Welcome to our tips page where we provide you with the best tips for living off the grid and do our best to help you find the critical knowledge on what it takes to smoothly transition to living the off grid life.
If you haven’t yet picked out a piece of land or are in the early stages of setting up your own small stake in this world I hope that this article can bring you some good bits of information to help you on your journey.
Before you go off grid:
Know The Land During All Seasons
If possible, camp on the land multiple times throughout the year during different seasons. Try to spend a couple nights camping on the land in both the winter and summer months.
This is a very important step that will reveal tons of useful information about the land that you hope to eventually live on. The last thing that you want to happen is that you spend your hard earned money on a new location and find out later that it is very difficult or even or unlivable entirely.
Looking at a place online using google maps or whatever listing service you are buying the plot of land from provides a lot of useful information but not nearly as much as a hands on experience actually living on the property for a couple nights.
Know Where Your Resources Will Come From
Make sure that you know beforehand where you are going to get the resources that you will ultimately need to survive once you have set up shop.
Food Resources
It is vital beforehand to make sure that the land that you will be living on is at least semi-farmable.
Does it have good soil? Make sure it has soil and quality soil or else it can take a few years to make that soil right and you don’t want to have to wait multiple seasons before you can start growing your own food.
If there is no good soil this isn’t the end of the world you can use processes to help get things going fast such gathering all types of organic material grass clippings or leaves and collecting them in a compost area. In addition save all organic food scraps in a composting bin that can be added to the soil later.
You can also utilize a worm bin to help get that organic material broken down fast.
As you begin to collect a sizable amount of organic scrap it might be a good idea to ship in a bit manure to help this process along or if you have the budget to think about buying a few animals to help with this stinky process.
If you plan on getting chickens, go ahead and get them as early as possible because they are great for getting the soil right and their manure is also great for getting the grounds right.
Water Resources
Make sure you have access to clean water and really think about how hard it is going to be to get it into your home. Is there a natural spring or creek nearby or do you plan on collecting rain water?
Collecting rain water can be an awesome passive way to have fresh water at all times when done correctly and when you live in an area that has sufficient rainfall for your needs. The main problem with this method is if you consume an excessive amount of water but still can work fantastically when used in conjunction with other methods.
A natural spring is the ideal way to get water especially if the spring is at a higher elevation than the place where you are going to build your home. Gravity is your friend when it comes to this as no one wants to have to carry water back to the house everyday even if its downhill. Gravity fed systems are much easier to deal with than pressurized systems and can easily run faucets and showers. A perfect scenario is have the spring piped downhill directly to your faucets.
Make sure that your plumbing from source to home is deep enough below ground so that it doesn’t freeze.
If you can’t utilize gravity to help with getting the water then you will need to set up a pump system which isn’t too difficult and is the next best option.
Until you have a system set up you may have to carry water, but this method is no fun and you shouldn’t plan on this as your long term solution.
Power Resources
Know where your power is going to come from. Technology is moving at an awesome pace and there are many great solutions for wind power, solar power, or hydro power. If you have a location where you can combine all three systems then you will be way more comfortable down the line once it is all installed and running smoothly.
Solar Power is not as hard as it might seem at first
When you first start looking into solar power systems you may be overwhelmed, but don’t be. You can handle it!
There are plenty of great resources around the web as well as this site to help you get something up and running with just a little bit of effort. The problem with solar is that it can be a little bit pricey but overall they are getting much more efficient and a whole lot less expensive than they once were.
Most wind power systems are pretty quick and easy to set up especially if you already have a battery system in place to hold that power until you want to use it.
Of the three system I would say that hydro is the most difficult to get going but this can be different for everyone as each person has their own set of strengths. One of the main setbacks for hydro power is that water levels can fluctuate so wildly during different times of the year or during flooding events that may damage or even wash away you system all together.
Once you understand how power is generated, how you can transfer and regulate that power, and then ultimately how that power is stored, hint.. it’s batteries, no matter what system or systems you decide to go with they all work roughly the same way.
At Some Point You Are Going To Run Out Of Power
No matter how hard you try it is inevitable that at some point things are going to go wrong and you will be without power. Don’t panic, once again.. you’ve got this.
Batteries go bad, sometimes the weather doesn’t cooperate to provide what you need fast enough. That is why it is critical to have multiple sources of power for those weird stretches of no sun or no wind that you rely on so dearly for power.
To help mitigate the risk of this happening it is always great to use led lights wherever possible. They are getting so cheap, are super bright, and use such little power even when turned on all day long.
There are also tons of awesome off grid appliances that use way less power than standard every day home appliances.
So tough luck you are probably going to lose power at some point but just be prepared for when it happens. Make sure you have plenty of quality flashlights and headlamps for when everything goes dark. There are numerous great rechargeable options that are better than throwing out loads of old triple and double A batteries.
Know What You Are Going To Do With Your Trash
No matter how green and environmentally friendly you are there will always be at least some trash. You can’t burn it all. Figure out where you can take it when it starts to pile up. Know how long it’s going to take to get there and what type of vehicle you will need to accomplish this dreaded chore.
Animal Proof Your Trash
Depending on your location you are most likely going to have to animal proof your trash stockpile. Bears are the worst and they will definitely try to get into your stuff to eat whatever they can find and I have even seen them take the entire trash can down into the woods with them spreading the trash all over the place in the process, so chain it up if you can. Even if you don’t have bears all the other critters in the wild are also looking for nice trash snack so it’s always great to be prepared beforehand.
