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off-grid – Page 2 – Homesteader Depot

Homesteader Depot

Tag: off-grid

  • 3 DIY Solar Projects for Your Homestead

    3 DIY Solar Projects for Your Homestead

    The sun is an amazing source of energy, and it is entirely renewable and free. Unfortunately, most people think of solar energy as costly and complicated.

    You don’t need to break the bank and spend a fortune on fancy, on-grid solar panels to harness the power of the sun!

    First of all, we use the sun’s energy daily. Our garden thrives on it, our grazing animals live on solar-powered food (grass!), even our chickens harness the sun’s amazing power to produce eggs! Pastured meat, dairy, and eggs are actually one of the best ways to harness the power of the sun, and you probably didn’t even realize you were doing that every time you consume your own or buy grass fed meat, dairy or eggs. Pretty cool, huh?

    Of course, all the pastured animal byproducts in the world won’t necessarily be able to replace fossil fuels around the house (or could they? Hmmm…), so how can you cut the cost of installing and operating solar by setting it up yourself?

    Well, we set out to find some ways for you to DIY your own solar set-ups, and found three awesome video tutorials for easy, cheap solar power systems that you can use to power and heat your home. Check them out:

    DIY Solar Thermal Water Heater 

    This very cool, simple, and totally effective homemade solar water heater from off-grid solar project aficionado and YouTuber Desertsun02 is perfect for low-tech homesteads or camping/survival preparedness. Using some basic carpentry skills, copper tubing, and the mighty power of the sun, you can easily get and sustain nice, hot water for bathing. If you’ve ever had an electric water heater in your home, you’re probably fantasizing about the costs cut by heating bathing water with the sun! Very cool:

    DIY Solar Panel System: Small Affordable Setup 

    This is a very easy and simple solar system for those who don’t want to go full solar, but would like to have a back-up system to save a little money or be prepared for power failures or when SHTF. Homesteader and YouTuber Starry Hilder walks us through purchasing the components for, and setting up, a simple, affordable solar system, demystifying the process and offering reassurance that it really isn’t as complicated, expensive, or difficult as it seems at first. Great intro to DIY solar energy systems.

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    DIY Solar Furnace for Under $50

    This one seems almost too simple and easy to be true. For less than $50, this video shows you how to build and set up your own incredibly easy solar furnace. Can you imagine actually heating your house with solar power? How cool is that? This video has well over a million views on YouTube, so I think this guy is definitely on to something. Check it out:

    We love DIY almost as much as we love solar power, and it is really inspiring and cool to check out some of these impressive and affordable home projects for solar power. Give us a shout if you see some more cheap, easy DIY solar projects and we’ll try to feature them in a future article.

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  • Off-Grid Cabin Security (Video)

    Off-Grid Cabin Security (Video)

    When you live out in the country, it might seem safer than an urban environment, and in many ways, it definitely is. Those low crime rates aren’t misleading; way less people means way less crime.

    That being said, there’s still a risk of your property being vandalized or stolen if you aren’t at home, especially if you live far away from other houses.

    They say locks are to keep honest people out, and if you don’t feel safe simply locking your gate and front door, you probably want to take additional measures to secure your homestead when you’re not there.

    Off Grid Nation is a great YouTube channel that has all things survival homestead related, and he gets asked a lot about the security of his off-grid cabin on an isolated property.

    In this video, he shares his many clever security systems he’s put in place to keep people out of his stuff when he’s gone. It will definitely give you some good ideas on how to fortify your own homestead from even the most determined criminal. Check it out:

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  • Beer Keg Portable Hot Shower (Video)

    Beer Keg Portable Hot Shower (Video)

    When I lived completely off-grid, with no running water or electricity, one of the biggest challenges was a hot shower. Paloma hot water heaters were coveted in the community I lived in, but most off-grid tent-dwelling hippies like myself couldn’t afford them.

    We tried everything. Sun showers, leaving long black hoses out in the sun, boiling water and pouring it with just the right mix of cold water into a water container with a spigot. But a lot of these options had us often feeling like Goldilocks-nothing was every quite right.

    I saw this video on YouTube recently from the Homestead Prepper and I thought it was brilliant! I’m a big fan of anything that doesn’t require on-grid energy, i.e. electricity or propane (because propane has to be mined so it’s not always going to be a reliable source of energy for preppers).

    Check out this ingenious hot shower from the Homestead Prepper:

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  • Common Mistakes When Going Off-Grid

    Common Mistakes When Going Off-Grid

    Getting off-grid and energy independent is really appealing, but can also be pretty intimidating. It’s hard to know where to start when you’ve lived your whole life reliant upon a municipal grid, and as I wrote recently about homesteading in general, it’s OK to make mistakes.

    But, you can always learn from the mistakes of others! There are common mistakes a lot of people make when first getting off the grid, and here are some of those mistakes and how to avoid them.

    1. Aiming too high

    Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have goals and aim for the sky. However, when you’re thinking about going off the grid, don’t expect to have satellite TV, a dishwasher, run a crock pot, a video game console, curling iron, etc. all at once. When you get off-grid, you will have to scale down your life…drastically.

