Water, waste and power: What you need to get off the grid

Most people wouldn't ever voluntarily go "off the grid" for more than a few days at a time. To them, the idea would only make sense if it was a weekend adventure. To others, it's life on the grid that feels intensely uncomfortable: everything that they use in their lives, from electricity to water and produce, they depend on a government or corporate system for.

They see how entire regions fall apart when storms hit. Without access to shelter or power, people have no way of coming by safe food or water. The government is slow to respond, and their lives are put in danger. It would be much more sensible, they feel, to unplug from the system to learn to depend on the earth and on themselves. Life lived closer to the earth would feel better, too.

Going off the grid, though, isn't simple. It requires a complete rethinking of one's life. Everything that you've come to depend on others for, you need to find alternative, simpler sources for. Off-the-grid living isn't something that you set up and run on autopilot. It requires a lifelong commitment to get to work. If you're serious about the idea, though, here's an introduction to the kind of change it involves.

Gaining the right attitude

Going off the grid isn't necessarily an all-or-nothing proposition. Instead, it can be about trying to get closer to a natural way of living, one step at a time. Renouncing large, expensive professionally built homes is a good start. You can move on to finding alternative ways of generating power, finding water and disposing of waste.

Finding the right spot

If you live in a city or anywhere in the suburbs, anything you build will need to be to code; only professional contractors can build to code, though. If you're interested in building your own modest home, then, moving into a rural area is your only option: the farther you go from large towns, the fewer the building restrictions are that you will face.

Building a home

Thousands of people who choose the off-the-grid lifestyle build their own homes. They construct tiny, single-room homes on their land (either by themselves or with help from a carpenter) and equip them with just the things that they need for their simple lifestyles.

The move to tiny homes is actually a significant counterculture: many who dislike the complexities and costs involved in modern home purchases try to slash their needs down the barest minimum and live in little, one-room houses, instead. One of the main benefits of the tiny home movement is that it frees you from having to make tens of thousands of dollars to be able to pay off a mortgage.

Finding power

In these times of cheap solar and wind power, off-the-grid living is far more affordable than it used to be. With a budget of a few thousand dollars, anyone can buy a solar power generation system, or buy a wind or hydropower generator. It's possible to live on very little power if you build a well-insulated home based on good, passive home building techniques. You will need very little heating or cooling. The less power you need, the easier your life becomes.

Finding water

Reliable access to water is essential to off-the-grid living. Most off-the-gridders drill into the earth on their property and draw water out with a pump. Pumps can be power-hungry appliances, though. You will need considerable power generation capability to be able to run one. It's possible, though, to supplement water from the earth with collected rainwater or water from a nearby stream. Periodic testing is necessary to make sure that such water is safe for human consumption. You may need a water purification system.

Finding a way to dispose of waste

Whether it's waste water or solid waste, you need to work out a way to get rid of it. Even areas that have no building codes have strictly enforced rules to do with sewage disposal. In most areas, you'll need to consider building a septic tank or a composting toilet. These methods are acceptable in most counties.

If you do it right, the rewards can be enormous

When you finally finish putting the pieces of your off-grid life together, the feeling of satisfaction can be huge. It can feel liberating to no longer be dependent on external forces for your very survival. With time, you will possibly learn to cultivate your own food, too. Gong off the grid is a journey that you take one step at a time.