The EFFing crisis continues to bite. We hear dire warnings that the average household is set to pay hundreds of pounds more this winter for their energy use. Yet thousands of Brits remain blissfully unaffected. I know because I am one of them: among the 150,000 UK residents who live off-grid – that is, without any mains utilities.
This means I manage my own water supply, provide all my own power and deal with my own waste. Most people consider us at best eccentric and at worst crazy. But in a time of increasingly unaffordable energy, living off grid is a wise decision.
You’ll find us living behind hedgerows, at the bottom of suburban gardens, nestling in woodlands, bobbing about in boatyards. I built my own off-grid structure during lockdown, a 30 square metre shed in a small field I found on eBay.
Much of life, after all, can be conducted outside, even in winter, with a little tarpaulin and the right clothes
It’s not all easy: the daily grind involves monitoring batteries and tending to solar panels or wind turbines.
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