Define "off grid".

Discussion in 'Off Grid Living' started by offgrittyt, Jan 26, 2020.


?
  1. Living in a hand dug hole under a tree root naked except for the clothes that you make yourself.

    25.0%
  2. Home brewing your own beer.

    75.0%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    WHAT DOES, "Off Grid", really mean, I asked myself the other day? "Well it means things like growing your own, heating only with what you can harvest yourself like firewood, making your own electricity and fetchin your own water", Myself answered tersely. "Oh really, does that mean you grew pineapples, bananas, avocados and coconut shrimp, made your own chainsaw & refined your own gas and oil, forged your own axe and assembled in the USA woodstove, made your own poly sled, boots, pants gloves, and coat, built your own P.O.S. jeep from parts you made yourself including the tires, built your own photovoltaic panels from raw materials that you harvested, designed and built your own MPPT solar charger controller, Lithium Ion Phosphate batteries, control panel, inverter, wiring, and generator for when skies are gray, drilled your own 200'+ deep water well, designed and built your own well pump, pressure tank system and heavy PVC piping, made your own tractor, created your own paint, nails, insulation, window glass, stainless steel sink, and off air free TV antenna so you can watch Star Trek re-runs", asked I?
    Having heard enough, Myself interrupted I saying, "Ok you made your point Smarty Smarterton, you crushed the illusion, completely ruined the Grizzly Adams, Laura Ingalls, Nanook of the North thing I had going on up in my own mind, I hope your happy, feel like big man now don't you, jerk"?
    I didn't speak to Myself for the rest of the day but later on that evening after chores while relaxing by the fire I said to Myself, "Look, you just had to be taken down a notch with all your goin on about self sufficiency and everything, tell you what, let's refer to ourselves from here on out as, Minimal Gridders, okay buddy"?
    At that moment I realized that there was no one else in the room and perhaps it might be a good idea to head out of the woods for a little bit, even if it was just goin down to the corner store to fetch a sarsaparilla and strike up a casual conversation with the clerk.

    IMG_20200123_094458. IMG_20200119_100218.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2020
    Dunerunner and duane like this.
  2. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    To me, "off grid" is simply no city/county services supplying gas, water and power. There are many different ways to live off-grid. Some can be quite comfortable.
     
  3. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    Nothing wrong with that definition.
     
    Dunerunner likes this.
  4. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Off-Grid to us, is we supply ALL our own power, water, and sanitation, plus dispose of All our own waste...
     
    Gray Wolf, offgrittyt, 3M-TA3 and 4 others like this.
  5. ghrit

    ghrit Bad company Administrator Founding Member

    For the uninitiated flatlanders, "off grid" simply means not connected to commercial power. Anything beyond that is a mystery to most until there's an outage and (so to say) the light comes on in their heads. And, as long as water gets to the kitchen sink and toilet tank, the other meanings attached to "off grid" are equally invisible.
     
  6. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Exactly....

    Off Grid independent living to me would include raising, gathering, hunting, growing and preserving my own food. Total control and dependent upon myself and family only. IOW back to the 1800's in the wilderness.

    Oh, and making my own beer!!!
     
  7. Cruisin Sloth

    Cruisin Sloth Special & Slow

    NO power from external supply
    S
     
    offgrittyt, Dunerunner and BenP like this.
  8. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    Off Grid > You are not hooked to the commercial power system.
    OTOH you most likely have consumed a large amount of commercial power by purchasing the ways you now produce your power and will continue to do so.
     
    offgrittyt, Dunerunner and BenP like this.
  9. oil pan 4

    oil pan 4 Monkey+++

    Growing your own food and stuff is more like homesteading.

    Off grid generally means no external utility such as water, gas or electric.
    Could extend that to sewer service also.
     
    Gray Wolf, offgrittyt, 3cyl and 2 others like this.
  10. Airtime

    Airtime Monkey+++

    I would define it as no connection to external infrastructures. That would include electricity, gas, sewer, water.
    And to be truly and totally “off grid” that would also include no internet service, cell phone, land lines, etc. supplying those infrastructure services as well.
    AT
     
    Gray Wolf, offgrittyt, 3cyl and 3 others like this.
  11. Tully Mars

    Tully Mars Metal weldin' monkey

    WhatHeSaid.

