# Anyone here living without electricity?



## candyknitter (Apr 23, 2009)

I don't just mean off the grid, I mean without a generator too! I saw a program where a couple bought a small old house high up a hill in Wales that had no gas or electricity and the water was from a spring. They couldn't even get a oil or diesel delivery truck up there because there was no road going to the house, only a small mud track. However they seemed to be happy enough to take it on and just use wood for fuel and candles/oil lamps. Anyone else live or know anyone like this?


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## Cyngbaeld (May 20, 2004)

I have done it. Not doing it now. You just can't live in a tin mansion in Texas without electric to run the a/c.

If you don't need air conditioning it is doable without electric and not necessarily all that hard. It is nice to have some solar panels and/or wind generator so you can run your computer though.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Forestbreath does. I don't think she posts in the subforum, but she does in the Homesteading and other ones. I've given her some advice and help from time to time. Her site is here:

http://www.homesteading.us/


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## mpillow (Jan 24, 2003)

I gone on vacation to such a place....you have to boat in a mile and then walk in a mile to a log cabin in the woods...my husband used to spend weekends/breaks while going to college in Calais, Maine....the camp is elsewhere on the Mattawamkeg River somewhere.

We did pack in propane for lights but there is a wood cookstove in the cabin and we had a cooler sunk in the river and a root cellar behind the cabin...bears were big trouble and had done a job on the screened porch a number of times.

Ice would've been available come winter and put up in the sawdust from all the wood you'd need to cut to live there....but the game and fishing were plentiful.


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## Wildwood (Jul 2, 2007)

My cousin and his wife did it for over five years starting in about 1995 and they did fine. They have a wonderful log cabin made with huge timbers located in a fairly wooded area so it wasn't all that hot even here in the south. They cooked on a wood stove, used oil lamps, pumped their water from a well and bathed in the small lake close by in the summer. They did eventually get a propane fridge and sometimes washed their clothes at a relative's house. They were very happy with the lifestyle but eventually finances forced them to rejoin the rat race and get the electric turned back on so they could do the whole 9-5 thing.

In no time at all they had computers, phones and television and they did appreciated them but I guarantee you, it was the best years of their lives living that simpler lifestyle.


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## 10ecn (Mar 12, 2010)

I've done it in the past. It's mainly just a matter of adjusting your habits. There are many, easy ways of generating power on a small scale, so you don't have to be completely without electricity. Most of the power used in a typical on the grid home, could easily be replaced by another source. It's the big draw things, such as freezers, and air conditioners, that require a little more imagination, and innovation.


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## Steve L. (Feb 23, 2004)

candyknitter said:


> ... Anyone else live ... like this?


 I do.


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## okiemom (May 12, 2002)

I think I could do it fairly easliy except for the air conditioning. We are just so hot and hiumid in Ok that even if you are in the trees it is just way too humid to easily convert after being in air all our life. Some of this also comes form liking to breath. Allergies are so bad here that the conditioning helps give a little break. 

The hard part is finding things that don't require electricity. If you didn't have to life in the rat race and time didn't matter it is a lot easier. We went 10 days w/o after the ice storm and I liked it. I became really resentful thou when the school opened and wanted the kids to start living like they did before. Hello, no electric no light no computers, homework! Very few clean clothes and baths were warmed up on the stove. It was not fun trying to like ike it was 2000 something when our life was slowed to 1800 something.

opwople would ask me what did I do all day? Load firewood, cook, clean and wash what I could. That was the day. Do it again the next.


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## cindy71 (Jul 7, 2008)

As a child we lived 2 month without power. We lived in a trailer, it was in the summertime in Alabama. I am still here we made it. I think living without power for those of us who are so use to it will take time to get use to not having it. I can live without power but it want be easy, I think not having my freezer will be the biggest drawback because with the freezer I can make ice. The ice will keep things cool. No power means no FAN, I love my FAN. No power means no AC I can live without AC but a FAN keeps the air moving which makes it more bareable. Most homes are not made this days not to have power. Try living in a DW mobile home without power in Alabama in August. You will get cranky real quick. There are some days when I wish we didn't have power so the TV wouldn't be on so we could get things done. Cindy


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## redwall (Mar 10, 2007)

did it for three years with only the weekends with electricity


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I've spent summers in AK without any modern convenience (other than nylon tent, if that can be considered a convenience). 

I spent 13 years at my current home, with only solar power.

I much prefer grid power... just something I don't have to worry about on a daily basis. Unless you're rich, you have to monitor and think about your electric generation/consumption, when you live off the grid with solar.

Still have my solar, just in case!


