Friday, May 20, 2011

Two Distinct Lifestyles Seperated by a Common Terminology

Living off grid means very different things to different people.

Some people consider living off-grid only as living away from electric utility power.

Other people do not consider it as living off-grid unless all connection with modern conveniences and municipal services are broken. I have even heard someone calling any kind of financial banking as being a grid.  Does this mean you are not truly off grid unless you revert to a barter system and no longer use money?

Propane use is considered as being on-grid, as does having municipal water or sewers or even paved roads.

Ironically, this group does not seem to consider use of solar power as being a form of grid use. This completely ignores the fact  solar panel are very  high tech and relies  on a complex manufacturing process that is  very dependent on many grid services.

The NIMBYS have assuaged their conscience by shifting toxic manufacturing off shore to third world countries where people are more concerned with daily survival than long term environmental protection.

The process of making solar panels involves a lot of technical steps  requiring the use of toxic  chemicals and sophisticated  silicon crystal growing ovens  costing millions of $$$ to fabricate. This is not some little cottage industry with any impact on the environment.



The manufacture of batteries to store the solar energy collected during the day involves use of much toxic material such as lead and sulphuric acid.  Charge controllers and inverters add to the collection of highly sophisticated devices only a very grid dependent manufacturing complex could produce. Clearly the technology that many people rely on to enable them going ‘off-grid’ is anything but off-grid itself. The industry that develops and sustains this technology could not exist if it had to be off grid.



The other common perspective is that you are off-grid as long as you are not connected to any kind of municipal power grid.  The people  in this category  readily accept  the need for and use of other  so called ‘grids’ such as  a road network for transportation, propane for  cooking and petroleum fuel for a back up generator.



The reality is, both groups rely on modern electronics for everything from communications via the internet to LED lighting to some form of fuel to drive their vehicles on public roads. Try finding a non-electric gasoline fuel station that doesn’t have a digital display showing how much fuel is pumped into your vehicle...

Even those who claim to live the simple rustic life where they chop their own firewood do not escape some reliance on electrical power. The steel blade in their saws and axes came from electric furnaces used to produce good quality steel.  If they use a cast iron stove, the cast iron may come from a coke fuelled melting pot but all of the processing after the iron is poured out relies heavily on electricity.

So we have a dichotomy. Living off grid still depends a great deal on grid electricity.

The only escape would be to revert to agriculture based subsistence totally devoid of technology. Even the Amish and old Order Mennonites do not take it so far. They rely on kerosene lanterns, forged farm implements and accessories often made in   factories dependent on grid power.

Even the kerosene is a petroleum distillate derived from what detractors call fossil fuel.  The glass in the preserving jars and the windows is formed in electricity driven factories.  So just how off-grid is that?



The other faction that subscribes  to the  concept that off-grid only refers to not being  connected  to a municipal  power supply  uses all the technology  they can, in order to reduce energy consumption and  in general  try to live as green as possible  by making use of  the latest  technology.

This faction is likely to have satellite TV and internet connectivity. If they have a job, it may even be a telecommuting job so they do not contribute a carbon foot print by commuting in a car.   Because they are plugged in to global communications they are more likely to be aware of developing trends and global social development.



The reality is both factions are dependent on a grid based high tech industrial base.  It is hypocrisy to disdain any forms of municipal structure as grid and therefore to be avoided.

Permaculture is the new buzz word embraced by the promoters of sustainability life style. I am bemused because these principles are exactly the same as what my grandfather was following, except he did not have a buzz word and counterculture gurus to guide him. He just did it because he was using common sense.

I am not saying ‘permaculture’ is bad or old fashioned. I am just surprised it required renaming things as if it was something newly invented by the latest generation...



There is a caution however.  Living in an agricultural mode that is pre industrial is  to  adopt a way of life  where infant  mortality is the norm and if  children survive to adulthood this life is likely to be short because of the brutal living conditions needed to eke out a subsistence living.



The minute you begin to rely on any sort of manufactured products such as knives axes and plow shares you start the movement towards grids.

The old saying beating swords into plowshares speak to more than simply a philosophical   trend.  It is indicative that metal resources were scarce and there was just enough metal around to supply either swords (weapons) or plowshares (peaceful tools) but not necessarily enough for both.

The industrial age led to technical developments that allowed greater production of metal because deeper mines could now produce more metal and engineers invented new machines able to produce new products made from the more abundant metals.



A cast iron axe does not work. It is too brittle and shatters. Steel was difficult and expensive to make until the advent of electric furnaces.  Sheet tin was almost unheard of before the development of rolling mills.  Rolling mills use big electric motors to run. Tin and sheet steel facilitated the production of low cost consumer goods like kerosene lamps.

Without sheet metal it is questionable how many low cost consumer goods would have been produced.   All of this industrialization would not have been as rapid or even possible without reliance on the various grids the PC purists who eschew any and all forms of grids.



In terms of living green; which mode is greener?  There is the back to the lender (err) who hand cuts trees for a primitive log cabin in the woods. Heating and cooking is done with a wood burning fire. Remember a cast iron stove is not allowed by definition of total abstinence of any grid whatsoever.  You could build a fireplace using river stones

Light has to be with home made candles.

Food production will be mostly traditional because anything else relies in some way on grid reliant industrial manufacturing. 

Transportation is by animal or animal drawn wagons or by foot. This places a limitation on mobility and range of social community interaction





The other choice is the high tech off-gridder who only disconnects from the utility power grid. However he uses LED lighting produced in a grid dependent factory and is powered by solar panels produced in another grid dependent factory.  The high tech   off-gridder may have a telecommuting job or commute to work in a modern hybrid vehicle that uses the least a mount of fuel resources.



The high tech off-gridder is fully connected and quite often keeps abreast of new developments that would allow them to enhance their lifestyle.  



They heat their home using one of several options. Wood stoves using catalytic converters or wood gasification to produce zero visible particulates and have non visible emissions that fall within the EPA guidelines.  If they garden to grow some of their own food they conserve water using new drip irrigation technique. They may even water these crops using only captured rain or recycled grey water.  The food will likely be clean organic because their internet connections bringing them news letters explaining these developments and how to implement them at home.



For the majority of people a compromise somewhere in between is most likely to be acceptable.  The point being these politically correct  people who insist on redefining  the term ‘off-grid’ to include all sort of  things  that was never envisioned  by the first electrical engineers who coined the word  should be careful because if you take their  definitions to the ultimate  logical conclusion will find themselves  in a linguistic  corner they cannot get out of..

I subscribe to the meaning ‘off-grid’ only means being not connected to the power grid.



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