    We are not off grid here and I don't intend to be until we have to. I'll be 57 in a few weeks and I've done my time roughing it. I plan to enjoy the comforts until they are taken away. When that happens The solar(a expanding project) the genset will come into play. We have our own septic that when built was made 2x larger than what we figured max capacity would ever be. We have county water with two wells here on the property. We garden and can what we grow. We have ample game and two ponds full of bass and catfish. Hogs are just a hunt away.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2020
    SB21, ghrit and Dunerunner like this.
  12. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    off grid to me means no bill for water, gas nor power being paid monthly/quarterly to some corporation or municipality.
    really off THE grid means no telecom/internet either.

    At least that is the way I look at it. YMMV and probably does!
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2020
    Gray Wolf and offgrittyt like this.
  13. damoc

    damoc Monkey+++

    Off Grid is being independent of all utilities for survival It does not mean not having internet.Off the grid is being unfindable through normal data trails most people leave and probably does mean not having phone or internet..
     
    Gray Wolf and offgrittyt like this.
  14. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Off-Grid does NOT necessarily mean No Comms... It did thirty years ago, but with Cell & SAT Coverage the way it is in todays world, Comms is now available pretty much World wide...If one has even .5Mb biDirectional access to a Cell, or SAT Provider, that gives you both eMail/Text and VoIP Voice...There are Portable Cell and SAT Based Units that can easily provide at least that minimum connection for Comms, and likely a lot more than that... Even when AlaskaChick was deployed in the African Bush in Nambibia, with MDs w/o Boarders, she has SAT based Internet, and VoIP when at their Base Camp, at a place called Tews Farm...
    We enjoy 4G Cell, which for us is, 2-4Mbs bidirectional connection, to the AT&T terrestrial network.. but our Cell Site was recently upGraded to 4G LTE, but our Cell biDirectional Booster does not cover the LTE Bands, at this point.. Where we live Now, we also have a Direct Connection to an ISP in town, via a 5Ghz Terrestrial MicroWave Link, that gives us 5Mbs during the winters and 25Mbs during the summers... We will lose that link when we move permenantly to the new Place, has this summer... Even on the AT&T Network we get Good Facetime Connections, as well as SKYPE, and Message, and other Video and Audio Messaging systems..
     
  15. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    I take my garbage and recycling to a nearby transfer station but do all the other stuff that you do, plus have some gardens but I have no experience in preserving what I grow, wish I did.

    To be not connected to what I call, "the greedy grid", for electricity certainly is a major goal. I have been slowly, (like at a snail's pace), improving and growing my solar power system for the past six years that I have been totally off of the, "greedy grid"!

    PS: You only need a toilet tank if you have an indoor flush ...

    Correct, for the past six years I have generated 100% of my own electrical power, however, since no person is an island, many thousands and probably more accurately millions of my fellow monkeys have labored in concert to invent, obtain the raw materials, build and deliver the devices and fuels that we all use to live minimal grid. There really is no off grid ..

    Okay, so you saying that homesteading is in itself it's own category apart from minimal gridding, I can dig that.

    I agree, therefore, the term "minimal grid" really applies and there is no "off grid" per se because today's modern human beans use products and services and support structures to live, "off grid", which come from the grid.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 6, 2020
    TnAndy and HK_User like this.
  16. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    Yes, or using vehicles or fuels or anything that you didn't make yourself including your own tools and clothes and anything that's made off property. "Minimal" Grid is the accurate term, there is no "off grid" unless your part of an undiscovered tribe in the rain forest.

    Good on You. ;)
    You know, at conception Murica was supposed to be all about having remarkable individual freedom and sovereignty, free agency and the opportunity to peacefully live and create the lifestyle that is within a persons own means.
    Government's *illegal, public school mob operated monopoly with it's deliberate social programming, has been the single most factor in creating a culture of entitlement that has overcome society during the past 50 years or so, damaging diversity, true individuality and the right and even ability to live as one wishes free of omomnipotent, oppressive, fiscally non sustainable, meddlesome, oversized governance. It took fifty years for the creation of a violent mob of motherless government raised proletarians and change will not happen overnight, but its time to begin.
    Carry on.
    Note:*Violates the anti trust act's intent to prevent creation of monopolies.