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## Gercarson (Nov 2, 2003)

candyknitter said:


> I don't just mean off the grid, I mean without a generator too! I saw a program where a couple bought a small old house high up a hill in Wales that had no gas or electricity and the water was from a spring. They couldn't even get a oil or diesel delivery truck up there because there was no road going to the house, only a small mud track. However they seemed to be happy enough to take it on and just use wood for fuel and candles/oil lamps. Anyone else live or know anyone like this?


I grew up in Kentucky - this sounds like my family growing up. I was just thinking tonight about drinking water out of a spring and looking at the salamanders. I could do it again very easily.


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## dezingg (Feb 25, 2010)

Our ancestors managed.

I think my most crucial electrical devices would be a couple of good flashlights and a cell phone. My fav is the computer though. 

A propane fridge could avoid a lot of spoiled food.


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## candyknitter (Apr 23, 2009)

I can see that A/C would be a big stumbling block over there with the hot summers - not such a problem here! I wonder how people did cope before A/C? Do you think summers weren't as hot then or do peoples bodies adapt to cope in that heat? I find in Greece and Spain I can take the dry heat but last year I visited Portugal and it was very humid and like being suffocated - absolutely unbearable.


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

I've spent about fifteen years total without electricity or running water, although some of it was when I was small and it was my mother who had all the work of coping! I appreciate being on-grid now, but am prepared to be off-grid again in the future, and really wouldn't mind it, as long as I was prepared for it. For me, the hardest part of the situation was not being able to do laundry at home; now I have a set of laundry tubs, a hand-cranked wringer, and a couple of scrub boards. 

Kathleen


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Have before.


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## Wildwood (Jul 2, 2007)

candyknitter said:


> I can see that A/C would be a big stumbling block over there with the hot summers - not such a problem here! I wonder how people did cope before A/C? Do you think summers weren't as hot then or do peoples bodies adapt to cope in that heat? I find in Greece and Spain I can take the dry heat but last year I visited Portugal and it was very humid and like being suffocated - absolutely unbearable.


I believe that our bodies adjust eventually. I live in Arkansas and it can get wicked hot here in the summer. Two of my elderly neighbors don't use air conditioners. Both couples worked hard all their lives and the women canned all summer. Also both couples have lived much longer than usual life spans...I'm talking eighties and nineties. It wasn't the fact that they couldn't afford it and I know at least one has central heat and air. They chose not to use it. Probably because when it became available, they didn't want to change their lifestyle. It would involve getting up very early and getting the heavier chores before it got too hot and taking it a little easier in the heat of the day...not a lifestyle we are use to. I'm a workaholic and the idea of sitting down and resting a few hours in the afternoon is beyond my ability to comprehend but I bet I could get use to it. Actually I think I'd trade my rat race for less money and no electric.


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## ldc (Oct 11, 2006)

candyknitter, the American deep south can often be a lot hotter than Portugal, and up to 100% humidity too! I had 9 months after Katrina w very limited power, the first months at 96 F. degrees and above, w close to 95% humidity and no breeze. The hardest part was sleeping! Eventually I got a temporary electric wire, but was limited to fridge (yes!), ans. machine for work and one light. Katrina was the last day of August, and I got full power back the next year in March. I had candles, flashlights and things, a gas stove...after a few months, I was sort of used to it! The gas stove saved me, as I could cook when there was no fridge. Already had a big garden in place. I canned the food that had been in the freezer so didn"t lose too much right after the hurricane. As another poster mentioned, it's possible, it just takes more time to do everything. And I had to go to my library job, and be clean!!! And had to clean up a lot of downed trees; we didn't get much rain here, just wind. (The next hurricane here, Gustav, did much more damage). ldc


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## RiverPines (Dec 12, 2006)

Laws of coding dont allow that here.
You have to have an electrical source, plumbing and septic.
You cant occupy a residence here without having the basics.
Sucks too if you ask me.
As a kid our family lived with no juice, an outhouse and hand pumped/hand dug well.
It was great!
But now for you cant live like that anymore here. 

I hate being told how to live.


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## wyld thang (Nov 16, 2005)

When I worked at a summer camp a long time ago it was virtually no electricty, the only time I flipped a switch was if I went to the bathroom in the night. Otherwise we all lived in the old fashioned army tents on the wood platforms, ate in a tent, the barn had big doors on all sides to open up for light, we were out doors 24/7...campfires at night. You had a flashlight if you wanted a light, or the moon.

The juice goes out in the winter. It sure makes it nice to have a woodstove--just having that going makes it "normal"--since the stove is going anyways. Basically you get whatever you need to get done in the daylight, and just sit around/go to bed after dark.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

There's an elderly couple in the mountains nearby who live that way. They have lived out there for over 50 years without electricity. They've never seen a need to add electricity to their home. I'd love to spend a year living next door and learn from them.


