What are the environmental and financial advantages of going off-grid in rural areas?
Synopsis
Living off the grid is a conscious choice, and for this reason, the person in the video decided to opt for natural energy sources such as solar and wind. This was done to ensure that the renewable energy sources were used as much as possible, and to avoid the use of coal-fired energy sources. By doing this, the person is able to live lightly on the land by using natural energy sources.
Moreover, the person was faced with the challenge of connecting to the grid, which would have been quite expensive. Additionally, the ongoing costs of being hooked to the grid were a factor to consider. Although the person cannot feed back into the grid, the cost of going totally off-grid was balanced by not feeding back into the grid.
Video Transcript
And the other side of it is I was using natural energy sources. I wanted renewable energy sources and I didn't want coal fired. So this was a conscious thought for me with my philosophy of living lightly on the land, to choose solar and to choose wind as a backup. My philosophy is to use the natural energy as much as possible and so solar was my first choice, and then wind as a backup was the second choice. I think that the two power together quite well and I'm not using fossil fuels. The other reason for going off grid though was because I have a connection to the grid half a kilometre up the hill, or half a kilometre down the hill. And both were going to be quite expensive for me to hook into. And as we're on decomposed granite here, and it's very difficult to dig through inexpensively, so the cost was a factor with that. But I also don't have the ongoing costs of being hooked into the grid. And although I can't feed back into the grid, I've felt that the cost of going totally off-grid was balanced by not feeding back into the grid.