    Okay, so like me and everyone else thus far, if you have achieved your own definition of off, "grid", as described, you will have have used and continue to use to a certain extent, resources that are provided via the grid to achieve said definition, thusly, making you a "Minimal Griddy", just like me!

    That is a very precise and well defined definition of off grid! Would you possibly describe yourself as "selectively minimal grid"?

    PS: Vas eez how you say, "YMMV" ?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 6, 2020
    SB21 likes this.
  17. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    You know BTP, having essentially grown up and spent my formative years plus in a laboratory, (no I wasn't cultured in a petri dish very funny monkeys), when you wax high tech, I pick up most of what your laying down without even having to Giggle it and I enjoy it very much, thanks!
    So, you think that prior to our present day, virtual, total, global, communications connectivity, the term, "off grid", would have found traction with this monkey? Okay, even the venerable Richard Proenneke could truly make claim to being only, "Minimal Grid", due to things like the manufactured clothes he wore, grid made tools, equipment, sheet of plastic that he used under his sod roof and even the puddle jumper that transported him and brought occasional supplies in! So far, "Minimal Grid", is the only definition for a modern human monkey making the claim of, "Off Grid", status!
     
  18. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    So offy, your idea of off grid is even more remote than Proenneke? Not putting words in your mouth here, since we know you are sensitive to that, but it seems that you are headed toward a definition of "off grid" to be very like a neanderthal life style. At least all the other "definitions" in this thread seem to require your clarification, so it makes me wonder what the goal is, other than a place to cuss and discuss all the variability of the term. Or at least require modification by addition of adjectives. "Minimal grid" for example, now requires refinement regarding which parts on "on grid" need to be omitted to qualify.

    Does "off grid" imply staying alive while alone? If so, Proenneke might serve as a terminal model. If not, then you have to think tribe as in neanderthal and others, like say the uncontacted tribes in the Amazon basin.

    BTW "YMMV" is "your mileage may vary." Someplace on site, there's a breakdown of commonly used abbreviations and shortcuts. Take the time and do some reading, it may help with some of the more or less obscure terms. Maybe one of the mods will remember where it is, I lost track years ago.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2020
    offgrittyt likes this.
  19. Cruisin Sloth

    Cruisin Sloth Special & Slow



    These videos and units in them just floor me !!
    DO NOT BUY , it's a watch out for !!

    Sloth
     
    offgrittyt likes this.
  20. offgrittyt

    offgrittyt You gonna eat that?

    Wowee Merkun I can feel the burn! Thank you for such a passionate response, sent via smoke signal no doubt!

    Okay, firstly thank you for respecting my pet peeve regarding speaking for others without their permission.

    Secondly, I've never met anyone via the internet who was off grid, (for obvious reasons that I shan't insult your intelligence by listing), but I have met a few minimal griddly's in person and I trust that I have met some minimalist offy's on line too though I cannot verify that without actually visiting with them in their minimal grid domains.

    Yes my passionate friend, I still maintain that all of us here who avail ourselves of the internet as well as the venerable Richard Proenneke, (who has earned my utmost admiration and I do not jest), can at best lay claim to being minimal gridders due to our indisputable reliance upon grid sourced products and services, even if just occasionally, just like Mr. Proenneke did, God rest his soul.
    TYVMFYR,
    Best regards,
    OG


    Neanderthalian Note: As a minimal gridder who is by Western Standards rocking it third world light, I must say that there is a possibility that I have some Neanderthal genetics, (although I don't think Neanderthal was quite this hairy) and furthermore it is possible that we all potentially share Neanderthal genetics.
    Some say we all sprang from one, some say we landed here, some say we sprang from many, some say we evolved still other's claim "poof there we is", on and on the theories go but other than relatively recent skeletal bits and even more recent artifacts of early humanoid existence to draw theoretical conclusion from, we know almost nothing for sure beyond the most recent, recorded history of "human". So please patient with the Neanderthal, for all we know they might have been peaceful, therefore, intelligent.
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Feb 13, 2020
survivalmonkey SSL seal        survivalmonkey.com warrant canary
17282WuJHksJ9798f34razfKbPATqTq9E7