There are easy install locks that you can put on your bins to keep out the animals or the other option is to lock up the bins in a small shed. One thing I have seen about bears is they will for sure try to get in, but once they know they can’t get what they smell they probably won’t stick around too long.
What Is The Best Method For Heating Your House Off Grid?
Since you are working with limited resources compared to the suburbs or cities you will find that burning wood is most likely going to be the option that you go with. But you will quickly find that gathering, splitting, and stacking firewood is a ton of work and not very fun so what options do you have to minimize that.
There are great log splitters that can help with this process which tend to be a little expensive but let me tell you they sure are great to have once you’ve split wood with an axe enough times.
The best thing that I have found to cut down the amount of times that you have to do this chore is using a slow burning wood stove method that can drastically conserve the amount of wood used. A great option is a rocket mass heater also called a rocket stove.
If you can afford it get yourself a four wheeler or a gator with a small trailer to help move this firewood around and make sure you have a dry enclosure to store it in once it’s collected as no one likes to try and get a fire started with wet fire wood.
A last thing to think about on this subject is the amount of time it takes for that wood to dry out enough to be burned easily so gather it early enough to be dry by the time you need to use it. You are going to have a tough time trying to burn a tree that was recently cut down.
Know Which Home Types Are Best For Different Types Of Weather Conditions
Are you going to be living in a Yurt or a Log Cabin? Some living spaces are better for cold and some better for hot so make sure you have enough ventilation for the summer months as you don’t want the heat to get trapped in your living space as it can be a miserable experience. Inversely, make sure you can block or mitigate that ventilation for those cold winter months.
If you are struggling with air circulation there are great off grid ventilation and fan system options, perfect for solar power setups, that you can use to get things moving throughout your living area.
For the hot summer months there are also off grid air conditioning units that work great on solar power setups.
Know The Best Processes For Waste Removal
Surprise, you’re going poop a lot when you are living off the grid. So what are you going to do with it, what are your options?
Many live with such luxury that this is not something that we have to think about very much. What happens when we are no longer hooked up to the sewer lines of the grid? Well one of the best options for an off grid toilet is the use of a composting toilet. They come in a wide variety of styles some being much more expensive and much more luxurious than others. But this tends to be the best option when it comes to getting rid of your stuff.
Despite what many people think, you can have them set up in a way where there is literally no smell at all. To anyone who hasn’t tried one before the idea seems gross to them but in reality they can be very clean and completely odor free.
If a composting toilet is just not going to cut it for you luckily there are other options. You can have a septic tank system installed on your property. Septic tank systems are great but they will need to be emptied every 1-3 years depending on the amount of use. Installing a septic tank is also significantly more expensive as a route than simply using a composting toilet so that is definitely something that you will need to consider.
Have The Right Tools Before Going Off Grid
Doing your research to accumulate all of the necessary tools before going off grid is going to save you a ton of headaches later down the road. Obviously you don’t have to get everything beforehand but getting the most important items will allow the process to go much more smoothly.
If you think that you will want to grow your own food then you will at a minimum need basic gardening tools. If there are trees on your property then you are definitely going to want a chainsaw and axe of some sort.
Although pretty expensive a basic four wheeler or gator will end up being more helpful than you can imagine particularly if it is difficult to maneuver a car around your land. At a minimum you will want to have a wheel barrow to move all the items that you can’t easily carry by hand.
Do your research on tools, try to brainstorm what needs you will have especially when it comes to shaping the land that you will be living on.
Know That Things Always Take Longer Than You Think They Will
This may seem silly at first but sometimes delays on certain projects can be just downright unbearable. If you plan to live uncomfortably for a while until you’ve built that next luxury such as running water from the faucet, extra power from solar, wind, or hydro, know that it always takes longer than you think. If you approach all projects with this mentality then when it finishes early is all the more sweet!
Just Because You Don’t Know How To Do Something Doesn’t Mean You Shouldn’t Try
I know you have access to the internet because you are reading this post and let me tell you a little secret… you can learn just about anything on the internet!
So many projects seem super difficult because we have no background installing or building anything like it before but the internet is such a wonderful tool where people are constantly trying to add value to others by providing a free resource to them.
If you have a question just ask it in the Google search. Someone has probably already had that problem and solved it. There are so many awesome free resources such as eBooks, YouTube videos, and blogs on just about every subject you can think of. You just have to ask the right questions to learn anything that you want.
I have built this site to do just that, be a free resource for all to use. I want to help others on their journey to get off the grid, to go green, to finally live in a self sufficient way that they can be proud of.
If you are reading this then you are probably in the first steps of preparation to take that leap and go off grid or you are already off the grid but trying to learn something new to live more comfortably.
That’s great and I am so glad that you have found this site and I hope that it can help teach you how to do those things that you never thought you could. First do your research and then go for it, try something hard.
Remember that there’s no exact right way to do things. Living off the grid is not a perfect science. Yes there are ways to make things way easier but your methods don’t have to be perfect. Do your research on things that have worked out best for other people and then go out and try to implement them for yourself. If you get it perfect on the first try then congratulations, you rule! But for me things haven’t always been so easy when trying to do something that I have never done before so I always make sure to do as much research as I can before going for it. But the main key is that you have to actually go for it and not get stuck in research mode.
I wish you the best of luck getting off the grid.
Cheers!
