Many ways to live off-grid and more people are looking into it
Source: https://www.wbaltv.com/article/many-ways-to-live-off-grid/40229652
Author: Katherine Roth
The Anacapa Architecture firm, in Santa Barbara, California, and Portland, Oregon, has built several upscale off-grid homes in recent years, and has several more off-grid projects in the works. The lifestyle that Anacapa homes aim for is one of modernist elegance, not roughing it. Bang says new technologies can ensure comfortable self-sufficiency. Such homes also are carefully designed to take advantage of the site's landscape features with an eye to sustainability. If you want to be totally self-sufficient, he says, it takes a lot of time and physical effort. You won't have time to hold down a job. If you're living in a remote location, you need to consider access to medical care, and whether you are mentally prepared for that much isolation. Still, improved alternative energy sources and construction techniques are making off-grid living more thinkable for more people, including those who don't want to haul buckets of water from a well or live by candlelight.