By David Frey

EFFICIENCY IS THE PLACE TO START

When Dan and Diane O’Neil first went off the grid at their home outside Billings, Mont., they didn’t have much choice. With no nearby neighbors, the cost of extending electrical service to their rural home was way out of reach. So they turned to the sun and wind to power their home instead.

It isn’t that way anymore, though. When new neighbors down the road footed the bill, the O’Neils decided to tie into the grid over a decade after they first built their home. How has being on the utility company’s mailing list changed their lives? Not much, they say. They still get their power from solar panels and wind turbines. The grid is just there for a backup.

It used to be, homeowners often broke away from the grid out of necessity. Their homes in the country were just too far away from power lines. Now, more and more are doing it by choice as renewable energy technology improves and the costs get lower and lower. Many others are finding that they can find a happy medium between renewables and the power plant.
“It’s all a question of money,” Dan says.

Linda Parkinson boasts her Arcata, Calif., home hasn’t had an electric bill since she built it 27 years ago. It gets all its power from solar panels. Not everyone is ready to make that kind of commitment, though. Her advice for people ready to get their feet wet, but not ready to dive in: take it slow.

“They can add a panel at a time,” she says. Parkinson is still upgrading her system. She’s added four new panels. A tracking rack tilts the panels toward the sun as it moves across the sky.

“The technology has gone leaps and bounds,” she says.

It especially makes sense, though, for people building new homes. Thinking about renewables from the beginning can go a long way toward making homes sustainable.

“On the grid or off, efficiency is the place to start,” says Richard Perez, publisher of Home Power magazine, a publication dedicated to helping readers power their homes off the grid. “It is much easier to build good insulation into a house than it is to retrofit it later.”

From cold winters to hot summers, heavy insulation goes a long way toward making homes more efficient. That’s especially important when it comes to powering homes with renewables. Air conditioners, for example, use more power than renewables can easily power.

The O’Neils use an evaporative cooler to keep the house comfortable in the hot summer months instead powering on the air conditioning. Big, south-facing windows bring in lots of passive solar energy, not to mention great views. That means extra warmth in the winter. Thoughtful shading keeps the house from getting too warm in the summer.

“It’s never over the mid-70s inside,” Diane says, “even on 100-degree days.”

Energy-wise appliances make a big difference, too. Plus, their family is careful about little touches that can drain a lot of power, even turning off appliances whose glowing clocks can suck power when they’re not being used.

“You really wouldn’t know that our house is off the grid,” Dan says. “I’m sitting here on my laptop connected to the Internet.”

Parkinson agrees. An artist, she runs her home office, with computers and scanners, off the grid. Her sons have TVs.

“I have all the regular appliances, computers, and everything,” she says. “It’s a lifestyle, though. You don’t leave all your lights on. We’re conservative with electrical usage.”

Homeowners who want some of the benefits of renewables without fully unplugging from the grid can decide how much they want to sacrifice, and how much they want to spend.

While renewable energy systems such as solar, wind, and small hydroelectric systems may cost a little bit more up front, they more than make up for it in savings in the long run. More and more states are offering incentives for renewables, too, making the payback come even quicker.

“These systems definitely pay for themselves on the grid,” Perez says.

The fastest-growing segment of the home renewable market is people unplugging because they want to, not because they have to, Perez says. And if you want to, or at least want to experiment, a little bit at a time is OK.

“It’s definitely doable,” Parkinson says.

RAINY DAY SAVINGS

When Dan and Diane O’Neil built their dream home outside Billings, Mont., more than a decade ago, with views looking down on the rolling Yellowstone River below, water was very much on their minds.

It wasn’t just the river views they were thinking about. Water wells in their part of rural Montana often come up dry. Theirs, it turned out, was no exception. But why should that stop them? They were already counting on getting their power from the sun and the wind. Why not get their water from the sky, too?

By collecting the snow and rain that falls on their house and storing it for a not-so-rainy day, the O’Neils have managed to satisfy all their household water needs without having to worry (or at least not worry too much) about taking short showers.

