I have been living off the grid for 15 years now, and there are certain parts of my daily energy use practices I take for granted as normal. Yet, when I visit friends or relatives living on the grid, I become aware of how differently I use electricity. While watching last week’s PBS NOW program about families living off the grid in Iowa, I began to wonder if the principles of energy use necessary for living off the grid might be beneficial for people living on the power grid. Specifically, I am referring to using only one heavy load appliance at a time, constantly monitoring your power meter, and turning off "phantom" power loads.
Use One Heavy Power Load at a Time
15 years ago, my power system consisted of one solar panel, one golf cart battery, one DC light, and one DC car stereo. Today, I live in a modern off-the-grid home complete with many large energy-using electrical appliances, such as a washing machine, air conditioner, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, and baseboard heaters. Using these appliances off the grid is only possible by limiting their usage to one at a time, with the exception of the refrigerator (which remains on 24 hours a day). Unlike grid-connected homes, where it is common to see multiple large loads running simultaneously, most people living off the grid cannot run their washing machine while vacuuming, their heaters while washing dishes, etc. Alternative home energy systems are limited to the amount of power stored in the battery bank and what is being currently produced via wind, water, and/or sun for available power.
By only using one large power appliance at a time, these systems can keep up with home power demands. What if grid power users followed a similar model of power usage? What if people only used one large power draw at a time, thus using less power for longer periods of time, rather than using a lot of power over a shorter duration? Living in California, we are constantly reminded of rolling blackouts during peak power usage months. The "Flex Your Power" campaign advises grid users to wait until after 7:00pm, when there is less demand on the grid, to do laundry, wash dishes, etc. They call this "using appliances wisely." If everyone used heavy power loads with caution, perhaps our power grid would be less strained and function at a smaller energy producing capacity.
Monitor Your Meter
One prominent feature in every off the grid home is a meter within the living quarters. These meters often measure amps and volts, and allow the user to know how much power is available to them, and how much power is being used at any given moment. Gazing often at this meter becomes a part of life off the grid. As Dale Kittleson, interviewed on PBS NOW, said, "First thing in the morning, come down the stairs, look out the window, see if the sun is shining, look at the meter and see how far the batteries are from full." I look at my meter first thing in the morning, while using heavy power-using appliances, before I go to bed, etc. How often does someone living on the grid look at his or her meter? I would think that if people could see their meter spinning rapidly during high power usage in their home, they would use electricity more wisely. What if grid-connected houses’ meters were in the living quarters? Having the meter in a convenient location makes monitoring energy usage easy. No one wants to go outside in the rain or snow and gaze at his or her meter 10 times a day!
Kill the Phantoms
This sounds like good Halloween advice: Kill the phantoms! Electrical devices draw phantom loads when they are "off." TVs, computers, printers, etc. draw small loads of power when shut down, and these phantom loads add up. Every person I know living off the grid uses electrical outlet strips for phantom loads. They may not turn them off all of the time, but when the batteries are low, the phantoms are removed from their power source by flipping the power strip switch. If US grid homes turned off their phantom loads, it is estimated that a billion dollars would be saved on energy bills and enough power would be conserved to power Vietnam, Peru, and Greece!
These three simple ideas from living off the grid could help Americans use power more wisely. By using one heavy electrical load at a time, monitoring your meter, and killing phantom loads, grid users can learn from the over 200,000 US homes off the grid how to be more energy efficient. Sometimes, changing a light bulb just isn’t enough.
I agree 1005 with the above suggestions, In some cities as Mumbai they have lower tariff for certain perod of the day to encorage use of heavy loads during non peak period.
awareness and use of energy efficent practices go a long way to reduce energy consumption
I agree that turning off devices that draw phantom power is a good idea, but often, those devices need the phantom power to keep their settings. I know, for example, that most if not all of my entertainment center’s components would need their time reset at a minimum, and several need more settings than that. I don’t think most people with devices like that will go thru a full out-of-the-box setup every time they want to watch TV or a DVD. (Even more annoying, some of the settings that are lost with lost power are the ones that make my various components work with each other in the first place, and my setup is getting so complex that I have added a UPS in order to avoid losing them during a power outage.)
What if electronic device/appliance makers were to use some form of non-volatile memory for storage of settings, or at least provide the devices with long-lasting and preferably rechargeable batteries to provide just enough power to store the settings? Maybe we need to start telling device manufacturers that we want to be able to completely unplug our devices when we’re not actively using them, not just have them in an ultra-low-power “standby” mode. The less convenience lost by turning off devices, the more likely it is that people will do it.
I am a long time off grid homesteader and I applaud anyone that adopts this lifestyle which is rewarding and challenging. I live in a solar cabin I designed and built for under $2000. I use solar power, a solar composting toilet of my own design, and a solar batch water heater.
Heres my cabin for ideas if interested:
LaMar
http://www.freewebs.com/simplesolarhomesteading
my husband and i have been living off the grid since 1976
we have an aero power wind generator solar and back up generators and a nice set up of battery storage and inverters
since we are in a coastal mountain range we have many storms and our neighbors (who we cannot see for the redwoods and doug firs) are often without power and we dont have a clue until we either run into them on our road or at the mailbox
we have every ocnvenience and are so happy we invested since we are now in our 60s and needed a break from the many chores and maintenance we have needed to do over these many years….
i am thrilled to hear of new generations that are getting serious about what we have done and also thrilled and energized by all the many products and services to help this beautiful world stay that way or improve our damage….i applaud the energy and dedication that is present on these blogs
hopefully you all will enjoy the deep satisfaction that we are.
take sweet care out there all of you and thank you for the blessings of youth and vigor on all your quests to honor your lives and those after you
I am setting up an Environmental Stewardship conference in Portland OR for the end of July. I am interested in getting someone who is living off the grid to be represented on our Speaker Panel. Anyone live near Portland that could do this? The Speaker Panel event is on July 21. Shoot me an email if you are interested and we can chat more about this! Donou1kf@gmail.com
Since retiring my wife and I have replaced our Huge family sized refrigerator with a very much smaller one, and feel we could have used a smaller one all along, with a little planning. We have two smaller freezers, and try to keep only one runnung, except when harvesting our garden and we then need both. Smaller is better, so we closed of the upstairs three bedrooms for the winter and cut our fuel bill in half. Smaller TV sets take less power, so the next time you need a new one, check the power consumption. A very small difference in efficiency for a TV is multiplied by the hours it runs, so a smaller one can help. We never leave TV, lights or the computer on needlessly. We can a lot of food, from the garden and from the bargain counters and sales. Canned food costs nothing sitting on the shelf, where frozen food requires electricity to stay frozen, so canning is the way to go! We dry spices, potatoes(to make scallop) onion(greens) tomatoes, and parsley etc., and store them in sealer jars. Drying takes patience and some skills but is well worth the trouble in the long run since dried foods store very well and for a long time, electricity free! I drive a bicycle now, and admit my son does drive us around in his car sometimes but for the better part my wife and I manage to get along on our own, and bank a bit of cash to boot!