Conservation: One of the Reasons I Want to Live Off-Grid 💡

Imagine if a buffet restaurant opened up in town. There was no fixed price for the meal but each scoop of food was a fixed price – 25 cents a scoop. Didn’t matter if it was steak or peas, it was a fixed price. A big guy could easily be filled up and then some for $10. Sounds like a a great deal? Well except if you are a very careful counter you might not know what your bill is at the end of the night. Plus the food is cheap and no discount for eating healthy so you would get fat after eating there a lot.

In many ways that’s how life in cities connected to the utility grid is a lot like. You get your electric bill, you pay it and while you might take steps to monitor your consumption and reduce your use its really hard when so much cheap energy is available at your house.

The flip side is an off grid homestead where you are making a lot of your energy using natural forces, where you have physical limitations on storage and consumption. Even off source energy like propane and gasoline are bought by the gallon, you can physically see and feel the materials being consumed and have a much more direct connection on your energy consumption. Likewise, if you lack a well and rely on water brought on site in a 250 gallon or 500 gallon tank you much more likely to take shorter showers and use more paper plates.