Living Off The Grid

This is a guest post by L. Fred Roensch, PhD. In this post Mr. Roensch discusses some of the problems you may encounter while searching for off-grid property, including water rights, land orientation and the unavailability of proper real estate search tools.

It is generally believed, except in unusual locations, building an Off-Grid home that will be reasonably cost effective and realize a return on investment within 5 to 10 years requires the presence of a small water stream or relative high tide to supplement the passive solar, active solar and wind energy production methods. Furthermore, if wood will be used for a primary or secondary heating source, 3 to 5 acres of trees is required. Unfortunately, it is very difficult or impossible to search any of the widely available real estate sites for wooded land that has a stream or high tide present.

On the other hand I have noticed a few real estate sites are specifically soliciting for wooded lots with water. This is encouraging but all of the land factors for OG are, so far, not searchable on any real estate site that I am aware.

Micro Hydro Considerations
If the homeowner owns all of the water that feeds the stream, use of a micro turbine in the stream may not be a concern. But this isn’t always the situation. In some cases, installation of a dock might permit installation of a micro turbine at the dock. One real estate agent I discussed this with suggested it would be easier to get a permit for the dock, then run electricity for a light and basically sneak a micro turbine into the water below the dock and run the necessary wire back to the home. That could be trouble and I would advise against it. Nevertheless, this is a critical issue if you truly want to be “off the grid” and potentially, if permitted, to sell or get credit for excess power sent back to the local utility company. Acceptable installation of a micro-hydro turbine is a critical issue that needs to be researched and resolved with local, state, and even federal authorities before you consider purchasing any land for OG living.

Land Considerations
The lot must be big enough when positioning the home on the land it will be within legal set backs and allow for any road or utility easements. Most homeowners want the passive solar or trombe wall on the side away from the approach to the home. As a result the position of the road leading to the home would be from the north.

Personally, and it is certainly true with my wife and I am quite sure for many others, she will not live in a cave! This is true, even though, this type of home permits ultimate earth tempering and would minimize year-round energy for heating and cooling.

A compromise is usually made that respects ascetics and personal desires while benefiting from the energy savings of a design feature. In this case the compromise was to build the lower floor in the ground completely on the north side and partly on two adjoining sides. To achieve maximum passive solar benefits the open side with the trombe wall was positioned towards the south. Of course, the exact positioning of the home depends on the latitude.

If this is the design of the home, to minimize excavation costs, the lot should slope down depending on the size of the home, towards a southern direction.

To summarize, for most people, the ideal lot should be 3 to 5 acres of trees, slope towards the south, have access from the north and have a stream or high tide for most of the year, with legal insertion of a micro turbine in the stream or high tide.