“All our water comes from rain and snowmelt,” Diane says. “Even though we only get 12 to 14 inches of rain here, we have no trouble getting water.”

They don’t just collect the water. They recycle it. The water they use in their home is purified and used again to keep their landscaping green without using one more drop of water.

Relying on the heavens for all their water in Big Sky Country is a little bit of challenge, Dan admits. Montana isn’t exactly the rainiest state in the union. Seven straight years of drought hasn’t helped much, either.

On the other hand, it really didn’t hurt too much. A little rain and snow brings a surprising amount of water if you’re careful about capturing it. Dan estimates an inch of rain on their 3,000 square feet of roof space brings them 1,500 gallons of water.

The rain and snow falls on their metal roof and trickles into a system of cisterns below the house. The O’Neils keep a 2,400-gallon tank in the basement, plus two giant 8,000-gallon tanks tucked below the garage.

One of those big tanks stays full all the time, just in case they need the water to protect their home from a summer wildfire. A series of filtration stages, plus a blast of ultraviolet light, purifies the water.

Occasionally, Dan says, they add a little dose of chlorine, too, just to help keep it clear. Then the water is there for whenever they need it, pumped up from the basement to the shower or the sink. They even have enough left over to run a drip irrigation system that keeps their vegetable garden watered in the summertime.

“It doesn’t give you enough water to irrigate the lawn by any means,” Dan says, “but you have more than average water for the average couple. Were we a family of four with a teenager or something, it would be a little bit of a strain.”

While the kitchen garden gets the rainwater, Diane uses the gray water system — water from washing dishes, laundry, and bathing — to water the rest of the flowers and plants that surround their home. The water they use in the house passes through layers of sand and gravel to purify it. Then it’s stored in a separate tank that keeps the hoses flowing throughout the summer.

“I try to grow things that are meant to grow in the area,” Diane says. Her hardy mountain plants don’t need a lot of water, and she uses lots of mulch to keep moisture in the ground so that the water she does use isn’t wasted.

Self-sufficiency without sacrifice
Combined with their home’s remarkable renewable power system, the O’Neils’ water system gives them a level of self-sufficiency that’s hard to imagine in a modern American home, and they do it without making a lot of sacrifices.

Just like their neighbors, they fire up their computers, keep the house cozy in the winter, and nice and cool in the summer. They run their dishwasher, use their microwave, and take hot showers. And they do it all without having to plug in to the electric grid or count on the city to give them their water.

With some careful planning and a little elbow grease, they found a way to live a comfortable — and sustainable — life completely off the grid. The sun and the wind provide all the power they need. The rain and snow give them enough water to last all year long.

“We’re not trying to make a statement,” Diane says. Sure, they care about the environment, she says, and they love their Montana home for its easy access to hiking and hunting, but their self-sufficient house in the country didn’t come with a political agenda. They just needed electricity and water, just like anybody else.

“I’m not out to change the world,” Diane says.

It’s just that with the high cost of running power lines to their home and the lack of good well water below, looking to nature to meet their needs seemed like the best way.

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT OFF-GRID LIVING?

Websites:
Homepower.com — Home Power magazine’s website offers the basics of off-grid living, links to other resources, and do-it-yourself projects.

BuilditSolar.com — If you have do-it-yourself skills, but no solar experience, this is the place for you.

eere.energy.gov — This U.S. Department of Energy site offers free information on energy efficiency and renewable energy.

TheSolarGuide.com —Opportunities, benefits, and advances of solar energy are offered in this comprehensive site.

txses.org — The Texas Solar Energy Society’s website provides solar basics, facts about “green electricity,” and virtual tours of homes that have embraced renewable energy.

Books:
The Renewable Energy Handbook: A Guide to Rural Energy Independence, Off-Grid and Sustainable Living by William H. Kemp

Wind Power, Revised Edition: Renewable Energy for Home, Farm, and Business by Paul Gipe

Got Sun? Go Solar: Get Free Renewable Energy to Power Your Grid-Tied Home by Rex A. Ewing