Saturday, July 21, 2012

An Off the Grid Experience

robert { 05.18.12 at 11:29 am }

I just simply brought in a manufactured home, put it on pylons/pedestals (poles driven into the ground/concrete.)
This way I didn’t have to deal with all the drama to pour a pad for which is considered a permanent installation, and have to pay significantly greater property taxes!
Had a livable home in days instead of months or years.
I found my dream property had come up for sale a year later, so I bought it, as water was a serious problem, rain water was a joke, according to a drilling co, a well was totally impractical, as the water table was below 1500′ and the drilling itself would be a challenge that would be very time consuming, and very costly, and to date, only one well had been drilled to the water table in the region, and it was for a government facility.
So, water had to be shipped in monthly from 30 miles away, and made things like bathing an issue. So I wasted no time in picking it up, installed the new base at my chosen location, and installed the septic tank (septic tank is required by law to prevent contamination of surface water that could make it into the water table, and spreading things like E.coli). then in one day, I cut out the base and had the manufactured home split, driven to new site, and all set up in one day. My wife left for work in one location and came home from work that evening to another location, she called her instant background change.
As for power, we run off of solar and hydro, and wind is , well, mainly over kill, but it just has that feel. and a generator as back up.
There are many ways to go off grid, but It requires careful planning and understanding your needs, then adapting the two.
And the technology (“primitive” and modern) exists to retrofit you into a comfortable off grid living.
But like with any real-estate, as the saying goes, location is everything.

No comments:

Post a Comment