WEBVTT - How Living Off the Grid Works

0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840
<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.640
<v Speaker 1>It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know

0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:11.880
<v Speaker 1>from house Stuff Works dot Com. Hey, and welcome to

0:00:11.880 --> 0:00:14.840
<v Speaker 1>the podcast. Chuck's here. I'm here. I'm Josh Clark. This

0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.919
<v Speaker 1>is Chuck Bryant. We're both here. Yeah, we are, Chuck. Um.

0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:22.360
<v Speaker 1>You know, Chuck, I've been really getting batted around by

0:00:22.360 --> 0:00:26.440
<v Speaker 1>my electric company lately. Man. Do you know that, for

0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.680
<v Speaker 1>the most part, electric utilities just kind of guess how

0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.839
<v Speaker 1>much you've used, how much electricity you've used like now,

0:00:32.880 --> 0:00:35.520
<v Speaker 1>I think maybe once every quarder they send somebody out

0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:37.879
<v Speaker 1>to actually check. But I don't think they ever go

0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.560
<v Speaker 1>back and say, oh, we owe you some money because

0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:43.080
<v Speaker 1>we were wrong. They just guess how much you're using

0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:45.640
<v Speaker 1>so you can conserve as much electricity as you want.

0:00:45.680 --> 0:00:49.640
<v Speaker 1>It's actually good if you're doing that, you know, environmentally speaking,

0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.480
<v Speaker 1>but financially it may not help you at all. You

0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:55.240
<v Speaker 1>you may actually pay more. Basically, it's a lot of

0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:57.600
<v Speaker 1>times it's based on the previous year's usage. And uh,

0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:00.000
<v Speaker 1>I went to do some nightmares with the water company here. Man,

0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:04.160
<v Speaker 1>Oh yeah, that'll happen. Boy, ridiculous. You want to give

0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.920
<v Speaker 1>us details about your your nightmare. Uh yeah, I could

0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.320
<v Speaker 1>give you some quick details. We moved into uh this

0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.000
<v Speaker 1>house we bought and after being there a month, we

0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.240
<v Speaker 1>got a five thousand dollar water bill. Holy cow. Yeah,

0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:17.840
<v Speaker 1>so that you know it's set off a chain of

0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.520
<v Speaker 1>phone calls for just months. And that's not when you

0:01:21.640 --> 0:01:25.160
<v Speaker 1>just kind of swallow hard and go through with right. Yeah,

0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.280
<v Speaker 1>now that was bad. They're not fun to deal with

0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:29.240
<v Speaker 1>you and did you finally get it knocked down? I'm

0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:31.839
<v Speaker 1>not afraid to say that either they're not fun people

0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:33.319
<v Speaker 1>to deal with. Well no, And you also have to

0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:35.760
<v Speaker 1>think about it with the water company specifically or the

0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.120
<v Speaker 1>water utility. Um, you have no competitor to go to.

0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:41.160
<v Speaker 1>You can't just be like, oh, yeah, I have a

0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:42.840
<v Speaker 1>five grand how about this, I'm gonna go to your

0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:46.440
<v Speaker 1>competitor because they'll say we don't have one, so good luck.

0:01:46.600 --> 0:01:48.760
<v Speaker 1>You feel like you have no no power? The power

0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:51.720
<v Speaker 1>is all you know what this makes me want to do? Man,

0:01:52.120 --> 0:01:54.680
<v Speaker 1>go turn on a faucet. Now. It makes me want

0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:58.160
<v Speaker 1>to just live off the grid, scrap it all, get

0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:02.080
<v Speaker 1>the heck out of town, and shun public utilities altogether. Okay,

0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.360
<v Speaker 1>so I've I've heard of this. It's um, it's the

0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:08.040
<v Speaker 1>back to Earth movement, generally living off the grid. What

0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:10.440
<v Speaker 1>is it? It's well, yeah, it's one name for it,

0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.239
<v Speaker 1>back to Earth movement. It's basically people that I want

0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:17.639
<v Speaker 1>to take the solar energy and wind energy and conservation

0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:23.040
<v Speaker 1>a step further and completely be not tied to their

0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:27.400
<v Speaker 1>their power utilities and their water and their sewer gas. So, Chuck,

0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.200
<v Speaker 1>I'm pretty excited about this prospect of you know, not

0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:33.440
<v Speaker 1>having a power bill anymore clearly, or a water bill.

