Embracing Eco-Friendly Strategies for Living Off of the Grid

Last year, the United Nations released a report on the state of climate change. It said that we are in the middle of a “Code Red.” Environmental problems are escalating.

There are a lot of ways to embrace sustainability in 2022. One way to lower your carbon footprint is by removing yourself from modern life.

Our modern lifestyle involves a large carbon footprint. We use a lot of electronics, bulky vehicles to transport ourselves and a lot of other amenities that require large amounts of energy.

You can try living off the grid instead. This could be a very eco-friendly alternative to our modern lifestyles.

Getting your house off the grid can be an incredibly complicated process, and that is not even including figuring out what getting off the grid actually is! In this guide you will learn about what it means to get off the grid while also learning different routes one can take on their journey to 100% self-sufficient living. Whether you have always dreamed of buying some land in the country and building a home from scratch or you just plan on adding some new appliances to cut some costs while also being more ecofriendly.

What it means to get off the grid

There are many different examples and interpretations of what it means to go off the grid, so this article is going to explore the varying definitions. The official definition is to remove one’s home from the city’s power grid to instead generate and store all the electricity you need on your own property! However, going off the grid has expanded to include many different lifestyles. You can create an entirely self-sufficient home. This means a home that is not connected to the electric, water, and sewage grid; while also growing the majority of the food you eat on your property. This is an example of off the grid homes that people build from scratch! Of course, this is not an easy or cheap thing to do. So let us move on and explore some different ways that you can begin your journey of moving off the grid.

Getting off the grid in a more manageable way

Most people do not have the time, or money, to start on building a dream home from scratch. No matter how fun it is to imagine. Instead let us focus on starting small and working from there. A good first step is to start with electricity. Most are out of luck on drawing water from a well, but a lot of people have enough space to install a couple of solar panels. Of course, not everyone has enough sun and space available. To go into some background around solar panels, they work by feeding electricity into the city grid while you get a reduction on your electricity bill based on how much your solar panels have produced. This means you can ‘technically’ get off the grid while still being on the grid by producing equal or more electricity than you consume. This is incredibly helpful as home batteries are not quite feasible for the average home. They are unbelievably expensive while not being that efficient. 

Looking at bill reduction for your home

Now you may have one of those homes completely covered by trees or no roof space, so you need to think even smaller. Well, being ecofriendly and reducing your carbon foot is still working toward an off the grid home while lowering your household bills. Here is a list of boilers that greatly reduce your electricity bill.

We all know one of the biggest drains are showers, especially if you have teenagers. So if you want to compound the benefit of getting an efficient boiler you can look for low flow water appliances. GROHE has a nice selection of low flow shower heads so you can see some examples of how much money you could save.