Off-the-grid is a system and lifestyle designed to help people with a remote network, such as an electrical grid. In electricity, off-grid can be a stand-alone power system or mini-grids typically to provide a smaller community with electricity. Off-grid electrification is an approach to access electricity used in countries and areas with little access to electricity, due to scattered or remote population. The term off-the-grid (OTG) can refer to living in a self-sufficient way of reliance on one or more public utilities. Namely the electrical grid. People who adopt this lifestyle are called off-gridders. Off-the-grid homes to achieve autonomy; they do not rely on one or more of municipal water supply, sewer, gas, electrical power grid, or similar utility services. A common misconception is that a true off-grid house is able to operate completely independently of all traditional public utility services. Although this is not the case. The term “off the grid” traditionally refers to the electrical grid only.

Ed Begley, Jr., who is one of the stars in the world with television and television (HGTV) network. Actress Daryl Hannah promotes off-grid living and constructing her home in Colorado according to the principles of dual-survival and co-star survival Cody Lundin, who lives in a self-designed, passive solar earth house in the high-desert wilderness of Northern Arizona, collecting rainwater, composting waste, and paying nothing for utilities.

Electrical power can be generated with solar energy sources such as solar, wind, micro hydro, geothermal; with a generator or Micro combined heat and power with adequate fuel reserves. Such a system is called a stand-alone power system or is referred to as a Hybrid power system. In addition, it is possible to simply eliminate electric power as in the Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite Communities.

Self-supply of water and sanitation is possible to be independent of municipal water supply and sanitation services. On-site water sources can include a stream, stream, tank, or lake. These sources may require pumps or filtration. Rainwater can also be harvested. Can be advanced running off an energy source boiling and storage. Off-the-grid houses are not connected to a sewer system, but may rely on various types of dry toilets, such as composting toilets or urine-diverting dry toilets.

On April 13, 2006, USA Today reported that there were “some 180,000 families living off-grid,” and quoted Richard Perez, publisher of Home Power Magazine, as the source. Assuming the same rate of growth, there would be a million-million off-grid households in the United States by late 2007. Because many third world citizens have never had the chance to go on the grid -grid worldwide. A wave of TV shows and articles came out after the publication of “Off the Grid, Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government and True Independence in Modern America” ​​by Nick Rosen in 2010.

The concept of a sustainable off-grid community in the community. To become truly self-sufficient, the community would need to provide all of its own electrical power, food, shelter and water. Using renewable energy, an on-site water source, sustainable agriculture and vertical farming techniques. A recent concept design by Eric Wichman shows a multi-family community, which combines all these technologies into one self-sufficient neighborhood. To grow the community you simply add neighborhoods using the same model as the first. A self-sustaining community of carbon footprint.

The State of California is one of the most important contributors to the evolution of battery power. Grid-tie systems are less expensive than off-grid systems due to the lack of additional equipment like charge controllers and batteries. However, some systems may not be used in the future. It is often done in the same way as in the cabins, to avoid high initial costs of traditional utility connections. Other persons choose to live in houses where the cost of outside use is prohibitive, or such a distance away as to be impractical. Nick Rosen lists seven reasons for going off-grid. The top two are saving money, and reducing the carbon footprint. Others include survivalists, preparing for the collapse of the economy and bringing life back to the countryside.

Canada has about 175 aboriginal and northern off-grid communities, defined as “a community that is neither connected to the North American electrical grid” nor is it “permanent” or “permanent or long-term” (5 years or more), and the settlements have at least 10 permanent buildings. ” Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada lists the following environmental issues for these off-grid communities:

In situations where grid has been reached, it becomes cheaper to generate one’s own electricity rather than purchasing it from the grid. This depends on the cost of renewable sources (wind, sun), and the cost of a grid connection. For example, in certain remote areas a grid connection would be prohibitively expensive, resulting in grid parity being reached immediately.

The photovoltaic off-grid market has been researched by international institutes, universities and market research companies. The cumulative installed PV is estimated in 2010 between 1 and 2 GW depending on the source. The market research company Infinergia has gone further by national cumulative mapping installed off-grid PV capacity on 100 countries worldwide.

In Africa, small and inexpensive pico solar electric lights and solar home systems Inexpensive Solar Panels, Lithium Ion Batteries and High-Efficiency LED lights make the systems affordable.