Metateps

The reasons range from altruistic to egotistic, from political to environmental, and from financial to geographical. Whatever the reason for going off-grid, there are some realities the budding off-gridder will be faced with.

First, unless you have the money to pay a contractor to turn your home into its own independent utility, you are going to have to make some changes to your lifestyle, learn a lot of technical stuff, and change your daily routine. This includes an intense concentration on energy conservation. You may also find that off-gridding changes your social routines, especially if you're moving from one location to another. How do you handle isolation? If you find yourself in a grid-tied community, will you be able to adapt to the cultural subtleties of the new community and its attitudes about green living?

Is it going to bother you to be the village oddball? On the other hand, if you find yourself in an off-grid community, will you be able to integrate with a bunch of people who you yourself might consider oddballs?

Second, you need money. If you're someone who will never own land or a home and who is completely dependent on other people for your lifestyle, you will never get off-grid. And the more extreme the climate you live in, the more it will cost you to go off-grid. That doesn't mean you can't do some small but very beneficial projects. For instance, a backup hybrid solar/ generator system can be fun to build and relatively inexpensive, and it will give you emergency lights and run your TV and computer and refrigerator when the grid goes down. From another perspective, you can do a lot just by staying on the grid and learning to be an expert on energy conservation. In the end it will cost you less, save you more, and put less demand on the grid.

Third, you are never completely off-grid. You drive a car (with gas at nearly $5 per gallon) or ride a bike on a network (a grid) of roads that take you to and from work, school, church, marketall places that are run on the grid. All your off-grid gear is made at on-grid factories and transported by grid-dependent vehicles using fossil fuels. You may generate the electricity to power your TV and satellite receiver, but the programs you're receiving are coming through a grid. So is that wireless Internet. Ultimately, the money you use to buy your off-grid lifestyle comes from a grid-dependent career. Get over it. There is no life without a grid of some kind.