Off grid living

[Deleted User]

The easiest way IMO is as someone else said, don't do anything to conceal / hide etc but be open.


Buy your land and do something on it that necessitates ' day living' accommodation , once you have day living its easy to live in it full time ie I was under the misapprehension that I had to vacate between dusk and dawn but a planning officer told me I can live there 364 days a year as long as I have another residence as my main residence and go there for a day , which I do.


Ludicrous really in that in all the 12 years I have lived there no-one has ever checked I still have my main residence or vacate for a day a year.


I don't live off grid and I pay my council taxes, the locals initially called the council who came out to check everything and I now have a marker on my file not to disturb me if anyone else calls. I have my day living letter of confirmation and one day I am hoping to convert my disused stables / barn into accommodation.

getmore4less

AG47 wrote: »

Off grid is easy from the point of view of water and electricity

Photovoltaic panels are cheaper and more efficient than ever before

Battery banks are better and cheaper every year

Rain falls from the sky for free and you have to do it collect it

Not so good for that invisible from the air plan.

DaftyDuck

AG47 wrote: »

Off grid is easy from the point of view of water and electricity

Photovoltaic panels are cheaper and more efficient than ever before

Battery banks are better and cheaper every year

Rain falls from the sky for free and you have to do it collect it

Hey, look... I generate much of my own power already, heat a large house from my own bio-energy supply, have my own water borehole.. I export food and energy into the local community (for free too!).... I know from experience much of this outdoor life you crave.

I have also spent the last few nights out in a barn kidding goats, and it was effing cold and smelly. Not for most people, that's for sure, they have more sense. :rotfl:

However, I did it by throwing away a few wheelbarrows of cash, not by scrounging off other people's tax and integrity.

Am I off grid? No way! I depend on good broadband, an easy commute to a city once a week, and go to the airport once a month.

However, as a result, I am a net contributor to the community and country, and I don't particularly want to pay for your hospital visits when you get hypothermia or chainsaw wounds, or for the fire brigade to rescue you from your collapsed mud roof!

Other than that, I commend your obviously-meticulous planning, and wish you well on your no-doubt short visit to the countryside one weekend

The-Joker

If you buy some land for £6K per acre then build a small dwelling with earth covered roof, and a big bund all the way around so it!!!8217;s invisible from air and ground level, then live in it for four years then get lawful development, then you can get the solar panels and wind generators set up.

DaftyDuck

Have you any idea how little is generated by solar in the winter, right when you need it most? Oh, and wind generation is not a substitute at that time either!

Fun to plan games over a latte in Starbucks.... less practical to implement!

AG47

DaftyDuck wrote: »

Have you any idea how little is generated by solar in the winter, right when you need it most? Oh, and wind generation is not a substitute at that time either!

Fun to plan games over a latte in Starbucks.... less practical to implement!

Solar and wind generation can be enough if you have a wood stove for heating water and cooking.

The new teslar battery banks will be coming down in price soon, and they can hold a hell of a lot of power from the windy and or sunny days for when there isn't much wind or sun.

If you are not generating enough power you just need a larger wind generator or more solar panels

DaftyDuck

AG47 wrote: »

Solar and wind generation can be enough if you have a wood stove for heating water and cooking.

The new teslar battery banks will be coming down in price soon, and they can hold a hell of a lot of power from the windy and or sunny days for when there isn't much wind or sun.

If you are not generating enough power you just need a larger wind generator or more solar panels

I do have three large wood stoves, connected to two thermal stores. I have several acres of wood to feed them. If I were to use them, and them alone, to heat my house, I'd use about four (six to eight in the cold) wheelbarrows piled to overflowing with logs a day. I would have to feed a log onto a wood stove every twenty minutes. The thermal store will hold about four or five hours heat. It would take me approximately six summer weeks to process the wood, and about seven acres worth planted to sustain that supply... if really well managed!

A Tesla (sic) Powerwall is great... but super-expensive, short-lived, and not environmentally friendly in the slightest. However, for the UK winter they, and other battery systems cannot provide an answer. You would need several tens of thousands of pounds of batteries to balance your productive an consumptive periods. Unfortunately, the wind tends not to blow regularly or strongly during the coldest winter days, so that's little help. I didn't go for wind power for that reason. I do have a river, and I am eyeing that up, but only for a bit of fun.

Link solar into an effective ASHP or GSHP and you will reap the benefit, but not when you need it most, in darkest , coldest winter. You will still need grid input for that. Batteries will not do the job - will probably never do the job either.

Neither generation nor storage is actually the answer.

Anyway, rather than argue, here's today's latest leonine arrival...



Those kids are just ten minutes old, and mum has washed them and they've already fed. I can't say I care about much else at the moment, least of all a poor argument. Oh, and now they are all kidded, I get to sleep tonight - for a change.

I might even be less grumpy ... but that's pretty unlikely! :rotfl:

EachPenny

AG47 wrote: »

Camo roof or cover with earth or brambles

How does that differ from the hay bales example then? The only difference is the materials being used to conceal the property, and with concealment you risk failing when it comes to the 4 year rule.

EachPenny

AG47 wrote: »

Solar and wind generation can be enough if you have a wood stove for heating water and cooking.
....
If you are not generating enough power you just need a larger wind generator or more solar panels

Wood stoves generate smoke.

Big wind generators and solar panels tend not to be invisible.

Either (or both) will draw attention to your secret bunker.

AG47

EachPenny wrote: »

Wood stoves generate smoke.

Big wind generators and solar panels tend not to be invisible.

Either (or both) will draw attention to your secret bunker.

You only get the big wind generators and solar panels after the 4 years is up and you get lawful development.

4 years is not long

All the time the new Tesla power packs are coming down in price

https://www.spiritenergy.co.uk/tesla-battery-solar?source=googleads&ppc_keyword=tesla%20battery%20installer&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzfWOma-52QIVorztCh2B2A7lEAAYASAAEgIQlvD_BwE