0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.320
<v Speaker 1>And I'm quite sure other people are, maybe even some

0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:38.840
<v Speaker 1>of our listeners when we talk a little bit about

0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.120
<v Speaker 1>living off the grid, because it's it's not it's pretty precise. Actually,

0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:45.680
<v Speaker 1>that has a very a very precise definition of what

0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:49.359
<v Speaker 1>it entails, right, and they starting starting usually with electricity. Yeah,

0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.440
<v Speaker 1>there's a plan, it's not you just don't go into

0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:55.360
<v Speaker 1>it all willy nilly, like what do I do grid? Um,

0:02:55.480 --> 0:02:58.840
<v Speaker 1>I don't want to get a bill anymore. Uh, now

0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.240
<v Speaker 1>that's not how it works. What happens is, um, there's

0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:04.160
<v Speaker 1>a few major bills. You know, cutting your phone is

0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:06.800
<v Speaker 1>easy because if you just decidy you don't want love

0:03:06.800 --> 0:03:08.560
<v Speaker 1>with the phone, you can cut your phone off because

0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:12.600
<v Speaker 1>your cable same deal. Have you ever actually lived without

0:03:12.600 --> 0:03:16.239
<v Speaker 1>cable TV? Yeah, yeah, it's but it's odd, isn't it.

0:03:16.240 --> 0:03:18.160
<v Speaker 1>It takes a little a little getting used to, and

0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:20.360
<v Speaker 1>then all of a sudden you can find reading and

0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.959
<v Speaker 1>having conversations. Did too. I went out cable for a

0:03:22.960 --> 0:03:25.280
<v Speaker 1>couple of years, and um yeah, the same thing happened.

0:03:25.320 --> 0:03:26.880
<v Speaker 1>I didn't miss it after a little while at all.

0:03:26.919 --> 0:03:29.160
<v Speaker 1>So it takes a little game used to, huh yeah,

0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.840
<v Speaker 1>but eventually I did cable. It's not all it's cracked

0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:35.800
<v Speaker 1>up to be. Although I do love my reality TV,

0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:37.680
<v Speaker 1>so this might be a little hard And now I'm

0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:41.200
<v Speaker 1>just kidding. Um Brett and Michael's Rock of Love. Sorry,

0:03:41.320 --> 0:03:43.760
<v Speaker 1>uh yeah. The grid basically refer to the power grids.

0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.640
<v Speaker 1>So you're talking about power, water. Your major utilities are

0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.040
<v Speaker 1>the ones that you're really going to have to work

0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:49.840
<v Speaker 1>to get around if you want to cut those off.

0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.840
<v Speaker 1>And you know, the obvious um answer for power is

0:03:54.120 --> 0:03:58.040
<v Speaker 1>solar power. It's it's obvious, but it's also fairly expensive,

0:03:58.120 --> 0:03:59.880
<v Speaker 1>isn't it. I mean, this is this is kind of

0:03:59.880 --> 0:04:04.000
<v Speaker 1>a financial obligation one is making here too. It's one

0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:06.240
<v Speaker 1>of those deals where it's you you pay some upfront,

0:04:06.280 --> 0:04:09.080
<v Speaker 1>but in the long run it pays itself off and

0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:12.400
<v Speaker 1>then you're making money basically. Yeah, there was a Bronan

0:04:12.560 --> 0:04:16.279
<v Speaker 1>article um once where I came across this company called

0:04:16.560 --> 0:04:19.640
<v Speaker 1>sun Power. They're out of California. They make these things

0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.719
<v Speaker 1>called sun tiles, and they're actually roof shingles that that

0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:26.760
<v Speaker 1>are individual solar cells. And they look just like roof shingles,

0:04:26.760 --> 0:04:29.359
<v Speaker 1>are just as durable as roof shingles, but they actually

0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.840
<v Speaker 1>connect to a power grid on your roof and apparently

0:04:32.880 --> 0:04:38.080
<v Speaker 1>they provide are they convert like more electricity or convert

0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:43.600
<v Speaker 1>solar power into more electricity than a traditional solar cell. Yeah, so,

0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:45.480
<v Speaker 1>I mean, I I don't know how expensive they are,

0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:48.440
<v Speaker 1>how much mass production they're in yet, but it seems

0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:50.599
<v Speaker 1>like a pretty good idea to me. That's a great idea.

