Need Advice to Living Off Grid

reply to post by Another_Nut


the army ants alone could kill you.

reply to post by octahedron


WTF??????

What ever you are trying to say made no sense to me at all.

Hydroponics below decks on a boat are a good way of growing vegetables. Many vegetables will not grow in a salt ladened environment so this is a better alternative if you like your salads and veggies.

Jeez, man, not everyone ............. never mind. LOL

P

reply to post by spartacus699

driving a car could kill me

fortunatly people have survived in the jungle for countless generations

they must have been superhuman to survive

i mean noone could survive living in the wild right?

again.

reread. understand. then contribute

dont talk nonsense

cosmicexplorer

(Short Version) Single guy looking to live off grid with some comforts.

1. Best source of energy for my home to be off grid.

2. Best source of freshwater to have water in my home..off grid.

3. Best way to remove waste....off grid.

4. Best locations to live off grid.

5. Getting the internet in a remote area.

Thx lads.

Just some ideas for you...

1. Buy land with running water/stream. If you have good flow and 5 to 8 feet of head you can generate 10 to 20kwatts easily using a older small francis turbine. Or you can go horizontal vane using captured flow or vertical vane (like a mill wheel) along with a gearbox to increase the output shaft speed to the generator. Otherwise, even though wind is not reliable as a motive source, I would still use it if you can find a cheap permanent magnet generator or if you know something about electronics and can use wrecking yard parts (you can make 10kw for less than $1000 DIY). Also, you might want to look at this;



One other thing, to keep heating requirements to a minimum, build your home into the side of a hill. The roof is 4 to 10 feet of dirt and grass, the sides and possibly the back are enclosed by the hill. The front should have a southern face so you can capture heat from the sun during daylight hours through the windows. Personally, I would use a couple/few shipping containers and weld them together. Each container is 40x10 or roughly 400 square feet, so two of them is 800 and three would be enough to house a family of 4. I'd also use a concrete with lead pad under them as well as all around to reduce the potential for radiation damage and if sealed, reduce the chance of any external moisture getting in.

ETA: Ground the entire container system and you will also produce a Faraday Cage that will limit the chances of electronic detection. You would have to also use grounded aluminum screens on the windows and doors.

2. Again buy land with running water and use a cistern/tank that is 30 feet in the air, it will give you about 15 pounds of pressure at the ground (33 feet is one atmosphere or 14.7 psi). Pump water up when the wind is blowing and gravity feed on the way down when the electricity is off. You can control filling up the tank with a float switch that turns the pump on and off. You can also use your cistern/tank tower as part of your antenna tower in item 5.

3. Bury it, burn it or buy chickens. Chicken crap is a fantastic as a bio-source for the breakdown of human waste. I would use a septic system and weeping tiles and dump a couple of cups of chicken crap in every month.

4. Places with streams or rivers running through the property. Well treed so you can cut down fuel, building materials if necessary and clear land for gardens/crops. Far enough off the main road that nobody will bother you in a SHTF scenario. If on the side of a hill, terrace the land with a south facing exposure for crops.

5. Satellite Internet, Harris or Xplorenet , depending on your location. Or if you do have people in your area that get closer and closer to a town, set up a multi-drop WiFi network, eg. you link to Bob, Bob links to Fred, Fred links to George...etc etc until someone in town has a hardline and the primary WiFi that makes the system work. If you use WiFi, it is range dependent, so there will be limitations but you can go quite the distance with high powered bridges and repeaters as long as you have good antennas that are at least 40 to 50 feet up a pole and above the tree line, you want line of sight between repeaters/bridges if you can get it. Some inexpensive routers like older Linksys or Netgear, using dd-wrt can be converter to bridge repeaters. I did a small town of about 300 houses with one Linksys and a pair of remotely mounted antennas and had pretty good coverage. Another option is internet over HAM radio, it's slower but pretty reliable.

I help people with this kind of thing sometimes.

Cheers - Dave

spartacus699

As for internet you just get a cel phone with nation wide coverage and unlimited data and you plug that into your laptop. As for power, solar panels hooked up to a battary arry.

You must live in the eastern US

Getting internet that way is hard at best.

