Saturday, July 7, 2012

Off the Grid

Denali National Park.
Having fun helping.



 

 

 

Off the Grid.





I am so excited. We have been thinking about this idea for several years. I believe that if my husband had not married me, he would already deep in the woods doing this. I am somewhat scared with this  new idea.  It has many important benefits.

  • No electric bill.
  • Not dependent on an electric company.
  • Environmental friendly.
  • Free
  • Free
  • Did I mention free
  • Not bound by another man.
  • Easily mobile.
  • It helps with the concept of disappearing into the woods.
  • I can be self-sufficient.

I enjoy the many comforts of the modern world just as much as the next person. I am a big fan of sitting down and relaxing with a good ole computer. I would not be very thrilled with giving that up. So I needed solution to fill that need. The whole trying to figure out what would work is overwhelming. I was amazed at what the options were available to go off the grid. You can buy a solar charger for your computer.








 This would work great for small stuff. Unfortunately this would not be the best option to power the house in Alaska. Alaska has not so many hours of sunlight during the winter. So the next option had to be wind. Now to start the process of looking into wind mills. I soon learned that it was not as simple as plug and go. It required several different parts. The wind mill could not work without a certain amount of wind speed. Great. So you are saying we need a darn wind storm to run the fridge. Thank goodness my husband has more knowledge than me. He quickly began the research. We soon learned that an expensive form of wind mill was run on small wind speed. That would not be in the budget. The only option was to build. I am so blessed to have a husband who minored in engineer. We soon found an amazing site that will help us design the windmill. He designed and built his own wind mill. I believe he may be a genius. I am not, so thank god for him.


The view from David Jr's loft.
 We will start that at the end of the process. This will need to be detailed and correct. Sense it will run the fridge, and washing machine and water heater. We purchased a tank less on demand water heater. We will only be running it to the shower. To save energy. I can boil water to wash the dishes. A small compromise.  The tiny house will feature wonderful options to assist with the idea of going off the grid. My kitchen stove will be run by propane. I got the wonderful idea from watching another member of the Tiny House community building his home. A camping stove. What a super idea. It is compact and adorable. That is a very simple solution.


This face is funny.


 
Here it is!












The fridge.
 The fridge is very compact and does not require very much electricity. Thank goodness for that. It has just enough space for a family of three. I will have to grocery shop more often. A benefit is, that it allows us to eat fresher produce more often. I am very pleased with that idea. You can not expect everything to be the same when you go tiny. I can no longer venture into large chain stores and stock up on a large number of frozen food. Which in the long run will be much healthier for my child. One of the biggest issues was going to be water. A person can not live without water.  The current lot that we our going to has a private well. That was simple solution. I looked for months to find that. I posted an Ad on craigslist for a lot for a family. I have to say. Craigslist should work on weeding out the crazy people. I had so many individuals argue with me. Argue with me about how I am crazy! I had one man offer to allow me to sleep in his bus. Sure I will get right on that crazy man. My husband and I did need an alternative solution to water storage for the future. We purchased 270 gallon water storage containers. Two of them. We will then place them inside the house. The half of the roof that is removable will slide. To allow the water storage container to be heated by the house. It will be sitting at the top of the roof line. Creating a down flow of the water. It will resemble a dormer. So that it will still be attractive. It will allow us the option of being connected to a private well, or use the storage containers. Now the other issue was lights. We have decided that we want several LED lanterns. We currently can not afford to add the additional wires needed to run lights through the house. So we have the only option of purchasing several lanterns. I have this wonderful lantern that my father in law gave me for Christmas. I have left it on several times over night. I have had it close to a year. It currently still works just fine. So this will do. We will just need so many of them. The sun does not rise till almost 11:00am were we are going. That will be an adjustment in itself.

If you would like to donate one to us. I can be contacted at davidvicki05@yahoo.com
You can purchase them on amazon.com for $12






















In the end it will be worth it. We have the opportunity to do what others dream of doing. We have had mixed reviews on what we are doing. Some have out right called us crazy. Others have awed with jealousy. Life is to short to do what others deem acceptable. We have to live this life. So it must be done how we deem joyful. The process is exhausting in itself. Which will explain my many faults in my writing. Can I please have a nap? It will be worth it in the end. We have moved along very fast in the process. Yet it seems to be never ending sometimes. We will get there though. My family will pack up and head 4,000 miles in a Tiny house. That is our new American dream.


All I have left!
Mommy and Daddy's loft.


Tila the dog!


   
My husband is so creative!


My space.
David's storage.

5 comments:

  1. Wonderful, Victoria! Do you have any updates?

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  2. Wow! Pretty impressive! I have to share with my son! I could picture him doing this -- not sure about his wife, though! :-D

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  3. I will be updating later this week. I just have not hand any time. Sorry

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  4. Praise the Lord! This is my dream now too Lord willing. You said you came from 4,000 miles to where you live so where did you live before? Right now I am thinking of ways that I can get used to this type of living now even though I am not off the grid. We have electricity but I am trying to find ways not to use it like cooking on my camp stove. ect..

    ReplyDelete