0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:53.000
<v Speaker 1>And wind power is another awesome idea. A lot of

0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.120
<v Speaker 1>people are getting their their energy from the wind. It's

0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.840
<v Speaker 1>kind of the same concept at work, except the wind

0:04:58.839 --> 0:05:01.719
<v Speaker 1>blows a turbine instead of collecting the energy from the sun,

0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:05.800
<v Speaker 1>and that produces energy that's converted to usable energy. And

0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.800
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people are kind of hooking these things.

0:05:08.800 --> 0:05:11.760
<v Speaker 1>You don't need batteries. They're hooking these things into the grid,

0:05:11.920 --> 0:05:15.520
<v Speaker 1>but you're technically not off the grid then right, well, yeah,

0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.960
<v Speaker 1>there's a couple of uh ways here. If if you're

0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.160
<v Speaker 1>if you have solar power and that's pretty much all

0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:25.359
<v Speaker 1>you have going on. Uh, it's stored. The energy you

0:05:25.440 --> 0:05:28.000
<v Speaker 1>create a stored by the power company. And this is

0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.159
<v Speaker 1>actually kind of cool and not I don't think many

0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:33.200
<v Speaker 1>people know this. If you create more power then you're

0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:35.800
<v Speaker 1>using and you're still hooked up to the power system.

0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:38.599
<v Speaker 1>You get a check from them every month instead of

0:05:38.640 --> 0:05:40.800
<v Speaker 1>having to write a check. How cool does that? That

0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.120
<v Speaker 1>would be very cool Georgia Power sent you a check

0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:45.000
<v Speaker 1>for like a hundred bucks every month. It would be nice,

0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.279
<v Speaker 1>it'd be great. But at the same time, you'd still

0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.520
<v Speaker 1>be you're still in the grid, on the grid. Yeah,

0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:51.719
<v Speaker 1>if you want to completely cut ties, that means you

0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:55.839
<v Speaker 1>need to uh store the power yourself. And um you

0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:57.560
<v Speaker 1>do that, like you know, most people have like a

0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:01.080
<v Speaker 1>shed or a garage and just a huge uh supply

0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:04.559
<v Speaker 1>batteries all hooked together. Basically, it's it's really a pretty

0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:07.240
<v Speaker 1>simple system. And how do they how does the electricity

0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.840
<v Speaker 1>stored in the batteries as like DC right, and then

0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:14.720
<v Speaker 1>there's like a converter, right while an inverter and it

0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:17.359
<v Speaker 1>converts the d C to a C, which is what

0:06:17.400 --> 0:06:19.320
<v Speaker 1>you can use in your house. Hey, so quick fact

0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:21.479
<v Speaker 1>about a C and d C. Not the band, but

0:06:21.600 --> 0:06:25.240
<v Speaker 1>actual electricity. When you're being electrocuted, you're actually if you

0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.160
<v Speaker 1>see someone being electrocuted, you can tell whether the being

0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.279
<v Speaker 1>electrocuted by a direct current or an alternating current. You

0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.880
<v Speaker 1>know how, I can't wait to hear this. With a

0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:38.039
<v Speaker 1>direct current, you're frozen in place because your your muscles

0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.520
<v Speaker 1>are are seized up and it's just electricity running through.

0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.680
<v Speaker 1>With an alternating current, you'd be shaking from the the

0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:50.240
<v Speaker 1>spasms and contractions and and your muscles spasming and relaxing

0:06:50.960 --> 0:06:53.919
<v Speaker 1>over and over again as the current alternates. Wow. Yeah,

0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.360
<v Speaker 1>I would say that's the complete opposite of living off

0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.880
<v Speaker 1>the grid is dying dying on the grid. It's good though.

0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:04.159
<v Speaker 1>I like that. You're welcome. Um, all right, so we've

0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:07.600
<v Speaker 1>covered uh, your your power. Then there's water. You gotta

0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.320
<v Speaker 1>get your water somehow, and you do that through um.

