Off – Grid Living

The True Goal to Living Free…. To live off the grid means to subsist outside of the confines of traditional utility structures—including municipal electricity, water, gas, and sewer systems. No More Utility Payments, No More Electrical Bills, No More Waste Payments… No More Crap to Companies that Don’t Lift a Finger to Help you even if they wanted to. Think… Your only Payment is for Property Tax and no Service Fees…. No more Paying to have your Electricity (That you already Pay for) delivered. Also the Fact you can put the Property anywhere there is Land.

The 8 Concepts of Off-Grid Living:

1. Power: Supplying Power to all areas including local devices.
2. Lighting: The Lighting of Areas where needed.
3. Water Supply: Clean Water Supply (Drinking, Washing, Showers, Toilets, ect.)
4. Environment: Air Treatment of internal areas (Heat, Cold)
5. Waste Treatment: Self Explanatory.
6. Communications: Phones, Internet or plane TV
7. Entertainment: Personal Living with to sole goal to be unproductive.
8. External Environment Handling (If Needed): good example is Automatic Snow Removal or Automatic Grass Cutting.

Put together enough land to allow the combination of Resources (Solar / Wind / Water) to Charge a Power Bank outside of the House (Like a Power Shed) [for many reasons]. The Power Shed would then Power any device needed. When designed correctly the Power Bank (when fully charged) under normal power usage should last One Month (without adding any more power). With the constant charging of the Resources you should never run out of Power. Also any Power Generated Should Stay with you, Not Sell it back to the powers that be (far less then they charge per kWh)

Note: for safety reasons (and certain chemicals used), All stored power should be contained in a safe place. A good example if the Power Bank is stored inside the House and the Batteries catch fire (cheap batteries, shorting, over charging…), the next thing you know is your House is a tinder house with a great view of the sky. With the Batteries outside in a safe environment and a fire breaks out then the shed is the charcoal structure not you house and with a alternate way of powering it (portable backup power bank) you can still use your house (on a much more limited scale).

Since my Off-Grid House will not be a Mansion (Only a 5 Bedroom House – 3 Stories [Main, Upper Floor, Basement] ) the Lighting will be standard LED Smart Lights. The reason would be low wattage and automated lighting. All Lighting would be Zoned by Area with Smart Sensors all Connected to an Automation System, this would allow Scheduled Lighting with Seasonal and Daily Scenes. Imagine when you enter a zone that is scheduled enabled with the Zone Light Levels low enough with the Zone Sensor Flags the Zone Lights to Engage to the Correct Settings based on the Time of Hour, Outside Lighting will Engage based on Sensor(s) and Automation Schedules and when Schedules are Set to Not Operate (Overnight Time) the Lighting will be Off except Security Lighting (Why waste power). Special Note could be when owner is out late and away from house the Driveway Lighting could be used to illuminate the driveway and being a “Smart House” the Automation System knows when the Owner is Away from the System. Some Zones would include internal zones (Kitchen, Living Room, Dining Area, Common Areas ie Stairs and Entry Areas). Other Zone would include External Lighting including Driveway + Front + Sides and Back Areas.

Everyone needs Water, Clean Water. Water from Utilities (Depending on the Area) are not 100% Clean but Passable under Area Locations. Living Off-Grid Requires You to generate your Own Clean Drinkable Supply Water off of Your Land. Note I mentioned Clean DRINKABLE Supply Water. There are Many Ways of Collecting Water (Not All Drinkable), some would be Deep Water Wells while others would be Rain Water Collection Systems and so on. I Personally prefer the Deep Water Wells (Note: Not all Lands Support Deep Water Well Systems) but more that One Well (Due to System Failures). Depending on the Land in question the Water might not be 100% Drinkable, to fix this there would be a need to have a Multiple Stage Reverse Osmosis System with UV Filters designed for Failure / Maintenance. After the Filtration System it Would Feed all the Water Needs (Being Under Pressure) with the ability of Feeling Unlimited. This Would Guarantee Safe Reliable Supply Water without Paying any Governable Body any Taxes (and Most Likely Cleaner Water).

