Living off the grid
Since I don’t live off the grid, I went to a cool website named quora that allows people from all walks of life to ask random questions about anything. People, then post their answers and other users vote which answer they find to be the most informative.
So I looked for a question about how difficult it was to live off of the grid and found this answer below:
Brian Fey, I live on a permaculture farm and am developing methods of sustainable agriculture.
I live off the electrical grid, the water grid, and the meat grid.Living off the electrical grid has become much more easy because solar technology has improved so much. LED lights are far more efficient. Many other devices allow for a richer lifestyle using less energy. Batteries have improved. And the inverters to change 12 volt to 120 have improved greatly in efficiency so the need for specialized devices goes away and the electricity can be shipped farther. (I send mine 200 meters to another building!)
Solar cooking is also easier, and we understand how to make composting toilets much better to save water!
Living off the grid often used to often mean living far from everyone in isolation. Now with the internet, isolation is reduced at least in a virtual sense.
Here is a description of some of my Energy Systems at the Bosque Village.
The thing that makes living off the grid more difficult is that people’s expectations of consumption have likely increased. Most folks in the industrial world never went through very hard times such as a the great depression, so the lessons have been lost.
We want to live like emperors eating food imported from far away and have developed many other habits which require massive consumption.