In much of the US west finding a cell tower in range is hard and in some states (NV)just about imposable outside large cities and along major freeways.

reply to post by spartacus699


If I went to ecuador Id move to cuenca or zaruma...but would I ever try the bush just for hike? Sure...could be a great experience but living in it? No f***ing way im not that hard core haha.

reply to post by pheonix358


I have a minor in botany and hydroponics is a great way to go if I still used natural sunlight. If I stay on land, which is most likely, ill have a garden and green house.

reply to post by bobs_uruncle


Hey brother thx for the post...I probably read for 3 hrs last night through your guys stuff and other sites and it seems living by running water is such a win win situation. Even thinking of many thriving cultures started out and remained by running water. Its kind of obvious but I think it really becomes important when living off grid. Also great idea about the cistern being high enough up to create water pressure. Im curious how much is 15 lbs...like what would that feel like. Water pressure aint a huge deal but if I were to do this I might as well get the comforts I want if I can!

Another_Nut
reply to post by spartacus699

 

driving a car could kill me

fortunatly people have survived in the jungle for countless generations

they must have been superhuman to survive

i mean noone could survive living in the wild right?

again.

reread. understand. then contribute

dont talk nonsense

And you've done that? Survived in the jungles of central America? For how long??? Because the people that survive there have also lived there for countless generations and most of them also rely on modern civilization as well. To go there and think "oh I'm gonna make it, I'll be fine, is completely foolhearty". You'd last a week. The mosquitos would eat you to death. If not them then a million other things. But I hear you okay it would be an adventure, pretty risky though if you ask me. I mean life is hard enough living in a north american city with every modern advantage at your fingertips, let alone trying to carve out some living in the middle of no where. I've seen those jungles they're scary as hell!

I live off the grid for 15 years now, I use a gasification system that burns scrap wood and any garbage I have, it runs my generator and charges my batteries once a day, I never use gas or diesel just wood to run generator. I also have a gasifier truck that runs on wood, It takes about an hour to warm up and does smoke allot but plus side is I dont buy gas. My wife also drive a gasifier car but it runs on pellets! she burns about 5 bucks worth of pellets to drive to work evary day.

Gasification is not for everyone, everyday lazy city folk simply could not live like we do.. we also grow our own food and hunt our meet, we are ready for anything that will soon come to be the end of the world.

cosmicexplorer
reply to post by bobs_uruncle

 

Hey brother thx for the post...I probably read for 3 hrs last night through your guys stuff and other sites and it seems living by running water is such a win win situation. Even thinking of many thriving cultures started out and remained by running water. Its kind of obvious but I think it really becomes important when living off grid. Also great idea about the cistern being high enough up to create water pressure. Im curious how much is 15 lbs...like what would that feel like. Water pressure aint a huge deal but if I were to do this I might as well get the comforts I want if I can!

The average water pressure in cities is I think 60 psi and even though we try to maintain that standard in rural settings it can be anywhere from 30 to 60 psi. Personally, I run at about 45 psi and that is way more than enough.

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by cosmicexplorer


Don't let them sway you, if you get a boat it opens up a whole new set of problems. You would use. A complete new set of schools to conquer sailing, you will always be under the threat of commandeer.

Trust me you don't want to be on the water in any kind of storm. It is very scary. It would be nice to have access to a boat for a bug out but not to live on.

The Bot

reply to post by bobs_uruncle


I was actually wondering...to get more pressure...what if you used a larger tube..lets say 3 inches in diameter which then went into a 2 inche tube then a 1 inch tube....now you got me thinking of ways to increase that pressure....im wondering if that effect would raise the pressure kind of like if you put your finger over a hose. Im going to look into this more but that psi sounds pretty good. Definitely something I can live with

I lived off the grid for years. The best advice I can give you is to not try to figure out how you can have things and still be off the grid, but figure out how to live without those things. In regards to where you live. I prefer to live in something which is mobile and can be taken to areas which are more advantageous during different seasons. (This could mean bus, mobile home, camper, teepee or tent, I've done them all). If you prefer to be in one place on a permanent basis, I suggest somewhere with 4 true seasons. Living somewhere that offers different advantages and challenges on average every 3 months keeps things from getting overwhelming when tough and also keeps things from making you complacent when simple. Good luck. I would still be doing it today, but the woman I love prefers a different lifestyle, and as Paul said... "I have found whatsoever state I am in, therewith to be content."

cosmicexplorer
reply to post by bobs_uruncle

 

I was actually wondering...to get more pressure...what if you used a larger tube..lets say 3 inches in diameter which then went into a 2 inche tube then a 1 inch tube....now you got me thinking of ways to increase that pressure....im wondering if that effect would raise the pressure kind of like if you put your finger over a hose. Im going to look into this more but that psi sounds pretty good. Definitely something I can live with

A larger tube will only give higher flow rates but it will not increase the pressure as the pressure is based on the height of the tank/cistern to the point where the water will come out, so pressure is based on the height of the water column. A larger tube however will decrease the amount of friction which might give the "appearance" of more pressure. If you need more pressure go higher. The ideal way to do that and save yourself a lot of trussing and supports is to build your house into the side of a hill, maybe 100 feet from the top. Then you can put your cistern/tank on top of the hill and get 45 psi really easily, 135 feet will give you roughly 60psi.

