We started with a fairly small solar-electric system that the previous owners of our home had installed, and we’ve steadily added more panels. Powering your home with renewable energy is a huge step toward reducing your carbon footprint.
If you do decide to go off the grid, generating your own electricity from the sun and wind provides an incredible sense of well-being - not only from a sense of independence, but also from the realization that you aren’t using any electricity that comes from coal. We came to realize that the more things we learned to do ourselves, the more independent we would become, which is the theme of the book I’ve just written, Thriving During Challenging Times: The Energy, Food and Financial Independence Handbook.Īs we begin to experience the converging challenges of resource depletion, climate change, and the ongoing financial crisis, we need to make ourselves more resilient to shocks to the system. Luckily, we developed a network of helpful and skilled friends along the way. Consulting with any local electrician was a waste of time, so we learned by the seat of our pants. Back then, there were no good books on the subject of renewable energy for homes, and the information you could find was pieced together by pioneers who were learning as they went along. To say that the learning curve was steep is an understatement. We'd transitioned to living off the grid with little knowledge about renewable energy - or electricity, for that matter - and had to quickly put into practice our home-schooling mantra of “lifelong learning.” More than a decade ago, my wife, Michelle, and I moved from a busy suburban street to 150 acres in the Ontario bush, where our nearest neighbors are three miles away.
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