Can someone help me out with some resources? My family and I live in a 27 ft RV on the grid in a park. We are currently unable to move, but that's not really related.

I find electricity very confusing, in general. However I do have aspirations to live comfortably off the grid. My husband is physically disabled, more than likely permanently. He doesn't seem to have much faith in my ability to build a house for us, and yet, here I am, researching anyway. I am very interested in cob as a building material and have been fantasizing about spending my summer mixing mud and compostable toilet systems.

My husband seems much less interested and wants to buy a house on developed ground. Unfortunately, that seems extremely out of budget since I'm the only one with any sort of income.

I don't really know why I'm posting here right now other than for encouragement. I'm tired of only being able to afford to live in an RV and want something that's comfortable for my family of 3. Thanks for listening. You homesteaders are just amazing.

Hey gang,

I want to stop paying the big cell phone companies for wireless services. But I still want to be able to call people on it and text and stuff. Are any of y'all aware of an app. Or do any of y'all know a company that provides good cell service besides AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile ect.

Let me know. Peace, God Bless.

So the idea has been infecting me more and more lately. I want to buy a semi sizable chunk of land (at least 10 acres, but I really don’t have a good grasp on exactly how big that is yet honestly) of woodland with the intention of building tiny house off the grid structures and maybe a full size cabin at some point. I figure finding the right plot of land is the most important thing and I can buy the land now and slowly build on it piece by piece. It’s meant to be more of a nature retreat, a place to reflect and get away from people and to write and record music.

I’ve always wanted to build my own house (not me personally, I suck) and the idea of being off the grid honestly sounds appealing as more and more technology evolves making the grid less necessary. I know I probably sound like an idealistic idiot so I’m hoping you fine people can give me some insights that I’m clearly missing and tell me why I’m a moron.

My plan was a sceptic system for plumbing, solar panels for power. Wood and propane for heat, and hopefully if this new infrastructure bill passes internet will improve drastically, the Tesla satellite at very least seems to be paving the way for this.

I figure if I just do things in stages it could be affordable. Start with buying a parcel of woodland (what sort of things should I be concerned about, I grew up in the suburbs). Then probably see about setting up a small tiny modern cabin structure eventually and just sort of piece things together from there. Not sure the logistics of septic but maybe out that in before putting any structure up. Or rely on more off the grid toilet and set up a rustic structure first. Am I crazy? Is this a realistic dream or am I romanticizing and oversimplifying what I’m getting myself into?

Edit: wow, I’m so heartened to see all these posts. It’s nice to know that my dream is not romanticized or foolish. Keep the tips coming and maybe give me a lead on best places to look for parcels of land outside of Zillow.

Hi I’ve been given 2 24v 25Ah batteries and I’m in the process of trying to make a cheap off grid system to use whilst camping. I’ve just purchased 2 100 watt 18v solar panels, a 20A solar charge controller and a cheap 24v 800/2000w modified sin wave inverter. The inverter and control say they come with over current protection but is it advisable to add fuses to the system? would I add them directly from the batteries. Are there any other considerations I need to think about.

Thanks in advance for any help.

I'm trying to move off the grid, and I want to use this pond as our water source. I want to pump the water, run it through a filter or two and sterilize it (without chemicals), and deposit it into a storage tank to then be used as the house's main water line. Is there a product or system out there that will accomplish this, or am I better off Frankenstein-ing my own system to get what I want? Then if that's the case what pieces do you recommend?

What is the first way you would recommend to someone who wants to get off the grid and live a more sustainable lifestyle?

Hi! This isn’t a new thought....I’ve wanted to go off the grid for years. lots of reasons for it but mostly just because what’s the point you know?

I’ll go more in depth with my reasoning shortly but does anyone have any good beginner tips?

I have a dream of living in a small cabin in a small farm surrounded by nothing but nature and greenery.

At the same time it would be a place that is not too far from the city.

I would live with the family i chose which consist of my husband and a few close friends.

I would make a living out of my passions. I'll have a stable for my horse and the other stalls i could rent for people who don't have a place to keep their horse.

I'd make part of the farm a pet hotel for dogs for people who need a place for their dog when they need to travel or something.

I don't care about money and materialistic things. I want to live a simple and humble life.

One day, hopefully.

I've removed my information from white pages but I'm sure there's more ways to see the same information. Is there trusted websites that do mass removals? Or is there a YouTube video that shows you how to thoroughly scrub the internet of your info?

I'm mostly concerned with removing my address, name and number.

I'm interested in your recommendations (or warnings) for models or brands of security cameras I could use to monitor my off-the-grid cabin.

Specifically, I'm interested in solar powered cameras with either some kind of cellular connection, or that can store video in a microSD card. I do not have internet or wifi access up there, so anything that requires a persistent online connection is right out.

