Off-the-grid living is possible – and affordable – electricity-wise

Given national and international news, you may be thinking that it would be great to build a self-sufficient cabin in remote northeastern Washington.

My grandfather did that, about 120 years ago. However, my grandparents’ cabin wasn’t very comfortable by today’s standards. They had to collect firewood to cook. The outhouse was a few hundred feet away from the main house, so grandchildren were warned about bears prior to bedtime. One might think that was just grandparents having fun at their grandchildren’s expense, but it wasn’t. There were bears! They did eventually get grid electricity, but they lived a long time without it.

Today, you could build an affordable off-grid cabin that’s up to modern standards in a similarly remote area.

As is often the theme in this column, the difference between then and now is that now we have relevant and affordable advanced energy technologies. Energy efficient appliances, better construction materials and renewable electric generation systems have greatly advanced off-grid living possibilities.

For construction, you don’t have to cut logs down by hand and put them together as best you can. You can buy prefabricated structural insulated panels, which can be shipped in on a truck and assembled on-site. For those seeking a minimalist lifestyle with as little energy use as possible, there are many companies that offer prefabricated or site-built tiny homes, which use the space-saving logic of a boat or a camper and apply it to a small house.

Today’s energy-efficient appliances make off-grid living a lot more comfortable than it used to be. You don’t have to use candles for a dim light. A good quality reading light based on an LED bulb only uses nine watts. You can read 365 days a year with artificial light for four hours a day using only about 13 kilowatt-hours (kWh) for the entire year. Even a good refrigerator running eight hours a day only uses about 300 kWh a year. A television and a computer is maybe another 150 kWh.

Add in cooking appliances, water heating and space heating and cooling and you’re probably still only up to about 300 - 600 kWh a month. Just minimize your space requirements and give some thought to both insulation and the maximum use of ventilation for natural seasonal cooling. At, say, 400 kWh a month, you’d need about $20,000-$30,000 to power your remote house, before tax credits.

Cooking, water heating and space heating based on technologies developed for remote locations where people do still collect firewood could cut even that electric investment by up to two-thirds. You’ll need to have a source of combustible materials, but not much. Just donate one dollar to the national committee of each political party and wait for the junk mail asking for more. You’ll get more than enough paper for fuel.

Your carbon footprint wouldn’t be zero, but if you use an electric car for short commutes instead of a gasoline car, it’ll be very small. If you can set the electric car up to act as the battery in your electric system, the total cost of the system will be minimized, although you’ll still need a small battery to keep the refrigerator going when your car isn’t home.

You’re on your own with the bears. They’re still there. (But, probably not the same bears.)