    2. Wasting energy

    This is obviously a broad category of mistakes, and there are many ways in which you can waste energy. Running a gas generator to watch a movie might be a good example, or using solar power to use a light during the day when natural light would work fine. You’ll need to conserve and constantly think about the most efficient way to use your resources.

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    3. Buying gimmicky products

    There are a ton of products out there to generate electricity off-grid, and some are really great, while others are probably a waste of your money. A lot of small solar products to charge small devices, for example, just straight don’t work unless there is direct sunlight on them for several hours at a time, so they could fail frequently. Do your research, read reviews, and again…

    4. Failure to Prioritize

    As mentioned in #1, you will need to take a cold, hard look at what you really need electricity for. We are accustomed to so many gadgets and gizmos these days, we don’t even think about how much we require electricity for the simplest of tasks. You will have to seriously reassess how much you really need an electric coffee maker or if you can make it in a percolator, if you really need a food processor or if you can mix things by hand, if you really need lights in every room or if you can use a lantern, etc.

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  • The Off-Grid Winter Pantry (Video)

    The Off-Grid Winter Pantry (Video)

    When most people think of living off-grid, there are usually two major challenges that come to mind: winter, and food storage. Well, this video shows us that with the right amount of supplies and planning, you don’t have to worry much about either!

    It is seriously one of my life goals to have a pantry like this one day. YouTubers and off-grid homesteaders An American Homestead shares their well-stocked winter pantry, with preserves made from their harvest for the year. Their viewers kept asking to see what they had, so they give us a tour of their impressive pantry, ready for winter. Enjoy!

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  • DIY $5 Funnel Solar Oven (Video)

    DIY $5 Funnel Solar Oven (Video)

    I love off-grid cooking of all kind, and a solar oven is something I’ve been wanting to make for a long time. I always thought that it was fairly expensive to make, but this guy made one for only $5. It’s amazing how much you can cook in one, and it is the most bare-bones type of off-grid, renewable energy out there.

    The design is super simple and dirt cheap. Using two reflective windshield sun visors, he creates a funnel to concentrate the heat onto the oven. Check it out! I might try this when the days get warmer.

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  • Tips for Living Without a Fridge

    Tips for Living Without a Fridge

    Refrigerators are one of the great wonders of modern science, and can greatly improve your quality of life. However, we’ve also grown so dependent on them, we don’t even know how to live without them anymore. Many people in the world still live without modern refrigeration, and it’s certainly not impossible.

    There are many reasons you might find yourself living without a refrigerator. If you are a new homesteader, just getting set up, you might be completely off-grid or not have the infrastructure yet on your homestead to power a full-sized refrigerator. You also might find yourself stuck in a long-term power outage, in which case some of the following tips might be useful to know.

    DIY Refrigeration

    There are a few different options for DIY refrigeration. Obviously, this isn’t the same as modern refrigeration, but there are some things you can create that will help keep foods cool. A root cellar is a great option if you can build one; you could even use a basement or simply bury a large cooler or even an old refrigerator or deep freezer. You could also build what’s called a zeer pot, which is essentially a pot inside of another pot, with sand in between and covered with a damp cloth.

    Change Your Thinking

    There are so many foods that we simply assume need to be kept in the refrigerator because that’s how we’ve always done it, but many foods can keep quite well at room temperature. Raw eggs that have never been refrigerated, for instance, can keep for up to a month. Butter can also be kept at room temperature, especially in an earthen or porcelain crock. Many kids of cheese will keep for at least a few days at room temperature, and almost all breads and baked goods will as well.

    Invest in Good Containers 

    The manner of storage will greatly improve the shelf life of your perishable foods. Airtight tins, mason jars, earthen crocks, cheesecloth, linen, are all great options for proper storage. For example, some produce like leafy greens can be stored in a jar with water like a bouquet of flowers, or wrapped in a linen napkin and kept in a cooler or large crock.

    Location, Location, Location

    Where you keep your food is just as important as how. Try to keep your perishables in a cool, dry, and dark place. Know the coolest, driest places in your kitchen or cellar, and organize your food accordingly.

    Preserve Using Other Methods

    Canning, drying, pickling and fermenting, and curing (as in meat) are all age-old methods of preserving food that are still used to this day around the world and are great alternatives to refrigeration.

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  • How to Build An Off-Grid Winter Cabin for $300 (Video)

    How to Build An Off-Grid Winter Cabin for $300 (Video)

    YouTubers and homesteaders Pure Living for Life shared this video last year on how they built an off-grid winter cabin for a few hundred dollars. They had been living in their RV on their property, but as temperatures started to drop they felt they needed something warmer and more secure, and a structure to put their wood stove in.

    What’s really cool about this structure is that they built it using reclaimed materials. They bartered for the materials in their local community, and as the leftover materials came in, they figured out how to build with what they had, which I think is just so inspiring and awesome. Check it out!

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