Unlike typical homes which are connected to power, natural gas, water and telephone lines, off-the-grid homes are self-sufficient wonders. By relying on methods like solar, wind, and geothermal energy, rainwater harvesting, and composting toilets, off-the-grid homeowners are able to reduce their reliance on fossil-fuels and provide for everything themselves. Here are a few examples of homes that do just that:
Click through to each link for more photos and details:
TOP ROW
1 Via Re-Nest and New York Magazine
2 Via Re-Nest and Dwell
3 Via Apartment Therapy
4 Via Re-Nest and Ahorn Magazine
5 Via Re-Nest and Dwell
BOTTOM ROW
6 Via Trendir
7 Via Electric Tree House
8 Via Simon Dale
9 Via Jetson Green
10 Via Sunset Magazine
If you're interested in learning more about off-the-grid living, check out these books:
- Surviving Off Off-Grid: Decolonizing the Industrial Mind, $17.95 from Amazon
- Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government, and True Independence in Modern America , $6.00 from Amazon
- Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid and Beyond the American Dream, $10.17 from Amazon
- Off The Grid Homes: Case Studies for Sustainable Living, $16.49 from Amazon
- Off the Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy, $20.64 from Amazon
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There are totally ways for on-the-grid homes to become partially off the grid. When I was a kid, raised in a co-housing group, we had a member who modded out some custom solar panels. He got an energy credit instead of an electric bill every month. I hope to eventually replace our wood-painted siding with solar panel siding so we can do something similar even though we're on the city grid.
fyi, check out what is available before you hook into the grid via solar. I have recently heard of some places actually having too much power coming in from solar panels (uaually where there are large solar farms) and people could not sell their power back to the electric company.