A US design firm claims to have developed a revolutionary new desk with a built-in cycle, pedalling of which generates electrical power to charge devices such as laptops.
The design firm Pedal Power created two such cycling generators that produce electrical power known as Big Rig and Pedal Genny.
The Pedal Genny is a more portable, single function machine. It has an optional seat, but no work surface.…
From what I have read, the underground house is often considered the holy grail of off-grid living, it’s known to be warm in winter, cool in summer, making life more self sufficient for the occupants of the home. I ran across this video recently about a family creating an underground home, taking advantage of a former sandstone quarry, most of the “hole” their home would go in was already there.…
Ever see an off-grid pyramid? Well you are about to. This is the video story of Greg Grant, who began his off-grid existence slow and small.
He didn’t put a lot of money into his project. What he had was land, lots of natural materials, a great bunch of talented and helpful friends, and a unique vision. He chose to make his off-grid home out of short straw-bale walls, but with a steeply pitched, pyramid shaped roof.…
Letter from Reader
Good day, Nick.
I am a South African electronics engineer who has retired. Having done a bit of research I established that a typical 4 person household (with a standard geyser) uses 18KW/Hr, daily. In this country that translates into R1,000-00 per month or roughly $100-00, US.
If recent trends are followed then in ten years this will be $351, very approximately. Using solar power and batteries known for long life (note, a duty cycle of 25%) the payback point will be achieved after eight years.
In that household the regular consumption is 2KW (all figures are in KW/hour) with short term peaks going up to 12KW. Thus the inverter must cope with surges up to 15 KW. As mentioned (and this is well researched) a typical 4 person household uses 18KW. This is the house. If one is on a farm or not, the household will use the same amount.…
OK, so you are on board for raising and eating rabbits, but you want more for your furry food source than just living in small cages, or perhaps you don’t want to duties of having to clean up said cages. There is another option, free range rabbits. Of course there are pros and cons to this. Doing a quick read online, I have found sites where people are saying, been there-done that and don’t try it, others say it’s the best thing they have ever done… you will have to decide. The nice thing is you can start out slow, keeping rabbits in hutches or cages and allowing a few to roam free to see how it works out for you. The rabbits clearly prefer being free, but they can be destructive, and many of them (mostly the bucks) can be escape artist, the last thing you want is your flock getting free, bothering the neighbors (especially their unprotected gardens), being easy targets for local dogs or other predators.…
A fabulous eco-friendly home , has broken new ground by becoming a home that’s entirely self-sufficient thanks to renewable energies.
Like many of the best ideas, it was necessity that made Russell adopt renewables technology.
Building a new eco-home 400 yards from the mains electricity grid in 2009 left Russell Grogan facing an £18,000 bill to lay power cables and associated infrastructure.
Instead, the canny structural design engineer installed solar panels, solar water heating and, later, a wind turbine and wood-fuelled biomass boiler at his house at Long Rig, near Fyvie, Turriff.…
I am really excited about the improvements people have been making on rocket stove ovens and thermal mass rocket stove heaters. All you need do is go to YouTube and do a search for rocket stoves and you will quickly see dozens of really great videos. With winter approaching, keeping warm and cooking efficiently is foremost on my mind.
This one is one of my favorites, I want to make a rocket stove oven like this
…
This is the 3rd in a series on raising rabbits for meat and fur. Some look at the cute bunnies and can’t imagine eating them, I would suggest looking into where your meat comes from, unfortunately today’s generation tends to be so separated and isolated from the reality where their meat products come from.
Rabbits are good for homesteaders and off-gridders, they are fairly easy to raise, they are quiet (think stealth!), they aren’t going to draw a lot of attention of close by neighbors like chickens or other livestock, don’t require a lot of space, they grow fast and breed readily, their meat is good and they have fur and hide.…
What are you good at? What do you know how to do? One thing I have found to be invaluable to being more independent and self sufficient is knowing how to do things.
I’m talking about being a jack of all trades, someone who can do most anything, and the things you don’t know how to do, you should be able to figure it out enough to get by, or at the very least, have enough other skills to trade/barter with someone else who can do that one thing you can’t.…
I ran across a book and an article all about making your own root cellar, this being the end of the summer, beginning of fall, having a cheap and easy to put together root cellar is the thing to have, both for budding homesteaders to seasoned off-gridders.…
They lived on Flores Island, Vancouver for more than 30 years, but nobody seemed to know their last names. Or should that be VanCougar?
Rick and Sandy, a couple who carved out a homestead in the British Columbia wilderness north of Tofino, became news this week when a cougar attacked her – and he ran to help, killing the animal with a 1.8-metre boar spear.
In July Sandy defended herself from the same cougar with a machete, chasing it away. She is recovering at a Victoria hospital from serious head wounds inflicted Sunday when the cougar came back and attacked again.…
I love seeing how other people live off-grid, each of us has our own ways, some are hard core, no electricity of any sort, some have all the modern conveniences… it just all depends on what you are looking to do and the finances you have to spend… of course the more modern conveniences you wish to have, the more $$$s it’s going to cost. We went somewhere in the middle, leaning towards slightly primitive……
2023 © Off-Grid.net
9b Audrey St. London E2 8QH
email news@off-grid.net
call US office: toll-free 1-877-706-7423
OR
UK: +44 207 729 2749
How to register – Coming Soon
How to Manage your off-grid account
How to use the off-grid map – Coming Soon
Coming Soon
