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Off-Grid 101

WhisperGen

The WhisperGen
Not cheap, and not pretty

Here’s another idea for disconnecting from the mains electricity grid – not cheap to buy, but cheap to run on a pint of diesel per hour. It’s the WhisperGen off-grid heat and DC power generator sold by Volpower NZ Ltd, Auckland, distributor of Volvo Penta marine and industrial engines. The company shot to notice last year when, after a five-year product trial, it won a $300 million contract to supply British electricity and gas giant Powergen with 80,000 domestic AC units over the next four years. These will be installed in British homes as replacements for conventional hot-water boilers, running on natural gas to generate AC power and hot water. But natural gas is running out and rising in price.…

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People

Fight for local energy

K.R. Sridhar and Arnold Schwarzenegger
KR sells off-grid to Arnie

In a feature on companies that will disrupt existing businesses, Business 2.0 cites power company Bloom Energy

THE DISRUPTION: Energy generators in homes and businesses

THE DISRUPTED: Electric utilities

Making electricity in central power plants is so 20th century,says the report. K.R. Sridhar has a better idea: Create energy on the spot, right where it’s consumed. His startup, Bloom Energy (formerly known as Ion America), is developing a fuel cell that could kick-start the distributed-energy industry.…

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Off-Grid 101

Mel Gibson goes off-grid

Mel GIbson and Oscar Arias
Mel’s Costa Rica welcome

Mel Gibson is about to head off-grid on a remote $12m, 400 acre ranch in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, 300 miles from capital, San Jose. Gibson, who achieved Hollywood stardom playing a detective in the Lethal Weapon series, is still serving probation following his arrest for drinkdriving, during which he unleashed an anti-Semitic tirade on a policewoman

“Mel loves the country, ” a source told the London Express newspaper. “He’s planning to live there for much of the year.”…

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Off-Grid 101

Great Yarmouth van dwellers targeted

REMAINS OF THE ROMAN CASTLE, BURGH, SUFFOLK..
Burgh Castle 1818

Self-employed Richard Thorne amd his family live a simple lifestyle near Burgh Castle, Great Yarmouth — they recycle everything, grow their own vegetables and…

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Off-Grid Launches YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/offgridnick contains videos of people living off-grid in the Uk. We are building a library of off-grid video from around the world. Please send us yours.…

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People

Eco child’s play

Lance kids
Eco-upbringing and still cute

East Coast home-maker Jennifer Lance told web site Eco-child’s play about her family life with renewable energy.

“One nice thing that about having your own power supply is that when it is down, it is within your own personal power to fix it. You don’t have to wait for the power company to rescue you. Young children often imitate the behavior of their adult models, and living off the grid provides opportunities for such modeling. When my daughter was two, she would get on her little wooden scooter and tell me she was going to fix the hydro! It was too cute!…

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Off-Grid 101

Greening the second home

When weekenders arrive from the city it can often spell doom for the local rural community and the local environment A group of cottages in Canada provide a model for future off-grid second homes.…

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Off-Grid 101

Wild style

Live In The Wild In Style!

The Do It Green site has a fine roundup of recent articles about living off the grid, full of neat examples and useful links.

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(Picture courtesy of Tolka River)

It links to an article at ElectronicHouse featuring an architect designed off-grid home � luxury on the cheap by the look of it, near San Jose CA. A quote from the article,

“Once we did the research and realized it was possible to run a �normal� house off the grid, we really got into the idea…This was also during the time of Enron and brownouts in California.”

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(Picture courtesy of mjovery)

An energy kit was installed by Planetary Systems, plus a back-up power generator, and a windmill system to help out with the energy consumption.

he needs the power to run the following:

  • A 56-inch Samsung DLP
  • An InFocus IN76 projector
  • A Vonage phone setup
  • A Mac with EyeTV software
  • A PlayStation 3

Another article referenced is Living Off The Grid which talks about how this family manages to survive without all of the ammenities that the Mitchell’s have. The author of the article, and the individual who lives in this home notes,

“We have lived in our home in the woods for the past twelve years without electricity, running water or telephone. It has been an exciting experience.”

If you truly want to live off the grid and do it green, you should definitely check out the article. It truly tells you how this family lives in all aspects of the infrastructure of their lives- from how their house is heated, to how they get water, etc. …

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Off-Grid 101

Two billion live off the grid

For those not yet grid connected, they can access power, water and phone without ever connecting to the national grid and repeating the mistakes of developed countries in the 20th Century.…

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