Living off the grid (as much as possible)

OffGridLiving

Hi, Apologies in advance for the long post but I want to get as much information 'out there' as possible to prevent any misunderstandings or confusion.

we are trying to move our family towards a more sustainable lifestyle and step one has been to try and reduce our utility useage by fitting efficient appliances and heating system, insulation, water saving devices, etc. Our energy demands have gone down year on year, but are starting to plateau and without making some really drastic lifestyle changes, I think we've done as much as we possibly can in this area.

We are now looking to install technology to reduce our reliance on the grid which will also lower our utility payments and most importantly to allow us to live a more sustainable life. We live in a listed building which can make life difficult when installing technologies, especially solar panels. I'm currently hitting a bit of a brick wall on that front so I thought I'd side step it and look at water instead as this would not be subject to listed building consent. I also have the idea, probably wrongly, that if I make our house a model of sustainability in other areas, they would eventually bend the rules with solar panels.

Our sewage and rainwater all flows into the same pipe, which I've never been happy about. Our previous home was more modern and the rainwater drainage was separate. It just seems to make more sense from an environmental standpoint to keep the two separate. There is a small brook on the edge of our property and we currently have land drainage from our garden and drains around the foot of our property meeting at a junction and then going down a single pipe and into the brook. I think it would be reasonably easy and inexpensive to group together the rainwater pipes into this junction (there are spare bosses for this).

I contacted our water supplier and they said they have no problem with me doing this and in fact that's essentially what happens to rainwater in more modern properties with separate sewage and rainwater waste. They also said there would be a small reduction in my utility bills to reflect that they are not dealing with my properties surface drainage. It's not much but it would eventually pay for the new underground pipes that I would lay. I need to do some remedial work on the land drain around the foot of our property anyway, so adding in pipes for rainwater would not involve too much more hassle.

As I would be bringing all of the rainwater drainage to a single point anyway, it'd make sense to have them empty into a rainwater tank, with the outlet/overflow from the tank going into the land drain junction and then off into the stream. The stored water could then be used for non-potable purposes such as flushing toilets. I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this and could give us some pointers, advice and recommendations? Are there any grants or other financial incentives/assistance available that I could apply for?

I'm also tentatively considering whether a filtration system can be applied to provide drinkable water from the tank in case of emergencies (i.e. have one tap in the house with filtered rainwater). Does anyone have any experience with this?

I was also hoping that this thread come become a blog of sorts to record our progress to reducing our dependence on the grid, with the aim to have contingencies/alternatives in case of emergencies/disasters and the hope that we can get off at least one utility supply (gas) within the next few years.

[Deleted User]

Nice to read your post and wish you all the best.

In many way your situation/aims sounds very similar to me.

Our rainwater from the roof is different to sewage. Sewage to septic tank and rainwater straight into our river.

We installed 4kw pv in the same year as the heat pump which has saved untold amounts of money previously wated on LPG. Lot's of insulation had to be installed for the heat pump install with more to do as period property was initially EPC of G!

To reduce bills further an intelligent switch is being installed this week to devert excess solar pv to the hot water tank.

Currently trying to reduce consumption further by changing to medium to highly used lights to LED lighting. In the last week 522 watts have been saved by changing from halogen to LEDs and that's just 3 bulbs!

I'd love to harness power from the river but the cost is just nuts. Perhaps something DIY one day for outbuildings/garden...

A second log burner was installed recently which means both togther could heat the house for free from our woods. Only I don't think I ever keep up with the wood cutting so buy some in.

In May our electricity is going up by 10% despite shopping around which is annoying but spurs me on to reduce consumption even more.

Work mates are constantly teasing me about trying to go off grid as much as poss

OffGridLiving

jeepjunkie wrote: »

Nice to read your post and wish you all the best.

In many way your situation/aims sounds very similar to me.

Our rainwater from the roof is different to sewage. Sewage to septic tank and rainwater straight into our river.

We installed 4kw pv in the same year as the heat pump which has saved untold amounts of money previously wated on LPG. Lot's of insulation had to be installed for the heat pump install with more to do as period property was initially EPC of G!

To reduce bills further an intelligent switch is being installed this week to devert excess solar pv to the hot water tank.

Currently trying to reduce consumption further by changing to medium to highly used lights to LED lighting. In the last week 522 watts have been saved by changing from halogen to LEDs and that's just 3 bulbs!

I'd love to harness power from the river but the cost is just nuts. Perhaps something DIY one day for outbuildings/garden...

A second log burner was installed recently which means both togther could heat the house for free from our woods. Only I don't think I ever keep up with the wood cutting so buy some in.

In May our electricity is going up by 10% despite shopping around which is annoying but spurs me on to reduce consumption even more.

Work mates are constantly teasing me about trying to go off grid as much as poss

Thanks for your post, it's inspiring to hear from people further down the road we're just starting on!

We also have a woodburner and we've the idea of replacing it with a boiler stove and connecting it to the heating in some way. We've also had thoughts about micro hydro, solar, etc. There is so much we'd like to do but as always money (and listed building officers) get in the way.

While the rainwater recycling is probably lower down most people's lists, and would be for us except that we are already looking to sort out our drainage, and as we are planning to have some landscaping done in our garden that will require a digger, it just seems the right time to install a tank. The installation costs for the rainwater system will be therefore be much lower when combined with this other work than it would be installing the kit in isolation.