0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:12.400
<v Speaker 1>You can have a well, or you can have a

0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:18.080
<v Speaker 1>cistern system. Cisterns basically like a slightly more sophisticated system

0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.160
<v Speaker 1>of rain barrels, right, increase of pump and just tying

0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:23.440
<v Speaker 1>into the plumbing in your house where rainbarrel might just

0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:26.560
<v Speaker 1>have a spigot. Yeah, it's basically just a big, big

0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.360
<v Speaker 1>water collector and um a lot of people you can

0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.760
<v Speaker 1>have them under your driveway. It's just like a big

0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:34.640
<v Speaker 1>cement tank. Yeah, not always cement. They can be plastic too,

0:07:34.720 --> 0:07:36.440
<v Speaker 1>but but it runs off of your roof. Yeah, it

0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.400
<v Speaker 1>runs off your roof. And the I wonder if the

0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.120
<v Speaker 1>sun tiles are good for allowing water to run down

0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.400
<v Speaker 1>them and collecting them, because I know you said in

0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:49.520
<v Speaker 1>the article just regular tile shingles not not that good

0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.400
<v Speaker 1>because you get all the little litttle eally, you don't

0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:57.560
<v Speaker 1>want your asphalt. I think it's made out of asphalt. Yeah, yeah,

0:07:57.600 --> 0:07:59.080
<v Speaker 1>you don't want that. And I think they've talked about

0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:03.280
<v Speaker 1>clay shingle and stuff like the metal metal shingles. Right. Yeah, Okay,

0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.880
<v Speaker 1>so so you got water. Most people who are living

0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:08.760
<v Speaker 1>off the grid as far as water goes, have a

0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.440
<v Speaker 1>well though, right, Like fifteen million Americans have a well. Yeah,

0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.280
<v Speaker 1>that's that's the number. And wells aren't cheap like three

0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.000
<v Speaker 1>grand to fifteen grand depending on how deep you have

0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:20.960
<v Speaker 1>to go, and the deeper you have to go, the

0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:24.360
<v Speaker 1>more expensive. And it's cleaner water though better water because

0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.000
<v Speaker 1>you're hitting like an aquifer or something, right, Yeah, groundwater

0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.200
<v Speaker 1>basically okay, But what do you do with your waist?

0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.400
<v Speaker 1>I mean you get a septic system, right, okay, And

0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:34.560
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people have septic systems as it is,

0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:36.640
<v Speaker 1>a lot of people are on septic and well and

0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:39.160
<v Speaker 1>might not realize that they're partially living off the grid

0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.800
<v Speaker 1>right now. They just don't live like in the city

0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.120
<v Speaker 1>right now. They moved into the trailer that or the

0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:46.680
<v Speaker 1>house that had the aseptic nan But I guess the

0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:49.360
<v Speaker 1>question is the question that was on my mind until

0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:52.520
<v Speaker 1>I figured the answer out, um was it's a good

0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.080
<v Speaker 1>idea to have a septic a septic system which uses

0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:59.000
<v Speaker 1>a leach field, which is basically the waste just goes

0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:02.280
<v Speaker 1>into the soil, right and a well. Isn't that like

0:09:02.320 --> 0:09:05.480
<v Speaker 1>the ultimate and recycling where you're like drinking your own

0:09:05.520 --> 0:09:07.880
<v Speaker 1>waste over and over again. You know, that's a good question.

0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.760
<v Speaker 1>You find an answer that, Yeah, the the it's actually okay,

0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:13.800
<v Speaker 1>And I think that is kind of what's happening to

0:09:13.840 --> 0:09:19.040
<v Speaker 1>a degree, Um, But the soil acts as a natural filter. Again,

0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:21.959
<v Speaker 1>you know the the microbes that all the all these

0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.559
<v Speaker 1>things in the soil that eat all the waste products

0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:28.920
<v Speaker 1>and basically all that's left is purified drinking water, right,

0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:32.480
<v Speaker 1>so and really green grass exactly Apparently if you have

0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:34.240
<v Speaker 1>the septic system and it goes out in your yard,

