The term “off-grid living” seems to have taken on a whole new outlook in recent years. Green living beginners and experts alike have run into the term at least once. Some may even recall running into someone who wanted to live the ultimate green lifestyle by going off the grid. The question remains for many people, what exactly is off-grid living. Off-grid living expert (and our own Content Manager) Meg Coogle decided to tackle this one for us in a quick blog interview. Here are our questions and her answers.
Question: Can you explain what off grid means?
Meg: Off-grid is a term that means living off the electric grid or off the energy grid. Living off-grid means you are self reliant and do not use city energy, water or other utilities.
Question: Can you really go off-grid?
Meg: Sure, anyone “can” go off-grid, but many people will not. The idea of off-grid living is easy enough until you consider the things that would have to change in your daily life. That’s when the dream of off-grid living hits our modern reality.
Question: What kind of changes would have to take place? Isn’t it just switching to an energy alternative?
Meg: It may sound that easy, but it really isn’t. When I do consultations for green living I am always asked about off-grid options. The look on people’s faces when I explain what those options are is usually the same. First it is shock and then it is a shake of the head and we move on to other options. The main changes people seem to shy away from are how you store and prepare your food, how you really live with no electricity and even how you handle hygeine.
Question: So, all of those things change dramatically?
Meg: Picture going from the lifestyle you have currently. You will go home, turn on your lights, open your refridgerator, grab a cold drink, maybe start the dishes or a load of laundry and then sit down to watch some television. You’ll play around on the computer a bit and possibly take a shower and head off to bed in your air conditioned room. Now, leave all of that behind and head off to “Little House on the Prarie” or “Deadwood.” Minus the drama and acting of course. That is what going off the grid really means to the majority of people.
Question: Is it really Little House or Deadwood?
Meg: Maybe not as dramatic but there are changes that mirror the lifestyle. I think to get a full grasp of the changes people have to make and the lifestyle they will have to move toward they should look in three different directions. Cody Lundin, a survival expert and co-host of Dual Survival, has a geothermal home and lives off the grid. He is an example of complete self-reliance with no real modern lifestyle changes. Check out his video on YouTube where he shows off his home. Now, look to Les Stroud who is another survival expert. He built a fully functional modern off the grid home. His is an example of “having your cake and eating it too.” For the lowest end of off grid living and unfortunatly a look at how bad planning and little knowledge of the lifestyle can come back to bite you, check out a documentary called Life on the Mesa. It follows a group of people living on the Mesa of Arizona. They live completly off the grid and most of them wandered into the lifestyle with little to no education or knowledge about what the lifestyle of off-grid living really is. Looking into the three lives and lifestyles will give many readers a stark view of what true off-grid living is.
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