Off-Grid 101 Archives - Page 16 of 61 - Living Off the Grid: Free Yourself

How to choose the right solar water pump

A free guide to choosing a solar water pump has been published by scientists from Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

Agricultural engineer Brian Vick drew on the ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory’s 31 years of testing stand-alone water pumps.

Vick found that for pumps with motors rated less than 1,500 watts, solar is usually the best choice. With current technology and costs, wind power or a hybrid wind/solar pump is usually best for power needs of 1,500 watts or more.…

March 27, 2010 1 Comment

Solar hot water for pennies

The Townhead Collective in the North of England is a group of twenty men and women who live off the grid in comfort on very little money.

This video shows one of the residents Piet Defoe explain exactly how to make a reliable hot water system out of an old radiator painted black,and a few lengths of pipe.…

March 26, 2010 6 Comments

Community

Video-clips from “How to Live Off-Grid”

The Off-grid channel on YouTube has a growing collection of clips showing real people living and working off the grid. Please send us your clips for inclusion, or send links or embed codes.

When Nick Rosen travelled the UK, interviewing off-gridders for his book How to Live Off-grid (UK edition – click the cover image to buy in US), he filmed them as he went, and a selection are now available on the channel. Here is one example, from Hillholt Wood in Lincolnshire. Nigel Lowthrop is one of the leaders of the UK off-grid movement. He succeeded in turning his 30 acre wood into a vital local resource,and won planning approval after a long battle. (Click “keep reading” to see the video)…

March 23, 2010 2 Comments

Emergency Power: engine-driven generators

Living off the grid, generators have a place. There comes a time when some backup power is needed. In most cases this means using an engine to turn some form of generator.

People living in Vans, camping trailers or small cabins tend to view a seperate engine driven generator as a nuisance to be tolerated and usually do not wish to spend much money. Various alternatives present themselves.

Running the Van motor to charge up the battery is among the first solutions that comes to mind. Next is a small stand alone portable genset and a typical automotive charger that plugs into the mains.

…

February 25, 2010 11 Comments

Class of its own

The first off-grid classroom with a revolutionary solar-powered rainwater harvesting and filtration system, has been opened. Exclusive Benenden School in the UK, a girls-only boarding school, launched the classroom last term as a place to conduct field studies of nature subjects.

Benenden provides the innovative teach space set amongst mature parkland. The unique education facility is designed to be entirely off-grid, relying only on solar energy for electricity.…

February 22, 2010 2 Comments

Truck as a generator?

Over at diesel-generators.org, opinion is divided over whether to use a giant old diesel truck as a generator. Assuming you get the truck for next to nothing, the question is whether the inefficiences of a non-purpose-built generator outweigh the benefits of a (huge) 7.3 litre Ford diesel engine acting as a generator.

Its a nice idea, since generators can easily cost up to $1500, and still be relatively noisy and energy-intensive. But on the whole the experts are against using a vehicle as a generator.

“The engine in the truck is designed and built to move the truck,” says one reply. “There are far cheaper to run and more effective options for direct charging any battery bank.” ie a purpose built generator.

While not denying that there are disadvantages, the reaction of other experts is: “For emergency and the occasional deep cell charge up, yeah why not? …

February 13, 2010 11 Comments

Cómo construir panel solar para $100 – Usted puede también

En este artículo voy a describir cómo construir una foto de paneles solares fotovoltaicos para una fracción del precio que se pagaría a un fabricante. Le mostraré cómo los materiales de bajo costo y las herramientas simples pueden ser utilizados para hacer los paneles que rivalizan con los productos comerciales en la producción de energía, pero a un precio mucho más bajo.

Hace varios años me compré una propiedad a distancia en Arizona (en Ingles). …

February 12, 2010 1 Comment

Off-Grid 101

Reedbeds, not sewers

Reedbed Filtration is a natural approach to human waste water treatment. International environmental scientist, MELVYN RUTTER is a born-again reed-bed enthusiast. Here he describes his personal journey.