0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:37.720
<v Speaker 1>it's like incredibly rich soil. Yeah, exactly. Kind So then

0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:39.520
<v Speaker 1>you can grow your own Uh. That's part of the

0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:40.959
<v Speaker 1>living off the grid thing too, is a lot of

0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.320
<v Speaker 1>these people on the back to the Earth movement, they

0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.720
<v Speaker 1>grow their own crops, so that eliminates the need for

0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:49.520
<v Speaker 1>the refrigerator. And another big thing if you want to

0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:51.760
<v Speaker 1>be off grid, is your your garbage pickup. Not many

0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:54.319
<v Speaker 1>people think about that. So if you're growing your own

0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:55.920
<v Speaker 1>if you have chickens and you're getting your eggs from

0:09:55.960 --> 0:09:58.400
<v Speaker 1>your chickens and you're growing your own vegetables, you're not

0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:02.040
<v Speaker 1>dealing with egg cray it's and uh. Or if you're

0:10:02.080 --> 0:10:04.920
<v Speaker 1>milking around cows, you're not dealing with milk gut containers

0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:07.760
<v Speaker 1>and just a lot less waste is produced. So is

0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:10.319
<v Speaker 1>that an essential aspect to living off the grid, no

0:10:10.440 --> 0:10:13.440
<v Speaker 1>garbage collection. Yeah, I mean, if you really want to

0:10:13.440 --> 0:10:16.160
<v Speaker 1>be completely off grid, then um, you're gonna have to

0:10:16.160 --> 0:10:18.120
<v Speaker 1>get rid of your your waist pick up. But the

0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:21.480
<v Speaker 1>people that are into it can recycle enough and limit

0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:24.640
<v Speaker 1>their waste and composts enough to where they say they can,

0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.120
<v Speaker 1>you know, limit to like a bag of garbage a month.

0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:29.560
<v Speaker 1>And I learned something new. I didn't realize that you

0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:34.000
<v Speaker 1>could compost um animal waste or by products like chicken

0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.400
<v Speaker 1>skin or something like that. I thought it putrified and

0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:38.360
<v Speaker 1>that's not what you were supposed to do with compost

0:10:38.600 --> 0:10:40.640
<v Speaker 1>that it was just supposed to be plant matter. But

0:10:40.679 --> 0:10:42.240
<v Speaker 1>I looked it up and found out that you can,

0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:43.719
<v Speaker 1>and you have to just you have to turn your

0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.240
<v Speaker 1>compost a lot more. It can't just be a pile

0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:48.520
<v Speaker 1>that you throw stuff onto. Else all of a sudden,

0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:53.920
<v Speaker 1>you do have rats in that kind of thing. I haven't. Yeah,

0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.120
<v Speaker 1>that's cool. There's all kinds of things you can compost

0:10:56.120 --> 0:10:58.600
<v Speaker 1>if you go to like websites about composting, is pretty

0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:00.480
<v Speaker 1>cool to look into. So Chuck, I mean, I mean

0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:02.439
<v Speaker 1>I realized a lot of people are doing it because

0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:03.959
<v Speaker 1>they want to get away from the power bill, or

0:11:04.160 --> 0:11:05.920
<v Speaker 1>maybe they're getting back to earth. But is this like

0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.880
<v Speaker 1>a trend you're seeing, maybe not complete living off the grid,

0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:11.520
<v Speaker 1>but at least partial living off the grid. Well, I

0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:13.880
<v Speaker 1>mean I lived in Los Angeles before I came back

0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:16.600
<v Speaker 1>here to Atlanta, and uh, it's a lot bigger in

0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:19.640
<v Speaker 1>l A. If not completely off the grid. UM solar

0:11:19.640 --> 0:11:23.920
<v Speaker 1>and wind power and uh sister and systems. Really yeah,

0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.240
<v Speaker 1>so people trying to augment and not pay as much.

0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.640
<v Speaker 1>I think in okay, were you doing that? But I

0:11:30.920 --> 0:11:35.800
<v Speaker 1>click rainwater now just because out of your A C unit, right, yeah,

0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:37.839
<v Speaker 1>and my air conditioners water and we use that the

0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.120
<v Speaker 1>water plants. It's mainly just because we're under a watering

0:11:40.200 --> 0:11:43.480
<v Speaker 1>band and yeah, we don't want everything to die. Yeah, essentially.

