Back at the beginning of September I posted on the Grid Free NZ Facebook page that in a couple of years time we would be looking to sell our existing home and build rural with the aim of being Grid Free.
I asked for the collected experience of the group to draft up a list of 'Key learnings' from their collected practice wisdom. I was looking for the most important ideas / learning / information that would spring to mind immediately, they would pass onto someone starting out. I said I would collate all that into one document and post it so everyone could share.
There were quite a bit of interest in the post with almost 200 interactions and 102 comments. People often endorsing some advice, others acknowledging they too found it helpful. In fact, as I reviewed the comments there was quite a lot of good sense which could be deployed in conventional environments.
We have already been thinking about the way we currently live. We supply water to 6 other properties of which 3 have 2 residences and another has 3.
Our water bore is dropping as is the groundwater in the district. I have suggested to the neighbours they begin thinking seriously harvesting water and think about how they use it. We have been conserving water by putting a bucket in the shower and them using that water to flush the toilet. We do our dishes by hand in a bowl and then use the water to water pot plants etc.
The two pieces of advice which I rated highly were the suggestions that, 'Move onto the property and live in a mobile home for all four seasons before deciding what goes where', and, 'Start a book of what you like and don’t in off grid living. The more you know the better able you are to filter all advice'. I have ordered 'Off the Grid-Houses for Escape' by Dominic Bradbury.
Here is the list of Off The Grid advice organised roughly under some headings: Power / Lighting / Insurance / Cooking / Water Heating. I hope you find it useful. I have kept it as a word doc which I open up when I am looking at GridFree NZ advice and continue to add to it.
My thanks to all those who freely and quickly gave advice.
Power
1. Get a pro to design & install a system
2. Learn to be frugal with power
3. Use low energy requirement appliances
4. Buy a generator √√
5. Don’t rely on one supply of power generation
6. Buy a property which allows you to have a windmill, waterwheel & solar panels putting power into a central battery bank sited to minimise loss through lines
7. Better off on grid if using fossil powered generator
8. Batteries do not like getting low
9. Don’t let batteries go below 40%
10. Spare solar panel in case of damage
11. Go 24v even better 48v
12. Buy quality solar panels with proven less degradation
13. Work out system size based on full use but no power to batteries – how many days 3 -5
14. 2.5 times as much power as needed
15. Get a windmill
16. Invest in good maintenance free batteries – 48 volt lead carbon
17. Two sources of power solar/generator
18. Make sure enough batteries
Lighting
19. Individually switched LED lights
Insurance
20. Send all documentation to your insurance company
Cooking
21. Use gas
22. Wood burner you can cook on/in that has a wetback √√
Water Heating
23. Use gas √
24. Two gas bottles
25. Wetback
26. Heat pump hot water cylinder (go outside use 1/3rd power
27. Solar hot water setup with tank & tubes on roof like suntrap solar units – don’t need circulation pump
28. 48v Victron Easy Solar system with Lithium batteries & tier 1 solar panels
Heating & Air con
29. Store firewood at backdoor
30. V2H model EV (cooling system) then doubles as main house battery
Advice
31. Talk to others √√
32. Look at others in your area
33. Downsize appliances
34. Move onto the property and live in a mobile home for all four seasons before deciding what goes where
35. Keep it simple
36. Start a book of what you like and don’t in off grid living. The more you know the better able you are to filter all advice
37. "Off the Grid-Houses for Escape" by Dominic Bradbury
38. Planning will take longer and cost more than you expect
Land
39. Do due diligence to ensure you are able to meet Council regulation
40. Consider location re climate (increase storms/floods in south & west, drought in north & east
41. Have good land
42. Investigate the climate in all four seasons considering how far you want to go with off the grid and what resources are available in that area
43. Cost of putting in driveway
44. Budget for fencing and planting trees (protected from stock)
Water
45. Water most important
46. 2x water 25,000ltr tanks 1 for fire √
47. Water pump
48. Buy land that has water
49. Huge tanks off every roof
50. Unfiltered for stock, cleaning, gardens
51. If possible two supplies of water bore/rain
52. Buy property with Hill so you can pump water up every week or 2 & have gravity fed water (less use of pump) √
53. Dedicated water source and a specialist fire hose outlet. Check guidelines from authority
House & Buildings
54. Position for best use of sun & for solar panels
55. Roof catchment to fill tanks
56. Build sheds in eyesight of home & away from front gate (deter thieves)
57. Plan to build the things you need first
58. Build house perfect roof pitch (30o) for solar
59. Access
60. Build to get maximum use of sun and shade, remembering the sun is lower in the winter so an overhang the right size will provide shade in the summer but allow sun in under during winter
61. Covered outdoor area for washing to hang when wet and for entertaining when not.
62. Shipping containers as water tanks, septic tanks, secure storage sheds
Life habits
63. Get used to doing things whilst the sun shines
64. John Seymour's books
65. Consider what you can live without and what you really can’t live without to give you a starting point to calculate power needs
66. Start living low energy life now
67. Buy meter to determine what power each device uses
68. Log all power use to calculate fuel needs
Toilet
69. Buy basic composting toilet system – ensure it has a separator for solids and liquids.
70. Don’t buy an over-engineered expensive toilet
71. Large concrete septic tank gravity fed from house with auto siphon system when chamber full of fluid. Low maintenance and cost.
Garden
72. Get a hot house for veges
73. Mulch, mulch, mulch
#LiveGridfree #EcoLiving