I began my research in the spring of 1995, shortly after graduating as a mature student from Huddersfield University. I visited many sites with reedbeds, learned their designs, and saw what they did. I formulated a design that avoided all of the faults and mistakes of the systems I studied.

All methods of waste water treatment harness the work of bacteria to break down nutrients and pollutants. In the presence of air ( oxygen ) things break down, and in the absence of air ( oxygen ) things build up. The original developers of reedbeds used a horizontal flow system. This is where the effluents flow in the top and out of the top of the bed. They normally used a single bed. Sometimes they elongated it, and twisted the flows round and round again.…

January 15, 2010 5 Comments

Details of my Off-grid Plan

Oki doki folks! Jenny here. Hello out there once more!

Continuing on from my previous article, which can be found here, I shall now home in on some finer details beginning with choice of van, and energy sources, both for powering the van and for power in the van.

Van: I already discussed in the pre-mentioned article my reasons for choosing a van/minibus to live off-grid in…..but now how do I go about deciding, which van (from this point forward meaning minibus as well as van) to use? Does it matter? Well, from my research I have learnt that yes, indeed it does matter! Especially if, like me, one hopes to use USVO (Used Straight Vegetable Oil) as the fuel – more on USVO specifically in a moment.…

January 13, 2010 22 Comments

Johnson & Johnson zillionairess dies, ignored by family

BABY-oil heiress Casey Johnson had been living off-grid in the months before her drug-fueled death.

British model Jasmine Lennard, a friend of the troubled heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, visited to her house, called Grumblenot, on Mulholland Drive: “It is a mess,” she told Page Six last month. “The electricity is off, there are rats, the pool is green because there is no water.”

Journalists are trying to establish how Casey heated her home, and whether she was carrying in bottled water

“Casey basically needs to go into rehab for a long time. She has walked out [of treatment programs] twice against her parents’ wishes, so they told her no more money. The last time she left early a few months ago and wrote at the bottom of her exit form: ‘[Bleep] you – keep the money.’

Commenting on the death for NBC News Dr Drew Pinsky said: “fame has become an autonomous motivator for young people today. It is an attempt to fill emptiness.…

January 4, 2010 6 Comments

Food

Economy Gastronomy is low stress

Slow cooking is the best way to eat off the grid. Here is the philosophy for successful slow stews.

It’s an icy winter’s day in west London and Allegra McEvedy’s kitchen is filled with spice-fragrant steam. As she stirs a huge pan of gumbo, a richly flavoured sausage and prawn casserole, McEvedy, who recently starred in the BBC TV series Economy Gastronomy (buy the book in the US) , becomes increasingly evangelical. “The recession was the kick up the backside that people needed to eat better and waste less,” she says.…

January 1, 2010 No Comments

Food

Cool Tools

This site does not talk enough about the great new gadgets and technologies which make off-grid living ever more comfortable. Here are two – your favorite suggestions please, readers, in comments at end of this story.:-

The impact of the microwave oven on human grazing habits has been extreme. It can reheat frozen food or cook raw food in a fraction of the time required of a conventional oven and has brought the convenience of preparing food to new levels. The WaveBox Microwave Oven is a…

December 30, 2009 2 Comments

All you need to go off-grid

Off-Grid 101

How to choose the right solar water pump

Solar hot water for pennies

Video-clips from “How to Live Off-Grid”

Emergency Power: engine-driven generators

Class of its own

Truck as a generator?

Cómo construir panel solar para $100 – Usted puede también

Reedbeds, not sewers

Details of my Off-grid Plan

Johnson & Johnson zillionairess dies, ignored by family

Economy Gastronomy is low stress

Cool Tools

How We Went Off-Grid

20 x 8 Ft. Outdoor Storage Shed, Desert Sand

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Off-Grid 101

How We Went Off-Grid

20 x 8 Ft. Outdoor Storage Shed, Desert Sand

OFF-GRID.NET

For films about individuals and technologies for living off the grid

PUBLICATIONS

REGISTER AND MANAGE ACCOUNT

ORDERING

LANGUAGES

ADVERTISERS

POWER MANAGEMENT LANGUAGES

WORK FOR US

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