Off-the-grid

Off-the-grid is a system and lifestyle designed to help people function without the support of remote infrastructure, such as an electrical grid. Off the grid may also refer to:

and rainwater harvesting]]Off-the-grid or off-grid is a characteristic of buildings and a lifestyle designed in an independent manner without reliance on one or more public utilities. The term "off-the-grid" traditionally refers to not being connected to the electrical grid, but can also include other utilities like water, gas, and sewer systems, and can scale from residential homes to small communities. Off-the-grid living allows for buildings and people to be self-sufficient, which is advantageous in isolated locations where normal utilities cannot reach and is attractive to those who want to reduce environmental impact and cost of living. Generally, an off-grid building must be able to supply energy and potable water for itself, as well as manage food, waste and wastewater.

Radioisotope thermoelectric generator

Historically remote applications such as lighthouses, weather stations and the likes which draw a small but continuous amount of power were powered by radioisotope thermoelectric generators (RTGs) with the needed radioisotopes either extracted from spent nuclear fuel or produced in dedicated facilities. Both the Soviet Union and the United States employed numerous such devices on earth and almost every deep space probe reaching beyond the orbit of Mars (and even some in the inner solar system) has had an RTG to provide power where solar panels no longer deliver sufficient electricity per unit of mass.

Direct current buildings

Electricity produced by photovoltaics is direct current and is stored in batteries as direct current and DC buildings would eliminate the need for conversions from AC to DC. One third of electricity in the home is used as DC for electronics, LED lights, and other appliances already. The market for DC home appliances is maturing, which is necessary to have a 100% DC powered home. The electrical panel, circuit breakers, and fuses would need to be replaced with DC compatible components if retrofitting an AC house to DC. For net metering, to sell back to the grid, an inverter would still be needed, and also to use the grid-as-a-backup, if still using a grid-tied electrical system. DC electricity doesn't transmit over power lines efficiently over long distances, but if it is generated and stored in batteries on site, it is more efficient by 10-20 percent to keep it as DC and run appliances that way without inverting.

Temperature control

]] Types of solar-energy passive off-grid cooling systems could be used for cooling houses and/or refrigeration – including some that do not require electrical components and are allowing for chemically stored on-demand energy. Such may be useful for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Communications

Meshnets such as B.A.T.M.A.N. could be used to sustain or establish communications without conventional infrastructure. Moreover, off-grid communications technologies could be used for environmental, security and agricultural monitoring as well as for emergency communications and coordination – such as for work assignation.

Healthcare

According to the CDC off-the-grid and rural lifestyles face significantly more health challenges than those living in urban life, and even face significantly higher chances of death compared to their urban counterparts due to challenges accessing proper care. Off-grid technologies can also be used to improve healthcare systems, allowing for more reliable energy sources for health care facilities, power everything from lights to essential life-saving equipment. Drones have been used for off-grid healthcare, especially in the most remote regions of the world. With communications enabled, they deliver test samples, medicine, vaccines, food, water, and anti-venoms.

Waste management

Small-scale waste management techniques in Western Europe, often for specific or standardized waste, were reported to mostly use one of two main strategies: aerobic (with plants) and anaerobic treatment (with biogas production).

Water and sanitation

]] Water is a crucial consideration in the off-grid environment, which must be collected, used, and disposed of efficiently to make use of the environment. There are many ways to supply water for indoor domestic use, which vary based on local access and preference.

Treatment

Wherever the water does come from, it must be safe to drink and use indoors. For various issues with water quality, different water treatment strategies are available.

Economic consideration

In situations where grid parity has been reached, it becomes cheaper to generate one's own electricity rather than purchasing it from the grid. This depends on equipment costs, the availability of renewable energy sources, and the cost of a grid connection. For example, in certain remote areas a grid connection would be prohibitively expensive, resulting in grid parity being reached immediately.When Grid Parity is reached immediately, it forces residents in these areas into a forced-off-the-grid lifestyle and removes the possibility of extensive economic development. [1] It is often done to residential buildings only occasionally occupied, such as vacation cabins, to avoid high initial costs of traditional utility connections. Other people choose to live in houses where the cost of outside utilities is prohibitive, or such a distance away as to be impractical. The two main kinds of off-gridders are: those who live off the grid because they are determined to generate their own energy and fuels (including food), and those who had to settle for living off the grid because of immediate grid parity or because the grid was simply too far and expensive to connect to. However, those in the first group are the rarest, leaving those in the second group off the grid not by choice but because of a mix of economic and lifestyle necessities.