Having an Off Grid Housing Area with no Moving Air Systems would Eventually Cause Dirt / Mold and any type of Unclean Conditions not suitable for common living. Thus Air Movement is Necessary, show me a house with no air flow and no activity after 1 month and I will show you a house with stale (and sometimes smells) conditions. To achieve this issue one might use area fans, in my House Hold I would Build an Air System to cover the Whole House (Like an Air Handler with 3x Major Ducting to Each Floor). On Top of that I would Include Heat Pumps / VAV Systems per Zone with a Zone System Area Stats to Monitor and would connect to the Automation System to Watch the Whole House and make necessary changes to the Local Device Systems as needed.

Depending on where the land is Located (Not all Areas are Equal) the Environment Systems will have Temperature Control with Active / Non Active Temperature Set-points Conditions and Maintain the Temperatures in the Zone all the way back to the Main Air Handler via the Automation Systems. When the System knows your Home and Active (Based on the Current Conditions Inside and Out) the Automation will make the Zones the Temperature you Desire per Zone. Good Examples are in the Kitchen (that gets warmer due to cooking) and In the Living Room (Depending on Number of People Generating Heat) or the Bedrooms not being Used during the Day.

We all know why we need this, There are Many Ways to Achieve this:

• Septic Systems:
  • Doable and Strong Upfront Fees, with Big Area Coverage Needed (Big Footprint) and Ongoing Maintenance.
• Composting Toilets:
  • Cheaper per Toilet but have you ever used one in a small area? Also the Time Maintaining the Functions to make it Work.
• Incinerating Toilets
  • Expensive per Toilet and if every bedroom has an ensuite then that means 5 (ensuite) + 3 (powder rooms), and not used as a standard toilet (still better than an Outhouse). Keep in Mind the refuge left behind is Ash a fractional volume of the Source Content. More Likely good for Portable areas like Campers or RVs.
• Incinerating Systems:
  • Small Floor Print and Expensive but can handle the Whole Household. Less Maintenance than a Septic System but Produces Harmful Air Impurities.
• Outhouses / Vault Toilets:
  • Have you ever Used one in the Middle of Winter? Say No More… Cheaper Though…
• Black Water Treatment Systems:
  • Small Floor Print and Expensive and can Handle the Whole House, Very Low Maintenance and Proven the Best Usage on Yachting Vessels of today.

For a Long Time I was for the Incinerating Systems (Furnaces) until recently… Now My Preference is Black Water Treatment Systems, Mostly due to the Very Low Maintenance and the Discharge from such systems is Cleaner Water than Out of the Ground (could be used with the Filtration Systems Noted Above)… It also uses Less Power to Run the System then any Incinerating Solutions with No Smell and Not having to worry about Winter Conditions.

If you are not a Monk with the Vow of Silence then I guarantee you Will Need to Communicate with the Outside World at sometime. Forms of Communication could be simple of Watching TV, Talking on the Phone or Surfing the WEB. In an Off-Grid area it is no longer a issue to communicate, you are disconnected from the Local Area (if available) and have to Rely on you Own Forms of Communication.

In My Environment I would Choose Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite Systems (Some Noticeable Better than Others But More than a few to choose from). The Reason for This is Fast Communications with Very Low Latency and the Ability to connected Phones (VOIP), TVs (Streaming) and of course Surfing the Internet. Depending on the Service Contract the Bandwidth would constitute the number of devices I could connect and use at the Same Time.

All Work with No Play leads an Individual to Hardships through Life… So in My Off-Grid Solutions I would Have areas that would Entertain One’s Mind and Abilities. They would be a combination of Indoor and Outdoors areas. Examples could be Pool Tables, Movie Screening Areas, Indoor Lap Pools, Indoor Saunas, Outdoor Pools (Maybe a Lazy River), Hiking Trails all based on the size of the House and the Land Surrounding it.

Like Mentioned above… Tasks I Hate to do would be Automated. The Most Important would be Snow Removal of the Driveway and Sidewalks need to move around the House, there are many ways to accomplish this issue the simplest would be under pad heating connected to the Automated Systems of the House. Speaking of Outside Tasks I Hate Doing… Have you seen the Robot Grass Cutters out there that can connect to the House Automated Systems of Today (Worth the Upfront Costs Needed). Another Example would be an Automatic Gate System that could connect with the Automated Systems of the House