The way you make your cistern/tank is important as well and goes to application; if you are hiding or simply don't want to be bothered, plant a few trees around the cistern and catch tank so it can't be seen from the air easily. So tank buried 4 feet or more underground and the catch tank can be made into a small pod amongst a few trees. If it doesn't matter, leave it open for anyone to see, but for a few bucks you can make it disappear ;-)

Cheers - Dave

reply to post by bobs_uruncle


Good call...ive about 6 books on the subject since ive made this thread...Im hoping by the time im done reading I can write a new thread caleld "how to live off grid" haha...!

If you go with a land purchase, I agree with posters who said to get an RV or trailer home, and build up to what you want to do.

First, begin with a garden and compost heap. The garden will need something like "coyote fence" to keep out deer and coyotes. A low wire mesh along the bottom, burried 8 inches or so into the dirt, along with a guard dog, will keep rabbits, mice and moles out. Go with whatever veggies your people will eat, but begin shifting them towards things you "can" or preserve without refrigeration. Composting will make fertilizer redundant. Step two will counteract the insect threat.

Second, start in with chickens. A small flock, say 12-20 hens, of a dual-purpose breed. They will give your 3-5 eggs a day in season. Build a winter coop, but put the flock in a chicken tractor, which is a movable house and pen that you can rotate to a different piece of land on a regular basis. Once the garden plants are large enough to be walked on by chickens, you can turn your birds out in the garden until the seeds and fruit begin to develop. Chickens by nature are insectivores rather than vegetarians---they will eat all your garden pests. No more grubs, no wire-worm, no japanese beetles in the potatoes. Chickens are the easiest livestock. You have to check them every day, but you don't need to get up early to do it. Once you get the chicken tractor working in your garden and then accross your pastures, you shouldn't be spending anything on feed. You'll need grit and calcium, but that's more detail than this thread.

Third, pigs, or else goats. Pigs are better for the land, and taste better IMO.

Fourth comes serial grains, then bees.....

reply to post by tovenar


So right you are...the chickens that is. It is the one farm animal you can keep that provides not only the living benefit of eating your pests but giving eggs and also if your brood is of decent size a few chickens to slaughter yearly. Combine that with a few goats and you got milk, cheese and more meat too.

ETA: and a lawnmower LMAO...couldn't help it

reply to post by RickyD


That's the problem with goats though; as "lawn-mowers," they rip the grass out by its roots, using their lips. They will absolutely kill any decent pasture grass you have, unless you push them hard to prevent rootkill. Their digestive tracts also activate the seeds of non-desirable increasers, at least in the southwest. Goats will decrease your grazing, and increase your weeds.

Pigs give more meat, and are easier to keep. Of course, that's my subjective opinion---but then I know and like pigs. I find goats to be ill-tempered and uncooperative.

cosmicexplorer
reply to post by dlbott

 

Great post bot....ya I agree on the avoiding cold weather areas...I went to Montana recently and thought that for sure was where I wanted to live..but I went in the summer and everyone there told me I will not like the winters if I'm not a winter person. Such a beautiful place.

A cistern and well using a pump is what Im thinking for water which you had mentioned. Living next to a river could be nice if im not in the flood plain. Never really thought of putting it a couple feet down. Seems so brilliant! Thx again for the comments.

Your welcome i think it is great what you are doing. Being close to a river is both good and bad. DO not live close to a river. You. Must be way well above rivers flood plane. This is critical. Once you get above it you could use the water flow to create all the energy you will ever need. Run pipeline from well upstream and run it down to your compound and make sure you get good degree fall so you could pump some major pressure and turn some power from turbine.

Add the extra two rooms and put them deep as can under or into side of mountain, your outer rooms will face the southern sun. These inner rooms one will be food storage, the other whatever you want. You will need these two extra rooms. This root cellar so to speak will allow you to store food and medicine for long time.

These two rooms will save you allot of money.

The Bot


The Bot