The Reality of Living Off Grid – What this Alternative Lifestyle is Really Like?
Nowadays, there is much more interest in alternative ways of living - van life, tiny homes and living off the grid are all growing trends that many people are curious about. It is easy to see the reasons why people are considering such big life changes, and certainly since the pandemic, it seems more and more people are considering shaking things up.
And that is exactly what we did… Seeking a more sustainable and freeing lifestyle, in Summer 2023 we decided to pack up our lives and move to an abandoned mountain farm in the North of Portugal. Not only were we moving house, we were making a massive lifestyle change, which would involve living completely off grid.
So, what does it mean to be off grid?
For different people this means different things, but officially it simply means not being connected to mains utility supplies, including those for electricity and water. For us, it has meant a complete overhaul in the way we live. When we first arrived at our mountain farm, we were automatically thrown into this off grid world. The house on the property desperately needed renovation and certainly was not livable to begin with. There was no access to electricity or water, and we actually set up a tent to sleep in for the first week or so, until we managed to clear out a room in the house. We had no bathroom or kitchen, so our first priority was to set up a compost toilet. We collected water from the local ‘fontes’ in bottles for drinking and washing. Thankfully, it was summer and the very basic living conditions didn't dampen our enthusiasm for our new lifestyle.
We promptly got to work with house renovations and are pleased to say that we are still off grid, but it is a much more comfortable setup. Our electricity now comes from solar panels which we installed, our water comes from the well on our land, and we heat our home and cook using a wood burning stove with firewood from our land.
We set up all of these systems ourselves and plan to do all the work around our house and land ourselves. We also plan to work towards self-sufficiency by growing as much of our own food as possible.
How much does this affect our everyday life?
In reality, our life is very different to what it was before. Instead of having a daily routine that revolves around going to a physical place of work, to come home, prepare an easy dinner, relax in front of the TV and maybe fit a gym session in; our days involve working on the land, in the garden, renovating our house, cooking good food and spending time together. Everything we do each day on our homestead, has a direct impact on the life that we are creating.
We live a life connected to nature, spending most of our days outside. We are so aware of the seasons, the weather and what this means for how we live.
Firstly, let's talk about power. We bought a complete solar power system, which includes 8 x 425 Watt solar panels and 4 batteries, which store power for overnight use. After carefully reading the instruction booklets and some videos from YouTube university, we managed to install the system ourselves. We actually now have a decent understanding of electricity, which seems like a valuable life skill in itself. Our solar panels give us enough power for everything we need at the moment. We have a full-sized fridge, coffee machine, computer and a range of other household appliances. When choosing new appliances, we always look for products with the highest energy efficiency ratings. Given the fact that all our power is run from solar panels, we are aware of our power usage and make decisions according to the weather. This can sometimes mean missing out on modern conveniences and we definitely wouldn’t even consider running the vacuum cleaner after dark! Getting used to the solar power capabilities does take a bit of time. In fact, during our first winter here using the panels, we noticed the available battery power was running low overnight. We became a little bit paranoid about using any optional electricity after dark. We were even using torches in the evenings instead of switching the lights on! Turns out our solar panels weren't in the best position and were situated in the shade for most of the day due to the low Winter sun. We made the decision to move the solar panels in December and are pleased to report that we haven't had this problem since. On the flip side, when there is full sun, we can really take advantage of this. If we want to run the washing machine on back-to-back cycles, we can - and it’s free!
We have water running from an on-site well to the house. There was no water connected when we first arrived, so we had to set up the system ourselves. With no prior plumbing experience, this was once again an opportunity to learn new skills.
The water from our well is quite literally pure mountain spring water and is delicious for drinking. We use this water for all of our household needs and even have a flushing toilet.
We went for six months without access to hot water, before finally deciding that a hot shower would be a worthwhile luxury. We have hot water from a simple gas boiler, but we do have to admit that this can be a little temperamental - not ideal on a frosty day for a girl that needs to wash her long curly hair! We are looking at other hot water solutions, including solar and wood boilers.
We are careful not to waste water, however judging from the amount of rain that we got over the winter, we don't think a shortage of water is going to be a problem. We are also fortunate enough to have a spring on the land, which feeds our pond. We plan to use this as an irrigation system for watering our vegetable garden. We also have plans to look at grey water and rain water harvesting systems for other areas on the land.
Although living off grid has its challenges, one of the greatest benefits is the fact that we have no utility bills each month. With no mortgage, electricity or water bill to pay, we have financial freedom that wouldn't otherwise be possible. This certainly makes up for the odd cold shower or having to check the weather before using the hair dryer.
The longer we live this way, the more we realise that certain modern luxuries just aren't important to us.
It is true that at times things take a little bit more effort; like having to make sure that you have enough firewood prepared, in order to light the cooker to prepare your dinner, rather than just turning a knob to 180° on the fan oven. But what does that really matter when you are living life with such freedom. If it takes an extra 15 minutes to get the oven heated, then so be it.
We both agree that we have learned so much from living this way and it has expanded our mindsets as to what is possible! Setting up our off grid systems has shown us what we are capable of doing. We have been forced to think outside the box and to find our own solutions to problems. We are in the fortunate position of knowing exactly how everything works, so if anything breaks, we can fix it. We look at things a little bit differently now. Before when we had a leaky tap or low water pressure, our first reaction may have been to phone the handyman, now we will work out the problem for ourselves - which is much more satisfying!
With this lifestyle we are not dependent on anyone and, as mentioned above, we want to continue towards becoming more self-sufficient. For us, the next step is to become expert gardeners. We are literally complete beginners but that is part of the fun and challenge. We also plan to get some animals in the future to help with land management, composting systems and for eggs.
We are much more active in our new life and have gained so many new skills (and muscles!) from all the work in building our off grid homestead. We are committed to doing as much as we possibly can by ourselves, and so far, have even completely replaced the roof on part of our house. When everything you do is benefiting your own future and contributing towards creating something that you truly believe in, you get an immense sense of job satisfaction. Many people struggle to understand why we want to live this way. To some it may seem like more of a nightmare than a dream, but we wouldn’t change it for the world. We don't want to just exist through life, we want to live it to its fullest. And living off grid we have never felt more alive!
