Stuff You Should Know - How Living Off the Grid Works

Episode Date: October 16, 2008

If you're tired of paying utility bills or relying on fossil fuels, it might be time to consider living off the grid. Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about the techniques and strategies used by people living off the grid. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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region that attracts monsters and paranormal activity. There's something beyond our understanding going on here. Starring Supernatural's Misha Collins, The Walking Dead's Melissa Ponzio, and Rogue One's Alan Tudyk, written by Lauren Shippen and created by me, Aaron Mankey. Listen to Bridgewater on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast. Chuck's here. I'm here. I'm Josh Clark. This is Chuck Bryant. We're both here. Yeah, we are Chuck, aren't we? Yes.

Um, you know Chuck, I've been really getting badded around by my electric company lately. Oh man. Do you know that for the most part, electric utilities just kind of guess how much you've used? How much electricity you've used? Yeah, I think maybe once every quarter they send somebody out to actually check, but I don't think they ever go back and say, oh well we owe you some money because we were wrong. They just guess how much you're using. So you can conserve as much electricity as you want. It's actually good if you're doing that, you know, environmentally speaking. Sure. But financially it may not help you at all. You may actually pay more. I know. It's a lot of times it's based on the previous year's usage and I went through some nightmares

with the water company here, man. Oh yeah, that'll happen. Oh boy. Ridiculous. Do you want to give us details about your nightmare? Yeah, I could give you some quick details. We moved into this house we bought and after being there a month we got a $5,000 water bill. Holy cow. Yeah, so that, you know, it set off a chain of phone calls for just months and months. I'm sure. That's not when you just kind of swallow hard and go through with it, right? Yeah. No, it was bad. They're not fun to deal with. No, did you finally get it knocked down? I'm not afraid to say that either. Okay. They're not fun people to deal with. Well, no, and you also have to think about it with the water company specifically or the water utility.

You have no competitor to go to. You can't just be like, oh yeah, I owe $5,000. How about this? I'm going to go to your competitor because they'll say we don't have one. Yeah. So good luck with that. You feel like you have no power. The power is all. Exactly. You know what this makes me want to do, man? Go turn on a faucet? No, it makes me want to just live off the grid, scrap it all, get the heck out of town, and shine public utilities all together. Okay, so I've heard of this. It's the back to earth movement generally. Yeah. Living off the grid. What is it? It's... Well, yeah, it's one name for it. Back to earth movement. It's basically people that want to take the solar energy and wind energy and conservation a step further and completely be not tied to

their power utilities and their water and their sewer gas. There is no need for the outside world because we are removed from it and apart from it and in our own universe. On the new podcast, The Turning, Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balanchine. There are not very many of us that actually grew up with Balanchine. It was like I grew up with Mozart. He could do no wrong. Like, he was a god. But what was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets to life? Were the lines between the professional and the personal or hazy and often crossed? He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you. Only

I can see you. Most people in the ballet world are more interested in their experience of watching it than in a dancer's experience of executing it. Listen to The Turning, Room of Mirrors on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy, number one, is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely

insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. Cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to The War on Drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So Chuck, I'm pretty excited about this prospect of, you know, not having a power bill anymore, clearly, right, or a water bill. And I'm quite sure other people are, maybe even some of our listeners, when we talk a little bit about living off the grid, because it's not it's pretty precise

actually that has a very, a very precise definition of what it entails, right? And they're starting, starting usually with electricity. Yeah, there's a plan. It's not, you just don't go into it all willy nilly. Like what do I do? I want to be off the grid. I don't want to get a bill anymore. No, that's not how it works. What happens is there's a few major bills, you know, cutting your phone is easy. Because if you just decide you don't want to live with the phone, you cut your phone off. Yeah. Same deal. Yeah. Have you ever actually lived without cable TV? Yeah. Yeah, it's quite odd, isn't it? It takes a little, a little getting used to and then all of a sudden you find reading and having conversations. I did too. I went without cable for a couple of years

and yeah, same thing happened. I didn't miss it after a little while at all. So it takes a little getting used to, huh? Yeah, but eventually I did cable is not all it's cracked up to be, although I do love my reality TV. So that might be a little heart and I'm just kidding. Brett and Michael's Rock of Love. Sorry. Yeah, the grid, basically you refer to the power grid. So you're talking about power, water, your major utilities are the ones that you're really going to have to work to get around if you want to cut those off. Yeah. And you know, the obvious answer for power is solar power. It's obvious, but it's also fairly expensive, isn't it? I mean, this is, this is kind of a financial obligation one is making here to stay off the grid. Yeah, it's one

