Living off the GRID is anyone here thinking of it.

[VeilOctane]

hi there thinking of buying property and building a log cabin..
this is going to be a big change for me. and a new way of life.

i am thinking of harvesting the wind and sun for my electrical needs and having a rain catch for water. heat will be supplied by a wood stove. my budget is 300K was thinking of building a small single level log home no basement.

now my job probably will have to change unless i can get a dedicated internet connection at my location (i work in IT)...

but i would like to stay in Alberta and don't want to be too far from a major city maybe 3-4 hours driving at most.


suggestions ideas appreciated.

please post.

[rage2]

You're in IT and want to live off the grid? You definately have to change jobs thats for sure haha.

I've been thinking of moving to Hawaii away from major civilization (north shore) for the winters and have tons of logistics problems trying to work remotely.

[The_Rural_Juror]

Yeah, I have a place to go to get away from the zombies. It feels nice until it's your turn to empty the pail.

[black13]

Its not a bad idea and I would do something similar too but in Alberta, the winters would be very harsh to get through. Maybe do it somewhere in BC.

[TKRIS]

This is a very frequent topic of conversation between a friend of mine and I. He owns a bunch of land, and has a log cabin, and is always looking for way to make it as self sufficient as possible. Got a few cool ideas.
We do have enough solar energy that heating and such could be realistically attained without a massive initial cost.


That's where we're going to bury the Sea-Can for the Zombipocalypse.

[BigMass]

I think living off the grid would be boring as fuck. However I think a more practical solution is to downsize your lifestyle. You can buy places in the US that are close to major cities but in very nice secluded locations (forest, mountains, near the beach) for like $100,000.

Another suggestion to living off the grid is to live somewhere warm. It’s a lot more practical and feasible to live off the grid in Hawaii like Rage said, or even Mexico. My wife’s sister, for a time, lived in a log cabin she and her boyfriend built right off the beach in Hawaii. There are a lot of things you don’t need when you live in a tropical place.

Les Stroud made a film about him living off the grid with his family. It looked like such a hassle. The biggest problem and downside to his plan was the fact that he was trying to do it in one of the most inhospitable places to live.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=wg7EaLIJrBw

[Antonito]

Make sure to insulate the place like crazy, or the wood stove is going to be pretty inefficient in the Alberta winters.

Is there enough rain in Alberta to have a rain catch system work? A better bet might be to find a place near a water source that you could at least purify fairly easily.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by Antonito
A better bet might be to find a place near a water source that you could at least purify fairly easily.

Yeah, I don't think you can count on precipitation for your water needs in this area.

[kenny]

Living off the grid seems like a pretty cool life adventure. I'd like to try it haha

[Kritafo]

We are considering it ourselves. Mike Holmes is going to do a Green housing in AB.
http://www.totallygreenalberta.com/index2.htm.

We successfully built a heat sink for our greenhouse last summer and plan on doing a bigger project this summer with some friends with land in Golden.

We have been involved for a while and if you really want to get excited download and watch It's Not Easy Being Green, with Dick Strawbridge out of the UK.

yes the houses aren't totally self sufficient, but they are very green.

Here is another project.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/...e-2fcc5ebe0933

[em2ab]

Did I read that right? You're trying to live off the grid with internet? The internet's a pretty big grid. And a car? If you have a car, you're not going very far from any grid.

You have to think about not having instant heat, making your own latrine with no plumbing and basically living with no connection to society. Plus you have no backup plan, if your wood stove doesn't work, you freeze, you die. There is no saving you.

[Canmorite]

Friends of ours have a ranch that is self sufficient besides propane that is trucked in. Water from a spring, electricity from a pelton-wheel and internet from a satellite.

I could never live out there full-time though. The internet is slow as fuck