But, whether the motivation is to save money, save the planet, or all of the above, off-grid living is not a fad that looks to be going away, and it is not something that is practised only by a meagre handful of beardies in sandals.
It is, in fact, a global phenomenon (sort of) that seems to be catching on, by 2007 there were approximately 300,000 off-grid homes in the United States alone and another 40,000 in the UK.
Extreme, off-grid, living places range from rural houses and huts to tree-houses, container dwellings, and variations on the tent.
However, the movement is not all about extremism, nor is it about total commitment to the cause, you can adopt off-grid principles even in a home that is totally and utterly ‘on-grid’ by dampening your reliance on the grid that you happen to be ‘on’, even if you convert just one room into an off-grid sanctuary!
Taking one room off-grid is better than nothing, both for your wallet and for the environment, and can be done relatively easily by installing a solar panel on a room’s exterior wall.
The solar panel can be small and reasonably inexpensive and will provide sufficient energy for an office containing a light, a laptop and a phone charger, for example.
Other basic ideas to help you adopt the off-grid principles, if only partially, include:
• Storing rain water in a storage tank in your attic or garden.
• Powering your electrical appliances with the cigarette lighter in your car with an inverter which costs around £30 from Halfords.
• Growing your own vegetables and herbs in pots or a garden.
• Installing a small marine wind turbine to generate small amounts of power.
• Accommodating guests in a tent, or perhaps, allowing your guests the luxury of the beds and you use the tent for the duration of their stay.
According to Nick Rosen, author of “How to live off-grid”, it is “remarkable how little power and water you need” and although you may not be able to “run your washing machine and your TV simultaneously” in an off-grid dwelling, “you can have both, and just about anything else.”
“It's all about husbanding your resources,” remarked Rosen, in a piece he wrote for the Independent, before poignantly continuing, “a habit few of us have today but I forecast we will all be forced to learn.”
For further information about off-grid living, check out
www.off-grid.net.