Off-the-Grid

There are various degrees of off-grid living.  On a scale of 1-10, 1 being the simplest,  here's a chart of varying degrees:    OTG ranges 1  USB & lights only 2  add A V,  SHW 3  100% rainwater 4  waste=food 5  grow 50%+ food  6  fossil fuel free 7  8  full kitchen? dryer 9   campus/complex 10 seasonal storage Let's take each separately: 1.  USB & Lights solar systems are usually done with lo-voltage 12VDC systems.  Supplying electricity for USB charging (smartphones, tablets etc) and a few (<10) LEDs (~5watts each) is very simple:  one small solar panel (~20watts) a controller (~$15) a used golf-cart deep discharge battery similar to a T1275 (~$50) and some wiring, terminal and switch boxes AND some good know-how is all that's needed. 2.  Adding AV (Audio and Visual) to the USB and LED lights brings in one more component - an inverter and a s...

Everything is interconnected.   Yes - and it's complicated and simple at the same time.  I've been there.I spent five years on the complicated side:  (2001-2006) with some of the leading brains in the world from Peter Senge (MiT)and his SoL org and their first Congress in Vienna,  then with Dr. Andrew Ford at Eastern Washington U and his 'environmental modeling' work, and Dr. Braungart in Hamburg with his EPEA Cradle-to-Cradle.  I have fond memories of speaking at a Systems Design conference in Bergen, Norway and a 'moose safari' in the fjords with a executive friend from Det Norske Veritas in Oslo. With the LeLc (Living Energy Learning Center at WinSol) I'm going to be exploring the simpler side of this interconnectedness. Over the years I worked with Peregrine Systems, PowerSim software, and Cisco Systems on developing some pretty advanced complex SD (System Dynamic) models for lease holdings and workplace pro...

Over the last 20 years I've watched too many people, (including myself) get sidetracked from this thing called 'sustainable' behavior. - so I decided to start a conversation:  here's a starting statement :   Everyone claims to be sustainable, few are. Our beliefs and behaviors are disconnected: cognitive dissonance. What does it mean to actually do sustainable things in everyday life – especially in community? How does one change embedded, unconscious behavioral patterns we learned as children? Let's start with definitions: what is sustainable behavior?   By it's very nature, behavior is sustainable. If you're not behaving (bad or good), you're probably sleeping – and even that is called 'sleeping behavior'. You can't escape behavior: maybe we should add it to death + taxes. Sustainable behavior is doing good for the environment, our health, and social justice. It's a bit easier to define it from a negative side: doing no harm, not t...

when people introduce me and say 'fred lives off the grid', While I appreciate the intro,  I always want to say:  'I'm WAY beyond off-grid'...  and if a conversation engages around it, I like to throw in the moniker: 'I live off the dreadmill'... let me explain. Our society loves path dependence. The history of humans is written on it. Path dependence implies we continue down the current path even though we know better paths – because it's convenient and we 'need to pay the mortgage/rent'.  And of course, many industries profit enormously from the current path.  it. Take oil, fast food, big box stores, etc.  I like the sound bite ' we didn't sto p using  whale oil for lighting because we ran out of whales'   And so too, we are blazing new paths not because we're running out of resources (which certain groups want you to believe) as much as there are better options on the horizons (uber, AI, self-driving cars, robotics, e...

Gave a presentation at the annual TWTS in Chico in March 2018. Chico TWTS XIII OTG schedule   It was fully packed with people...  here's a pdf of the presentation slides: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Kp_KumVPI5CUZZ3KKDgdDr1cAI12jHMQ/view?usp=sharing <iframe src="https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vS5RiuHWdxbpVISSRYELe9JSHJmpkFLP_3pMjQ8YemwidiZnNfEctMkRmLHh0IFG8FnmKDm7h4zdvN3/pub?embedded=true"></iframe>

Welcome to this Blog on off-the-grid living.  This blog focuses on sustainable residential, USA based, OTG (OffTheGrid) living.