Sustainable living-Off the grid

[Mabinogion]

Just watched this video with Les Stroud and would love to do the same in the future, as would all of you probably.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay...ei=RB1dSbTdMojojgKWiMzoAg&q=survivorman&hl=en

 

[MartinK9]

Great Film - Thanks for the link

 

[SkogKniv]

I have that film as a play list in my YouTube page. A very good documentary!

 

[Mooseman1]

Interesting but a little out there for my taste, i mean choppers to carry the gear in then he is telling us he cant afford to dig a 10.000 CND hole in the ground for water. MMM

Like the idea but more a hobby build for millionaires rather than the true way.

 

[SkogKniv]

Interesting but a little out there for my taste, i mean choppers to carry the gear in then he is telling us he cant afford to dig a 10.000 CND hole in the ground for water. MMM

Like the idea but more a hobby build for millionaires rather than the true way.

I am sure he got breaks for getting the contractors on TV and in the credits for TV. One hand washes the other. I also find it hard to believe he isn't pulling good cash making a TV show and making music.

 

[Mooseman1]

I know mate, i really love the idea about living off grid i grew up that way but this is just a little to far out to believe that a normal family can just buy a plot and get out there. I like what he does and as a fellow cunuck i am kind of proud of him but this is just a little hollywood for me.

 

[SkogKniv]

I know mate, i really love the idea about living off grid i grew up that way but this is just a little to far out to believe that a normal family can just buy a plot and get out there. I like what he does and as a fellow cunuck i am kind of proud of him but this is just a little hollywood for me.

It might be but Les is sure a family man and promotes those kind of values to his children. That is surely someone I can support. Seeing such things on TV are almost lost I think or rare to say the least.

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

its the usual Survivorman folly! more money than brains!

 

[hammock monkey]

can someone explain to me why you'd want to live off the grid?

The only reason I'd want to is in the Bileski family WW2 scenario which I very much hope (and doubt) i'll ever see.

I can understand the ****-ache of modern living and a 9 to 5 job being unnattractive but thats easily solved with hard work.

We are AMAZINGLY foutunate to live in this age of medicine, anyone whose ever had a loved one become gravely ill would, i'm certain, 100% agree with me.

Respect to everyone who does want to escape the rat race, but the only thing stopping you is yourself,
cheers

 

[MartinK9]

can someone explain to me why you'd want to live off the grid?

The only reason I'd want to is in the Bileski family WW2 scenario which I very much hope (and doubt) i'll ever see.

I can understand the ****-ache of modern living and a 9 to 5 job being unnattractive but thats easily solved with hard work.

We are AMAZINGLY foutunate to live in this age of medicine, anyone whose ever had a loved one become gravely ill would, i'm certain, 100% agree with me.

Respect to everyone who does want to escape the rat race, but the only thing stopping you is yourself,
cheers

I think his main ponit was that you could also do it in your own house in the burbs - wind turbine, solar cells, collect your own water - stuff that you can get for free

 

[tommy the cat]

Reduce bills to very little grow as much food as you can and live a simpler life....nah how would I afford pot noodles?
Dave

 

[hammock monkey]

I think his main ponit was that you could also do it in your own house in the burbs - wind turbine, solar cells, collect your own water - stuff that you can get for free

thats a great great thing to do, more power to anyone's elbow that's making that effort (including my own!)

those things I have lots of respect for, but the initial part of the prog mentions getting 'off the grid' as in no saftey is something I dont feel the same about.

There are + and -'s in living that way, but I doubt Les would think twice about calling in an air evac if one of his kids was even semi seriously hurt (e.g broken leg, crushed a finger, broke a jaw etc)

Doing it on your own takes a big pair of stones, and is fine by me, but to stunt your kids education etc (and I'm not talking about them not having an x-box) is just not fair to my mind.

Dont get me wrong, I think LS is a great bloke, he's probably forgotten more than i'll ever know and i like his attitude to life in general but the full-on 'off the grid' living leaves me scratching my head...i just cant believe that people have genuinely thought it through.
We're social animals, there is no 'them and us' and people need to pull together, not apart.

I read that he's given up making 'survivorman' - anyone know if he did this off the grid living full on? I'm afraid i havent got time at the minute to watch the whole prog, i'll try to catch it over the next few days. All very interesting though

 

[rik_uk3]

Off grid living in a town or city like the rural areas would be very expensive to set up in the first place.

I believe a partial answer is to go and live 'within the grid modestly', look around our homes and reduce the waste of power/energy etc. Its a lot easier to turn of appliances rather than leave them on standby etc than to go off grid, use low energy lighting, pressure cookers, cook the most economic way, insulate your loft, close doors, use heavy curtains even with double glazed windows, turn your heating down a couple of degrees and wear a jumper, little things like this if adopted by the population would make a massive difference. I'm using low energy bulbs throughout the house now, a simple thing but even that is saving perhaps 5Kw over 24 hours; multiply that alone over say 10 million homes and see how much it would save?

