Doing some GOOGLE searches on off grid living have turned up some interesting results. This guy in Denver is said to be living off grid, yet he's living virtually homeless in a warehouse. He's a dumpster diver, storing his dives in a refrigerator. And he's off grid?
Why is it so difficult to understand?
If you're plugged in, you're not off grid. Somebody is paying his electric bill for his refrigerator and I wouldn't be suprized if he's running an extension cord to power some other goodies. I would.
I was show electrician for a carnival out of Salisbury, Massachusetts. One season I arrived a little early and ran a wire to my trailer from a nearby power pole. I was arrested for stealing power.
Why is it a guy can power his refrigerator and be written up as living off grid? He's homeless, living off the laurels of others and published as living off grid.
Some of the "off grid" articles I've seen are written by people living in their ivory towers; explaining to others what they need to live off grid. How does this make any sense? Not until you're off grid yourself, should you have anything to say about it. To truly understand what living off grid means, you must prepare as best as you can. Then as a test, go out to your electrical box and shut off the breaker labled "MAIN". Now see how long you can live without power. Perhaps for the first time, you'll flip the light switch and experience the empty feeling of living in darkness. You'll throw something in the microwave, but there's no power to conveniently heat your food. Another test of your off grid preperation would be to load up your car with everything you've prepared for in the event of a power failure. Now; head off into the hills and see how long you can live that way.
Perhaps there needs to be a more accurate definition of what "living off grid" is.
Technically, OFF GRID means you would NOT be connected to the electrical grid - the power companies.
Some would define being off grid as living entirely without infrastructure of any kind. By this defintion, we're not off grid. We buy fuel; gasoline, kerosene and diesel. We cut and gather down dead wood to burn in our wood stove for heat and cooking. We buy our food from grocery stores. We fill our water tanks from a potable water source. Although I have several levels of water purification including ultra violet, I'm not fully enabled. The day will come when I pump water from a stream and purify it, but I'm not there yet. We depend upon finding wood, fuel, food and potable water.
Does that mean we're not living off grid? We rely on infrastructure. We're snow birds, we rely on highways so we can go north in summer and south in winter. Yet I'd say that we are truly off grid. If there would be an argument related to better defing the meaning of living off grid, I'd like to know it.
No comments:
Post a Comment