive set-up to maintain, and loads of modern appliances.You will not save money without removing those modern conveinences out of you life. Hence, the reason we have gotten to the paoint we are at now!To go off-grid should be to contribute to the environment & to love a simpler life. With that, comes the low utiltiy bills, etc..I think he has missed the whole point of why we are doing these things.We need to get back to our roots: CONSERVE & PRESERVE

By: James

James — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 12:26:12 +0000

Praise God for you Amanda. I love your approach and your determination. I looked at the solar oven you provided by link and loved it. Also, one can heat their water for household use with solar, simply. If you have a wood stove as I do, while most heat goes into the room air, a monster lot of heat is vented to the outside. You can reclaim a portion of that heat to further warm the interior of the house. My wood stove has a flat top and I do all my cooking on that surface. Simple metalic spacer materials on top can reduce heat for one pan while another sits directly on the surface. And it’s free cooking since you are already trying to heat your interior. You first heat your food, cooking it, then automatically that heat disappears back into the surrounding air to help heat the house. I can’t believe how many people do NOT dry their clothes outside. The only time you can NOT dry your clothes there is when it is raining. Even when it does rain on my already hung out laundry I just call it God’s final rinse because it won’t rain forever. In the coldest of winters your clothes still dry out there by sublimation. Wet clothes will always dry outside unless you have precipitation, yet even that only just delays the process. I have a friend who created a mamoth water tank (lake if you will) that is very deep (depth is critical). He put in plumbing while the pond was being built. Now he uses a very small pump to bring the really cold water (50 degrees) from the bottom of the pond up to the condenser in the house. It does the same work as a compressor (drawing heat out of the room air) but with almost zero cost after the initial minimal investment. This won’t work for everybody but nearly free and unlimited air conditioning all summer should excite most any modern human being – most especially down in south Texas where I hail!! So many ways to merge the best of modern society with simple solutions from the distant past centuries.

By: Christy

Christy — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:13:19 +0000

While the equipment listed was expensive, it wasn’t compared to the alternative: having the power company run power to the site. Even at the relatively low cost in the area I live in, it would cost 50,000 dollars to run power onto my property from 2 miles or so away, PLUS the power bill every month. The 28000 spent is still not in the same league as bringing power in and having a power bill.

I agree with the other comments that perhaps you don’t have enough battery for the house. You may need to have more battery power to take advantage of your system.

By: Ben Erickson

Ben Erickson — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:48:10 +0000

Hi Andrew, Water based geothermal heat pump systems are very energy efficient, though they cost more to install than traditional heat pumps. They use a drilled well to circulate ground water through the HVAC unit. Check out our video on Geothermal Heat Pumps to find out more.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:09:53 +0000

Kudos to the author of this website. You have provided valuable insight to the average Joe. Question: Has any research been done on using geothermal to heat and cool homes? By geothermal, I mean burying PVC pipes into the ground (in a zig zag U pattern) and using a fan to push air through to acquire heat (or to cool) the house. I’ve heard of some people have done this. Is this doable?

By: Mike Petersen

Mike Petersen — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:30:57 +0000

Check at Sam’s Club for 6 volt golf cart batteries. They have 220 amp hour capacity, can be wired together for 12 volt or more systems, last 5 to 7 years or more when properly maintained and cost only $72.00(approx.) as compared to the other options.
regards,
Mike