 

[hammock monkey]

Off grid living in a town or city like the rural areas would be very expensive to set up in the first place.

I believe a partial answer is to go and live 'within the grid modestly', look around our homes and reduce the waste of power/energy etc. Its a lot easier to turn of appliances rather than leave them on standby etc than to go off grid, use low energy lighting, pressure cookers, cook the most economic way, insulate your loft, close doors, use heavy curtains even with double glazed windows, turn your heating down a couple of degrees and wear a jumper, little things like this if adopted by the population would make a massive difference. I'm using low energy bulbs throughout the house now, a simple thing but even that is saving perhaps 5Kw over 24 hours; multiply that alone over say 10 million homes and see how much it would save?

abso-flippin-lutely!

It seems strange to most of us here (i hope!) that people still dont do all this stuff..
then they whinge about heating bills....put on an wooly hat - its Winter - its going to be cold!

I thought 'off grid' meant full self sufficiency, or essentially not paying any tax. All well and good if you dont want any benefits of the things the tax systems provide...and are happy for everyone else to do the same as you...whatever the consequenses

 

[Ex Member - Sidney Bounty]

We live off the grid at the retreat kind of nice to have power for lighting and heat from a wood stove been many a time that other people come by and say that their power has been out for the last 3 days and why do we still have lights on, many have gone off the grid after finding out more about it I am working on building a wind turbine to help out when things get cloudy for a few days but we also have a generator just in case so far we have not needed it to charge up the batteries the only time I use the generator now a days is to run the electric skill saw most times I just use the chainsaw...

but its a way of life for me NO TV or radio or phone and no Internet ahh what a peaceful life it is when I can get away to the retreat...

 

[British Red]

I thought 'off grid' meant full self sufficiency, or essentially not paying any tax.

No, it doesn't mean anything like that. "Off Grid" means "without piped it mains services".

Other than electricity and a ropey phone line, I live that way now although not in the way we intend to. Ultimately it will be solar / wind electricity, bore hole water and tank / dry composting sewage. Solid fuel heating / hot water (with passive solar hot water) from short cyle coppice.

Why? Well partly because although it is still capital intense its low revenue (high set up / low running), partly becuase I see utility bills going in only one direction, partly because its carbon neutral (or nearly so), partly becuase I love the self sustaining ideal,

So in my mind it makes ecological, financial and emotional sense.

It does not mean I wont contribute to society, or pay taxes - just not line the pockets of energy and water companies.

Red

 

[hammock monkey]

No, it doesn't mean anything like that. "Off Grid" means "without piped it mains services".

Red

appologies for the misunderstanding (or any offense), my mistake!

I should get my facts straight!

More power to you for living right fellas

cheers

 

[Mikkel]

One problematic aspect of living off the grid is that it leads to more urban sprawl, which ultimately is an even bigger threat to the nature, because the value of the land will rise and more private owners will be tempted to turn countryside into housing.

Imagine if all 6 billions should live in self sustainable housing instead of (mostly) being packed in cities.

it reminds me of those vacation homes in Spain, where someone purchases a house with a view to the water, and then next year, the lot in front of that house is sold, and so on, until it's built up all the way down to the water.

Of course thats an extreme. Simple measurements like energy conservation in daily life, eating less meat, using less transportation (of the kind that you do not power yourself like bikes and your feet), consuming less products, etc. is a very good way to reduce ones impact on the world.

 

[British Red]

No offense taken hm

I am an "alternative ecologist" in that I think the vast majority of the "fluffy" kind of ecologists have simply missed the problem. Mikkel - the problem with cities is that they run on fossil fuels - they are fed by intensively farmed foods, transported by plane and oil burning ground vehicles, refrigerated and frozen by electricity and wrapped in plastic.

The problem is that there are 6 billion people - an unsustainable population for the planet that has expanded by using up a finite resource. Whether they live in cities or elsewhere is a side issue for me. However when the fossil fuels are used up, the problem will correct itself.

Red

 

[Mikkel]

Or the reliance of fossil fuels will have decreased before then, and we will continue to grow as a population.
The amount of people is not a problem as such, but the way they (we) live is.
For example a poor village somewhere in africa (to take a sterotypical example) can sustain itself on far less than what a single household in the western world consumes.

I can not see a solution to the problems myself, none that are actually going to happen anyway. So personally I try to do my best to reduce my own resource consumption and try to get other to do the same, along the way.