Off-grid power for marginalized communities

Reliable centralized electricity systems have provided supply constancy which has bolstered societies and their economies. Electricity provides opportunities for improved productivity, learning, and hygienic end-uses in the home, such as cooking without the use of polluting biomass fuel sources, yet as of 2016, 20 percent of people worldwide lived without it. Bridging the gap from the current under-provision of grid electricity to universal access has been projected to require US$17 trillion and 30 years even on a rigorous timetable. Researchers have argued that a lack of centralized energy infrastructure can result in low resilience to damage to productivity and property from changing climates and severe weather. In addition, the advantages of central power generation and distribution are receding in the face of climatic degradation due to fossil fuel powered generation, vulnerabilities to extreme weather events and electronic manipulation, and increasingly complex design and regulatory processes. Decentralized, off-grid energy systems can constitute a sustainable interim alternative to extending national grids to rural customers. Those using limited off-grid power as a stepping stool to eventual grid access can accumulate energy efficient knowledge, behavior, and products that confer added resiliency while grid networks increase in reliability and carbon neutrality. However, providing off-grid electricity to rural users without also including training and education about its use and applications can result in under-utilization. To counteract this possibility, off-grid systems should reflect the cultural structures, values, and mores of host communities. Off-grid electrical systems can power individual residences or a community linked in a shared arrangement known as a micro-grid. In addition, they may be powered by renewable energy sources or by conventional fossil fuels. In Kenya, Mpeketoni township began a community-based, diesel-powered micro-grid project (the Mpeketoni Electricity Project [MEP]) in 1994 with an outlay of approximately US$40,000, and eventually grew to serve 105 residences and 116 commercial, educational, government, and healthcare buildings. The MEP demonstrated unanticipated supply and demand effects when artisans using tools powered by MEP electricity increased their productivity enough to cause depreciation of their wares, necessitating lowering of their prices; however, higher volumes of sales eventually offset these losses. MEP electricity facilitated cold storage of agricultural products, in addition to well pumping, which allowed students who previously spent several hours per day fetching water to spend that time studying in the evening by electric light. Electricity provided by the MEP also expanded teaching hours and sanitation at local schools through electric lighting and pumped water. The MEP off-grid project had numerous direct and indirect benefits for community members, and because the MEP emphasized promotion of the uses for electricity and the community had the ability to pay nominal rates for its use, the project achieved 94 percent¹ cost recovery in its first ten years of operation.

Relation to alternatives

Off-the-grid generation may sometimes inhibit efforts to develop permanent infrastructure – such as in the case of devices for water generation and permanent piped water supply networks. Furthermore, grids may often be substantially more efficient and effective or necessary – such as in the case of smart grids and super grids for sustainable energy – and hence may often only be useful on large scales for autonomous community development of alternatives, as fallback, for disaster response, for other humanitarian aid during temporary relocation, and for initial support of long-term infrastructure development.

See also

Anarcho-primitivism Autonomous building Back-to-the-land movement Battery charger Camping Distributed generation Domestic energy consumption Hazards of outdoor recreation Human-wildlife conflict Inverter Microgeneration Passive house Rural electrification Rural-urban fringe Simple living Slab City, California Soft power Solar charge controller Solar Guerrilla Survival skills Survivalism Wide area synchronous grid Wildland-urban interface Zero energy building

Gallery

File:Micro Wind and Solar Wiring Diagram.svg|Wiring diagram for a hybrid wind/PV system File:Wind generator system b.jpg|Incomplete DIY Wind generator system File:Solar heating system b.jpg|Schematic of an active solar heating system File:ReedBedSetUps b.jpg|Treatment ponds can be used for purifying water. File:HeatAndColdStorageWithHeatPump.svg|Heat and cold storage may be combined with heat pumps for use in the domestic greenhouse or to heat the house itself. File:Solar panel power station in Cuba.jpg|A makeshift power station in Cuba, consisting of a lead-acid battery, a solar panel, and a controller

References

External links

Expert platform that helps to find the right off grid power system Smithsonian magazine interview about living off-grid OffGridWizard a DIY Guide for Off grid Energy OffGridEnclave a collection of information, projects and community about living off-grid "John Wells, 64, Who Fled New York for the Solitude of the Desert", New York Times Into the wild: the rebels living off-grid all over Europe – in pictures. "They've opted out of cities and started all-new rural lives, building their own straw homes, teepees and bath tubs. Since 2010, photographer Antoine Bruy has travelled from the Pyrenees to Romania tracking down urban refuseniks." The Guardian

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1367347626 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.