Alan Bridgewater - Renewable Energy for Your Home: Using Off-Grid Energy to Reduce Your Footprint, Lower Your Bills and be More Self-Sufficient

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

When Gill and I met at art school in the early 1960s, everything was fresh and anything was possible. We were just kids really, only 18, but we had a good idea of where we were going. Drawing inspiration from various hippy groups and communes, and generally being wound up by the talk about how oil supplies were running out, we decided that we wanted to go back to self-sufficient, off-grid energy basics.We were absolutely convinced that the big hand on the dooms day energy clock was just about to strike midnight.To cut a long story short, we put an ad in the newspaper that read Isolated cottage wantedmust be set in its own grounds. One moment we were living in town in a little cottage complete with frilly curtains, a refrigerator, a gas stove, and just about every surface nicely decked out with flowery formica, and the next moment we were living in a red-brick ruin of a house in the middle of a field, with no water, electricity, sewage, or moneyin fact nothing apart from a great deal of space, silence, darkness, and a huge feeling of peace. It was wonderful. I remember one night in early summer lying flat on my back in the meadow, not a house light or car light to be seen, and looking up at the starsbeautiful!

It may sound like something of a nightmareunbelievably romantic and na, certainlybut at the time we intended to rebuild the house and incorporate various off-grid energy systems so we could be as self-sufficient as possible. Our master plan went something like this: find the old well and sort out the water supplies, put up a wind turbine, build a methane plant following the now-famous Harold Bates chicken-powered designs, put up various solar rooms and Trombe walls as described in The Autonomous House by Robert and Brenda Vale, get animals, and so on, until we had established our own little self-contained, self-sufficient, land-based, space-pod paradise.

So, here we are half a lifetime later, and where are we at? Well, the planets oil supplies are on their last dribble, and people are just beginning to wake up to the fact that we are on the edge of a do-or-die catastrophedo something about the energy crisis or face doom. Back in the 1970s, any mention of an energy crisis that would bring the world to its knees was written off as weird talk, and our little back-to-basics strivings were maybe something of a laugh, but not anymore. Now, according to the vast majority of the worlds scientists, the human race is sitting and twiddling its thumbs on top of a time bomb that is just about to reach its last tick. The fossil fuels are running out, there are more cars than ever, our night sky is lit up like a Christmas tree, the forests are being hacked down faster than ever, the planet is overheating, governments are beginning to argue about energy, energy prices are doubling every few yearstick, tick, tick, tick.

That is enough of the doom and gloom, but we do all have to get off our backsides and start, at the very least, to think about how we are going to use our energy.What are you going to say to your children and grandchildren when they point their fingers and ask what you did in the energy war? Some people have changed over to using low-energy light bulbs, but that just wont be enough. The exciting thing is that, whereas in the 1960s and 70s it was not really feasible to go down the off-grid route, other than to put up a wind turbine (and a pretty basic hit-or-miss machine at that), now everything is possible. There are wind turbines in just about every shape and sizesolar-powered photovoltaic cells that will light up a whole home, geothermal systems that will both heat and cool your home, solar-powered water heaters, systems that turn manure into biogas and used corn oil into car fuel, and much more.

The good news is that we can now all do our part to make it better. I am not saying that you should rush out and physically sever your connections with the utility companies, but you could perhaps work toward putting up a solar-powered collector to heat your water or maybe an array of photovoltaic cells to cut your electricity bill; there are lots of very exciting and dynamic off-grid options out there. It is known that Queen Elizabeth II, Elton John, Daryl Hannah, and a whole host of other celebrities are going down the off-grid-energy road by installing their own geothermal and solar systems. Do they know something you dont? Well not now, because this book will show you how to install your very own off-grid energy systems. Just think about itlowering energy bills, taking control, doing your part for the planet, not being the only person sitting in the dark when the lights go out.

So, if ever there was a time to roll up your sleeves and take control of your own fate, this is it. Are you going to be a leader or a follower? Are you going to passively accept the impending crisis, or are you going to do something about it? Just imagine how exciting it would be to have your very own renewable, off-grid energy systems! We hope that you find this book both helpful and inspirational.

Getting started

WHAT IS OFF-GRID ENERGY?

The dictionary defines off-grid as not being connected to power lineswater, electricity, gas, oiland not using energy that is derived or produced from systems that are provided by companies. So, if you are living in a house that is remote from utility services, that derives its energy from the wind, the rain, or the sun, with no oil, bottled gas, bottled water, or batteries, then you are living off-grid. In many ways, off-grid living and self-sufficiency are the same. For example, if you collect your own rainwater, you could be described as being self-sufficient in water; if you have your own wind turbine, you are self-sufficient in electricity.

WHY LIVE OFF-GRID?

Most people set out on the off-grid route for one of four reasons:

1. They are tired of paying the utility companies and want to cut costs.

2. They have some sort of ethical, social, philosophical, or religious anxiety that is pushing them toward off-grid.

3. They see off-grid as being some sort of romantic challenge.

4. They live in such a remote area that they have no other choice.

Many off-grid beginners are motivated by what has come to be called pioneer survivalism, meaning that they are moved by worries about some sort of doom scenario such as food running out, pollution or poison in our food and water, or a climate catastrophe. Others opt for off-grid living because they think the hermit way is a good method of taking back control. Off-gridders are sometimes referred to as plug-pullers.

COUNTING THE COST

One of the difficulties with going off-grid is the initial cost. If you are living in a completely plugged-in house, you must either start fresh in a new home, or gradually pull the plug in your current home as items break down. In the long run, however, off-grid systems do cost less to run.

IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE TOTALLY OFF-GRID?

Most of our off-grid optionswind turbines, hydro turbines, solar cellshave their origins in on-grid industries, so we must accept the fact that we start out on the off-grid adventure with some amount of carbon, pollution, social, and environmental debts, and then do our best to keep the debt to a minimum. When Robert and Brenda Vale said in their book The Autonomous House that there is no such thing as a completely self-sufficient home, they were right on. Much the same goes for an off-grid home. We can work toward it, we can reduce our grid link-up, and we can reduce the impact of our carbon star t-up debt, but we can never achieve 100 percent off-grid.

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