I can’t explain it, the thought of living with no electricity off grid has never scared me. Not even a little bit. I’m well aware of the concerns, mindset and new habits required. I’m not ignorant in any sense of the word. I believe my lack of concern comes from the fact that I’m following my intuition and doing what I’m put on this planet to do. I know I’m protected and guided along this beautiful earthly life path. The Hubs and I also spend a few years studying, practicing and experimenting, a lot of knowledge is gained this way. When we made the move off grid, I felt prepared in many ways and living without electricity was one of the things I practiced. Of course you never really understand something until you live it. Knowledge without applying it is just knowledge. You never truly know what’s going to work or what you’re capable of until you do it.
Before I proceed, I need to clarify what I mean by living with no electricity. I’m referring to on-grid electricity here. We’re not hooked up to the grid, we do use electricity.
The most important thing we had to do was create good habits and mindset. In fact, with most things (all things?) off grid, we’ve had to create proper habits and mindset. If we don’t make this a part of our lifestyle the same way brushing our teeth or washing dirty dishes is, we will greatly hinder our own success.
Bringing on grid habits to the off grid homestead just doesn’t work. On grid I would flip a light switch without a second thought, run a kitchen appliance, charge devices, heat and cool our home, etc. It was easy to overuse. To say the least, it was expensive and slave creating. There was no quality to paying high prices for what should be free to us all. Nikola Tesla blessed us with the ability to harness free energy. The powerless ones have kept it hidden. America is a corporation and in true corporate fashion, science and knowledge are hidden. This great awakening is bringing the hidden to light and we’re seeing Nikola Tesla’s work slowly leak out to the public where it belongs. The off grid movement is growing and I think this is one of the best things that could happen on this planet.
As with anything off grid, living without on-grid electricity takes a different mindset and habits. Our electric comes from a gas generator and we have solar lights, fan, etc. We do not have a solar system…yet. We’re well aware the generator has us dependent on petro fuel which isn’t sustainable. We’re using the generator until we have our solar system installed then it will be used only for backup and to run power tools. We will greatly reduce our use of it over time which will mean purchasing less gasoline ever week. After we have the solar set up I do plan to experiment with other ways to have power…perhaps wind or water?
The biggest habit we created was to keep everything charged…lights, fan, phone, portable charger, computer, etc. It’s not comfortable to be stuck with no lights in the middle of a forest at night. I’m considering oil lamps just to be sure we have light. From what I understand they give off a little heat and are easy to make. Phone flash lights are OK however, I find that they just don’t light up the entire tent or particular space to my liking. Their very bright and are, well, flashlights. Their great to have for emergency situations. Phones are, however, the most important thing to keep charged for it…their emergency contact, family and friend connection, source of info, our internet, etc. Now when we go anywhere in the vehicle, we bring our phones, lights, power pack and anything else we need to charge. This keeps us from running the generator a lot, saving money and being kinder to Mother Gaia. We also have a power pack, it’s rechargeable in the sun or by electric cord. This will charge anything with a universal charger so it goes everywhere with us. It also takes a long time to drain the power so we get a lot of use while cutting down on our generator use.
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Another habit is to charge everything as once. When we do turn on the generator, we make sure to charge everything and turn on the ice maker, run the vacuum, give the dog a fur cut, cook in the toaster oven, run a power tool, etc. Anything we need to get done with electricity all at once. It just takes a little planning in our day and isn’t a burden at all. A little planning goes a long way and saves so much energy and money.
For me, switching from on grid to off grid power isn’t really a big deal. It’s forced me to be mindful about our energy use, our time and our impact on this planet. When our solar is installed, we will use a lot less gasoline but still keep the generator for a back up and power tools. I don’t miss the on-grid electricity at all and I feel so much better about our use this way. We all need to do what we can to reduce our energy use and increase our respect and care for Mother Gaia one new habit at a time.
I’m grateful to have all we have along this journey to self sufficiency.
I’d love to hear about your knowledge and experience 🙂
Blessed Be
Rainie Dae
Love of Lotus Apothecary and Farm 