of those deals where it's you pay some up front, but in the long run, it pays itself off and then you're making money basically. Yeah, there was a, I wrote an article once where I came across this company called Sunpower. They're out of California. They make these things called sun tiles and they're actually roof shingles that that are individual solar cells and they look just like roof shingles or just as durable as roof shingles, but they actually connect to a power grid on your roof. That's a cool idea. And apparently they provide or they convert like 50% more electricity or convert solar power into 50% more electricity than a traditional solar cell. Really? Yeah. So I mean, I don't know how expensive they are, how much mass production they're in yet, but

it seems like a pretty good idea to me. That's a great idea. Yeah. And wind power is another awesome idea. A lot of people are getting their energy from the wind and it's kind of the same concept at work, except the wind blows a turbine instead of collecting energy from the sun and that produces energy that's converted to usable energy. And a lot of people are kind of hooking these things. You don't need batteries. They're hooking these things into the grid, but you're technically not off the grid then, right? Well, yeah, there's a couple of ways here. If you're, if you have solar power and that's pretty much all you have going on, it's stored, the energy you create is stored by the power company. Right. And this is actually

kind of cool. And not, I don't think many people know this. If you create more power than you're using and you're still hooked up to the power system, you get a check from them every month, buddy, instead of having to write a check. Yeah. How cool is that? That'd be very cool. If Georgia Power sent you a check for like a hundred bucks every month. Oh, it'd be nice. It'd be great. But at the same time, you'd still be, you're still on the grid. On the grid. Yeah. If you want to completely cut ties, that means you need to store the power yourself. And you do that. Like, you know, most people have like a shed or a garage and just a huge supply of batteries all hooked together. Basically, it's, it's really a pretty simple system. And how do they,

how is the electricity stored in the batteries as like DC, right? And then there's like a converter. Right. Well, an inverter. Oh, an inverter. Yeah. And it converts the DC to AC, which is what you can use in your house. Hey, so quick fact about AC and DC, not the band, but the actual electricity. Right. When you're being electrocuted, or actually, if you see someone being electrocuted, you can tell whether they're being electrocuted by a direct current or an alternating current. Do you know how? I can't wait to hear this. With a direct current, you're frozen in place because your, your muscles are seized up. Right. And it's just electricity running through you with an alternating current. You'd be shaking

from the, the spasms and contractions and your muscles spasming and relaxing. Right. Over and over again as the current alternates. Wow. Yeah. I would say that's the complete opposite of living off the grid is dying. Dying on the grid. Yeah. On the grid. Nice. It's good though. I like that. You're welcome. All right. So we've covered your, your power. Then there's water. You got to get your water somehow. And you do that through, you can have a well or you can have a cistern system. Cistern is basically like a slightly more sophisticated system of rain barrels, right? Inclusive pump and tying into the plumbing in your house where rain barrel might just have a spigot. Yeah. It's basically just a big, big water collector. And a lot of people,

you can have them under your driveway. It's just a, like a big cement tank. Yeah. Not always cement. They can be plastic too, but it runs off of your roof. Yeah. It runs off your roof. And the, I wonder if the sun tiles are good for allowing water to run down them and collecting them. Because I know you said in the article that you just regular tile shingles. Right. Not, not that good. Because you get all the little, little crystals in there. Yeah, exactly. You don't want your asphalt. I think it's made out of asphalt. Yeah. And tar. Yeah. Yeah. You don't want that. No. I think they talked about clay shingles and stuff like that. And metal, metal shingles, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, so you got water. Most people who are living off the grid

as far as water goes have a well though, right? Like 15 million Americans have a well. Yeah. That's, that's the number. And wells aren't cheap. Like three grand to 15 grand, depending on how deep you have to go. And the deeper you have to go, the more expensive and it's cleaner water though, better water. Yeah. Cause you're hitting like an aquifer or something, right? Yeah. Groundwater basically. Okay. But what do you do with your waste? I mean, you get a septic system, right? Yeah. Okay. And a lot of people have septic systems as it is. A lot of people are on septic and well and might not realize that they're partially living off the grid right now. Yeah. Exactly. They just don't live like in the city. Right. Right. They moved into the trailer or the house

that had the septic tank. But I guess the question is, the question that was on my mind until I figured the answer out was, is it a good idea to have a septic, a septic system, which uses a leech field, which is basically the waste just goes into the soil. Right. And a well. Isn't that like the ultimate in recycling where you're like drinking your own waste over and over again? You know, that's a good question. Did you find an answer? Yeah. It's actually okay. And I think that is kind of what's happening to a degree. But the soil acts as a natural filter. Right. Again, you know, the microbes, all these things in the soil that eat all the waste products and basically all that's left is purified drinking water. Right. So really green grass. Exactly. Yeah. Apparently,

if you have the septic system and it goes on your yard, it's like incredibly rich soil. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Cool. So then you can grow your own. That's part of the living off the grid thing, too, is a lot of these people on the back to the earth movement, they grow their own crops. So that eliminates the need for the refrigerator. And another big thing if you want to be off grid is your, your garbage pickup. Not many people think about that. So if you're growing your own, if you have chickens and you're getting your eggs from your chickens and you're growing your own vegetables, you're not dealing with egg crates and or if you're milking your own cows, you're not dealing with milk containers and just a lot less waste is produced. So is that an essential

