What’s it like to live in an off the grid straw bale house, use solar power, grow your own food, and collect rainfall from your roof? What if your father was a famous actor turned green activist? Nick News documents the lives of kids living alternative, ecological lifestyles in their new A Kid Off The Grid television program. The show features three kids’ stories from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in northeastern Missouri, a sustainable off the grid community, and that of Hayden Begley, daughter of Ed Begley Jr., the popular environmental celebrity.

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But being green has definitely gone mainstream, and from celebs like Julia Louis-Dreyfus with her lavish, multi-million dollar solar-powered home, to Pierce Brosnan, aptly named the ‘Best Dressed Environmentalist’ by the Sustainable Style Foundation, the stereotype of the gritty, unkempt nature wanderer that once dominated the category no longer applies.

Recently, MSN posted a list of the ‘Top 14 Green Celebrities,’ which contained some long-time environmental advocates and a few surprising new additions, all echoing a commitment to championing this important cause through various initiatives like Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary film about global warming, the 11th Hour, featuring interviews with green leaders and a companion website where everyone can sign up to take action in their local communities, and George Clooney’s Oil Change, a campaign aimed at ending America’s independence on oil.  

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According to Braden

I don’t want to be conveyed as a hippie. I want to get the message to the mainstream. People need to know that in fact there is a great solution sitting right in front of us.

At the heart of the house’s ability to be energy efficient and furnace free, is its design: using a combination of south-facing windows and extensive insulation, heat loss is near-negligible due to the design being almost airtight.

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Hi. I’m Brian, a new writer here at Planetsave. For the past eighteen months, I have been living off-the-grid at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, a rural intentional community located in northeastern Missouri.

Dancing Rabbit is a community composed of 45 individuals dedicated to sustainable living and creating cultural change. Renewable energy from solar panels and wind turbines powers the entire village, which is made up of natural buildings constructed using earthen (such as straw bale and cob) and reclaimed materials. All drinking and cleaning water is collected using rain catchment systems, and three biodiesel-fueled vehicles provide the entire group with transportation needs. Much of our food is grown in our organic gardens.

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ON
The Fridge: We all know what it does and why we use it–so what are the OFF the grid alternatives?

OFF
The Fridge: William “The Refrigerator” Perry, former defensive lineman for my beloved 1985 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears. You could try contacting him to see if he’ll deliver fresh food to your door on a daily basis. I understand he’s not very busy these days.

OFF
Jarring and canning fruits and vegetables to preserve for the winter months may save some space in the fridge, but cannot replace the fridge altogether.

SWITCH?
Realistically, it’s not likely. However, the size of refrigerators in this country is insane. My parents have an enormous fridge and regularly come across 3 year old cheeses and meats that get lost under piles of their newer/fresher replacements. In lieu of a switch to William Perry (we can’t all use him–it’s simply unrealistic) we can buy a smaller, energy efficient fridge, fill it with less food (eat fresher food), and keep the door open for very short intervals (know what you’re getting before you open it). A few generations back, families typically had more members yet much smaller fridges, so it can be done–and you’ll benefit from fresher fare.

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Walk the Green Talk!

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian pyschologist who believed that knowledge is socially constructed and culturally transmitted. For toddlers and preschoolers, this means that modeling green choices, as well as using language to interact with children around eco ideals, is the most effective way to inspire them. For example, my children are delighted to have their own reusable shopping bags. Inspired by the book My Bag and Me!, I got my children their own bags, which they proudly carry into the store. My three-year-0ld son puts his favorite foods in his bag at the health food store. Children will imitate what they see the adults around them doing, and given the proper tools, they can assimilate this knowledge into their own lives. On more than one occasion I’ve been accused of “walking the talk”, and it definitely pays off when my children evaluate their own lives and choices using our green family values.

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Use One Heavy Power Load at a Time

15 years ago, my power system consisted of one solar panel, one golf cart battery, one DC light, and one DC car stereo. Today, I live in a modern off-the-grid home complete with many large energy-using electrical appliances, such as a washing machine, air conditioner, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, dishwasher, and baseboard heaters. Using these appliances off the grid is only possible by limiting their usage to one at a time, with the exception of the refrigerator (which remains on 24 hours a day). Unlike grid-connected homes, where it is common to see multiple large loads running simultaneously, most people living off the grid cannot run their washing machine while vacuuming, their heaters while washing dishes, etc. Alternative home energy systems are limited to the amount of power stored in the battery bank and what is being currently produced via wind, water, and/or sun for available power.

By only using one large power appliance at a time, these systems can keep up with home power demands. What if grid power users followed a similar model of power usage? What if people only used one large power draw at a time, thus using less power for longer periods of time, rather than using a lot of power over a shorter duration? Living in California, we are constantly reminded of rolling blackouts during peak power usage months. The "Flex Your Power" campaign advises grid users to wait until after 7:00pm, when there is less demand on the grid, to do laundry, wash dishes, etc. They call this "using appliances wisely." If everyone used heavy power loads with caution, perhaps our power grid would be less strained and function at a smaller energy producing capacity.

Monitor Your Meter

One prominent feature in every off the grid home is a meter within the living quarters. These meters often measure amps and volts, and allow the user to know how much power is available to them, and how much power is being used at any given moment. Gazing often at this meter becomes a part of life off the grid. As Dale Kittleson, interviewed on PBS NOW, said, "First thing in the morning, come down the stairs, look out the window, see if the sun is shining, look at the meter and see how far the batteries are from full." I look at my meter first thing in the morning, while using heavy power-using appliances, before I go to bed, etc. How often does someone living on the grid look at his or her meter? I would think that if people could see their meter spinning rapidly during high power usage in their home, they would use electricity more wisely. What if grid-connected houses’ meters were in the living quarters? Having the meter in a convenient location makes monitoring energy usage easy. No one wants to go outside in the rain or snow and gaze at his or her meter 10 times a day!

Kill the Phantoms

This sounds like good Halloween advice: Kill the phantoms! Electrical devices draw phantom loads when they are "off." TVs, computers, printers, etc. draw small loads of power when shut down, and these phantom loads add up. Every person I know living off the grid uses electrical outlet strips for phantom loads. They may not turn them off all of the time, but when the batteries are low, the phantoms are removed from their power source by flipping the power strip switch. If US grid homes turned off their phantom loads, it is estimated that a billion dollars would be saved on energy bills and enough power would be conserved to power Vietnam, Peru, and Greece!

These three simple ideas from living off the grid could help Americans use power more wisely. By using one heavy electrical load at a time, monitoring your meter, and killing phantom loads, grid users can learn from the over 200,000 US homes off the grid how to be more energy efficient. Sometimes, changing a light bulb just isn’t enough.