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

I've done it off on and on in the past. I grew up in East Texas, and we never had air condition. It's a different lifestyle, one in which you have to take into acount mother nature. Fortunately for us, the houses we lived in were built before air condition - plenty of large windows, high ceilings, covered porches, etc. It was definitely hot and frequently miserable, it was life though, and we dealt with it.


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## juju_mommy (May 6, 2010)

ldc said:


> candyknitter, the American deep south can often be a lot hotter than Portugal, and up to 100% humidity too! I had 9 months after Katrina w very limited power, the first months at 96 F. degrees and above, w close to 95% humidity and no breeze. The hardest part was sleeping! ldc


LDC - you definitely have my respect! Living in Southern Louisiana myself, I can't even imagine how people lived without AC "back in the day". Now, I'm not an AC hog either. We keep ours on 78 most of the time. But still. It's the humidity that kills me! We have neighbors who are from Arizona. They tell us that the LA heat is horrible compared to Arizona. So, it's definitely the humidity that makes the difference. 

For Katrina, we weren't out of power for very long. But for Rita (which came shortly after), we were out for 2 weeks. It was miserable! We slept outside in our tent (much cooler than inside). But it was miserable. Thank God we didn't have kids yet. 

I'm not saying it would be easy, but I really do believe that I could do without electricity if it weren't for AC. I would miss the internet but really all other "changes" wouldn't bother me much. But the one thing that I don't know if I would handel well is going without the AC in southern Louisiana. Anywhere else, sure no problem. But here. I dont' know. It would be a major transition, to say the least.


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## juju_mommy (May 6, 2010)

Oh... and I wanted to add. If we had a breeze here, it wouldn't bother me as much. I think that is just as bad as our horrible humidity - we don't have much of a breeze. 

Houses back in the day (such as the plantation homes) were built for the environment. They were built for air flow, among other things. Well, there isn't much air flow around here and even when there is, the homes are no longer built in a way that utilizes that flow.


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## Ode (Sep 20, 2006)

Because it is much easier to heat during winter than to A/C cool during a hot summer, my husband and I are planning for retirement in a cooler climate. With the right building techniques it is easy to keep a home warm even under very cold outdoor conditions. And summer heat can be managed also. You just need a lot of thermal mass, and earth berming. It really is too bad more homes aren't built that way, over the lifetime of the home it would save the owners a lot of money in heating and cooling costs.

I saw a very interesting program where ancient air conditioning methods were discussed and used in some new experimental homes in the southwest. One method involved wide diameter (about 8-12 inches) clay pipes being buried underground to use the earth to cool the air. I wish I had taped it, because the rest of the details are fuzzy, but apparently these pipe systems were used as much as 2000 years ago and were very effective. Low tech and low cost.


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## Ode (Sep 20, 2006)

We don't live without power at the moment, but we frequently do without power for 2-3 weeks at a time while camping with no problems. And we are going to build a non-electric cabin in a few years, after seeing Cabin Fever's little spare cabin. It will be extremely practical for us to vacation in, and as a bugout location should we need it for that purpose.

Power is easily supplied for small needs via solar or wind generation, and wouldn't require a large investment for what we would need. With LED lights, the power needed is very minor.


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

I can't even get away from static cling.


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## Guest (Jun 4, 2010)

A few times, but not by choice.


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## Jolly (Jan 8, 2004)

juju_mommy said:


> LDC - you definitely have my respect! Living in Southern Louisiana myself, I can't even imagine how people lived without AC "back in the day". Now, I'm not an AC hog either. We keep ours on 78 most of the time. But still. It's the humidity that kills me! We have neighbors who are from Arizona. They tell us that the LA heat is horrible compared to Arizona. So, it's definitely the humidity that makes the difference.
> 
> For Katrina, we weren't out of power for very long. But for Rita (which came shortly after), we were out for 2 weeks. It was miserable! We slept outside in our tent (much cooler than inside). But it was miserable. Thank God we didn't have kids yet.
> 
> I'm not saying it would be easy, but I really do believe that I could do without electricity if it weren't for AC. I would miss the internet but really all other "changes" wouldn't bother me much. But the one thing that I don't know if I would handel well is going without the AC in southern Louisiana. Anywhere else, sure no problem. But here. I dont' know. It would be a major transition, to say the least.


I'm a little further upstate than you, but my grandmother never had a/c. Like other folks have said, the homes were built for it. High ceilings, covered porches (they slept on the back screen porch in the summertime), white exteriors, shade trees, attic fans, very little baking during hot weather and lots of other little tricks. Still darned hot, though.

As for living totally without, I have only on a limited basis, although my grandmother mentioned above didn't get electricity until the mid-1950's. In my case, we used to have a hunting camp reachable only by boat. We had scavenged some 12V lights which we ran off of an old Cat battery (we'd take it back and forth to charge it) and we had a RV propane frig and stove. We did fine during hunting season, but I don't think I would have cared for it during July...


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