aspect to living off the grid? No garbage collection? Yeah. I mean, if you really want to be completely off grid, then you're going to have to get rid of your, your waste pickup. But the people that are into it can recycle enough and limit their waste and compost enough to where they say they can limit to like a bag of garbage a month. There is no need for the outside world because we are removed from it and apart from it and in our own universe. On the new podcast, The Turning Room of Mirrors, we look beneath the delicate veneer of American ballet and the culture formed by its most influential figure, George Balanchine. There are not very many of us that actually grew up with Balanchine. It was like I grew up with Mozart. He could do no wrong. Like

he was a god. But what was the cost for the dancers who brought these ballets to life? Were the lines between the professional and the personal were hazy and often crossed? He used to say, what are you looking at, dear? You can't see you, only I can see you. Most people in the ballet world are more interested in their experience of watching it than in a dancer's experience of executing it. Listen to The Turning Room of Mirrors on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The war on drugs impacts everyone. Whether or not you take to America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute

2,200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And I learned something new. I didn't realize that you could

compost animal waste or byproducts like chicken skin or something like that. I thought it putrified and that's not what you're supposed to do with compost. That was just supposed to be plant matter. But I looked it up and found out that you can and you have to turn your compost a lot more. It can't just be a pile that you throw stuff on to or else all of a sudden you do have rats and that kind of thing. It's thanks to high heaven. Yeah, that's cool. There's all kinds of things you can compost. If you go to websites about composting, it's pretty cool to look into. So Chuck, tell me. I realize a lot of people are doing it because they want to get away from the power bill or maybe they're getting back to earth. But is this like a trend you're seeing?

Maybe not complete living off the grid, but at least partial living off the grid. Well, I mean, I lived in Los Angeles before I came back here to Atlanta and it's a lot bigger in LA if not completely off the grid. Solar and wind power and cistern systems. Really? Yeah. So people trying to augment and not pay as much I think. Okay. Were you doing that? No. Okay. But I collect rainwater now. Yeah. And out of your AC unit, right? Yeah. And my air conditioner is water. And we use that to water plants mainly just because we're under a watering ban and we don't want everything to die essentially. But the final one that we need to cover,

I guess, is gas. If you get your propane, you'd have to switch to propane, sorry. Right. Yeah. Natural gas has to be piped in through the grid. Right. But you can just have a big old truck come and fill up your propane tank. Yeah. There were some other backup power supplies like electric generators that run on biodiesel. Yeah. That's pretty cool. That's to augment. Like if you are off grid and it's like nuts, it's overcast for like a week straight or rainy, you might not be getting the energy needs. So most of these people have like backup systems to help them out. And those steps that seem, you know, minute and almost useless to people like us on the

grid. Like, you know, if you make sure your windows are sealed and caulked properly, you can save a hundred bucks and you're like, who cares about a hundred bucks over a year? But really electricity is so cheap that that hundred bucks equals a lot of electricity. Right. Right. So I imagine that if you're living off the grid, it's best to take steps to seal your home's envelope or, you know, use passive solar construction, which is the placement of trees to kind of keep your house. Trees and what color you paint your house and where the windows are placed. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people do that because then you won't need your lights as much. You have more natural light and the way they have it set up with the windows is you open

some during certain parts of the year and others in other parts of the year and it encourages either cool air or warm air to flow through. And I know that a lot of these folks when these hippies, when, when it doesn't rain for a long time, you know, they'll like take really quick showers or not shower or, you know, not flush the toilet. If it's yellow, let it mellow. Yeah. And they'll do like just conservation techniques like that to help. You know, water's the next oil. These people are going to be down with it when, when the, when the grid goes down. Yeah. It might be nice. I'd love to not get bills. I'm with you. That'd be great. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, before you cut off your garbage service, first go on

at howstuffworks.com and read how living off the grid works by Charles W. Wright. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you Bridgewater, the hit fiction podcast is back. A supernatural thriller presented in immersive 3D binaural audio. The Bridgewater Triangle. There is some kind of mystical force in this region that attracts monsters and paranormal activity. There's something beyond our understanding going on here. Starring Supernatural's Misha Collins, The Walking Dead's Melissa Ponzi and Rogue One's

Alan Tudyk written by Lauren Shippen and created by me, Erin Mankey. Listen to Bridgewater on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Attention Bachelor Nation. He's back. The host of some of America's most dramatic TV moments returns with the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison. During two decades in reality TV, Chris saw it all and now he's telling all. It's going to be difficult at times. It'll be funny. We'll push the envelope. We have a lot to talk about. Listen to the most dramatic podcast ever with Chris Harrison on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.