0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:45.480
<v Speaker 1>But the final one that we need to cover, I

0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:50.480
<v Speaker 1>guess is gas. Um if you if you get your propane, uh,

0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:54.120
<v Speaker 1>you'd have to switch to propane sorry, Yeah, gas has

0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:56.920
<v Speaker 1>to be piped in through the grid, right, but you

0:11:56.960 --> 0:11:59.040
<v Speaker 1>can just have a big old truck come and fill

0:11:59.120 --> 0:12:02.160
<v Speaker 1>up your propane to there were some other backup power

0:12:02.200 --> 0:12:06.840
<v Speaker 1>supplies like electric generators that run on biodiesel. Yeah, that's

0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:09.400
<v Speaker 1>pretty cool. That's the augment. Like if you if you

0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.880
<v Speaker 1>are off grid and it's like not it's overcast for

0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:16.200
<v Speaker 1>like a week straight or rainy, you might not be

0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:18.040
<v Speaker 1>getting the energy need. So most of these people have

0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:21.600
<v Speaker 1>like backup systems and those those steps that seem you know,

0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:24.360
<v Speaker 1>minute and almost useless to people like us on the grid.

0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:26.439
<v Speaker 1>Like you know, if you if you make sure your

0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:28.720
<v Speaker 1>windows are sealed in colk properly, you can save a

0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.360
<v Speaker 1>hundred bucks. And you're like, who cares about a hundred

0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.480
<v Speaker 1>bucks over a year, But really, electricity is so cheap

0:12:34.760 --> 0:12:37.040
<v Speaker 1>that that hundred bucks equals a lot of a lot

0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:40.280
<v Speaker 1>of electricity, right, Um, So I imagine that if you're

0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.200
<v Speaker 1>living off the grid, it's best to take steps to

0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:47.000
<v Speaker 1>steal your home's envelope or you know, use passive solar construction,

0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:49.559
<v Speaker 1>which is the placement of trees to kind of keep

0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:52.160
<v Speaker 1>your house shoes and what color you paint your house

0:12:52.320 --> 0:12:54.840
<v Speaker 1>and where the windows are placed. Yeah, a lot of

0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:56.600
<v Speaker 1>people do that because then you won't need your lights

0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:59.679
<v Speaker 1>as much. You have more natural light. And the way

0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:01.800
<v Speaker 1>they have it set up with the windows is you

0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.600
<v Speaker 1>open some during certain parts of the year and others

0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:06.880
<v Speaker 1>and other parts of the year, and it encourages either

0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:09.880
<v Speaker 1>cool air or warm air to flow through. And uh,

0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.160
<v Speaker 1>I know that a lot of these folks when these hippies,

0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:15.880
<v Speaker 1>when when it doesn't rain for a long time, you know,

0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.840
<v Speaker 1>they'll like take really quick showers or not shower, or

0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.520
<v Speaker 1>you know, not flush the toilet if it's yellow, let

0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:24.880
<v Speaker 1>it mellow, and they'll do like just conservation techniques like

0:13:24.880 --> 0:13:27.400
<v Speaker 1>that help. You know, water is the next oil. These

0:13:27.400 --> 0:13:29.920
<v Speaker 1>people are gonna be down with it when when the

0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.600
<v Speaker 1>when the grig goes down, Yeah, it might be nice.

0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:36.040
<v Speaker 1>I'd love to night get bills. I'm with you. Great. Yeah, Well,

0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.640
<v Speaker 1>before you cut off your garbage service, first, go on

0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.560
<v Speaker 1>how stuff works dot com and read how Living off

0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:46.760
<v Speaker 1>the Grid works body Charles W. Bryant for more on

0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.320
<v Speaker 1>this and thousands of other topics. Is it how stuff

0:13:49.320 --> 0:13:52.600
<v Speaker 1>works dot com? Let us know what you think. Send

0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:57.880
<v Speaker 1>an email to podcast at how stuff works dot com.

0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.680
<v Speaker 1>Brought to you by the reinvented two thousands twelve Camery.

0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:02.040
<v Speaker 1>It's ready, are you