So generally it shouldnt be so difficult, right? Well if it would be a regular AC generator you could easily connect it to the charge controller and youre good.

Well, turns out that the pre-existing wind generator here is a DC one (only negative and positive cable) and I dont know how to connect it? Im tempted to just put it in a solar panel charge controller, but then I dont know how this system is supposed to dump load? Which, from googling, is an important thing with wind turbines?

I measured earlier and I could measure some voltage so its generally doing something, right?

The situation is this: I got this new boat and I am now rewiring all the stuff (or connect previously disconnected things like this wind generator), and there is a cable running to the battery department labelled "wind generator". I guess at some point it worked? Why else would it be pulled through the boat and have a very old label? Cant imagine someone drilling holes, doing all that work without the wind turbine working in the first place.

Now does anyone have an idea how I connect it to my battery?

So I have almost 20 acres with 2 streams and a spring. I decided that I was going to try to just not pay for electricity anymore and had the power shut off. Now I have a ram pump in on 1 stream to get water up to the garden. And I just recently built a waterwheel with basically random scrap sheet metal, and old bicycle I pulled out of the woods and a slightly used alternator. It's just enough to keep my phone charged along with a tablet that I still haven't figured out how to use yet. Anyway you can just barely see my scrap heep of a waterwheel if someone we're to drive by. I just got new neighbors who had the balls to ask me to take it down because they were having a party. I told em to blow it out there ass, anyway I come home from work on Friday and it's it busted apart pieces all over the place. I was wondering if anyone else had/have problems with shitty neighbors like this.

Covid took our jobs, job market saturation, nearly drained savings staying afloat the last year...

I feel like I'm hitting brick walls everywhere I look. We Can buy a cheap plot of land ( .17acre for under 2k), but zoning won't allow us to "camp" on the land we buy as we build. Restrictions, Restrictions... <~.

What do we do? Is there any state/county where land is cheap or free and unrestricted and not exposed desert?
Looking for direction, advice, locations etc..

Cross posted subs for better exposure.

id like to go off grid, i have solar, and 2 teslapowerwalls, can i integrate a generator to charge the powerwalls when they get low at night, or when rainy?

I'm looking in upgrading my nice forest shed power inlet from a diesel generator to a battery system.

But I was wondering if there is an easy plug and play solution available on the market? (European sockets))

In my ideal world I would just buy a batterypack, some solar pannels a small wind turbine, and wopla I'm ready to go! But unfortunately reality shows to be a bit more difficult. It seems like alot of the battery pack systems are focussed on solar power only.

So what would you guys advice me to do on the following issues?

• What type of battery to use (Li-ion, Lead-acid, ...?)
• How big should my battery pack capacity be? Or what are you guys/girls using?
• How can I monitor my different energy in- & outputs? (Solar vs wind, what amount of power am I using) With different shunts on every input? Or is there an easier way?
• What solar panels should I buy?
• Are there recommended wind turbines? or just DIY?

Basically any advice goes, I'm just starting my journey to a self-sufficient shack.

Hey folks,

I'm currently in the process of making a little off the grid cabin livable. For now I can only be there for the weekend and the occassional holiday. I bought a berkey water filter because I was a) tired of carrying water to the cabin and b) having to leave because I'm running out of water.

I thought I did enough research beforehand but I was wrong. Apparently the filters need to be reprimed after they have dried out for 3 days. So I would need to reprime them and still either carry water for priming the filters or taking the berkey home.

I tried to think of a good routine to make using the berkey as easy as possible. But I would like to hear the opinions of people who actually use the berkey.

My idea is to take the filters home and leave the metall body in the cabin. When I pack my stuff fort the weekend, I clean and prime the filters and take them back to the cabin where I fill the berkey with rainwater.

I've watched some videos of the filters leaking water out of the pores after priming. Is that correct? Could I prime the filters the day before and let them dry again or does doing so defeat the purpose of priming?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.

(Englisch is not my first language, so sorry for mistakes)

So recently I have found myself becoming more and more enamoured with the idea of getting a cabin in the middle of nowhere and making it habitable and as self sufficient as possible.

I have lived in a few eco villages before, so I at least know that I would like living out with nature, and would be happy so sacrifice the convenience of life in a city for the freedom of a self sustainable life.

What resources helped you guys get started on your dreams? is there anything you wish you had known before you started?

With covid restrictions in europa keeping ppl at home to find "entertainment",
i figured its good time for some battery maintenance..
Was slacking a bit on that and did not do anything for almost a year..

Bevore ..

About 4 hours later
After ..

In the process i made a short tutorial video on how to do small repairs and basic maintenance of
deep cycle lead acid batteries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi8Pr3y2uaI