just had my73 birthday and i get such a laugh out of these so called off gridders with their solar and wind generators why when i grew up in fla. near the salt marshes we had no such things we had a wood stove to cook on a hand pump for water then a 50 yard dash outhouse.we grew all our veggies and hunted and trapped for our meat even with dad in army money didn't go far so if we didn't have it we did without so that's why i laugh when i see these so called off gridders if they had to live like i did growing up they would run back to the city's
Personally, I've had nothing and it was very difficult. Lights are an important asset to survival, if you injure your self dealing with some problem during the night you have become even more vulnerable. A single person can monitor several cameras at one time in the safety of an office, where as sentries posted are sitting ducks. Which do you want to be? If you had radar it would be possible to anticipate an incoming threat, and met them at the gate or further out, thus reducing their intell on your location. Survival is all about not risking life. Technology may diminish or time if no one bothers to learn what makes things work, further more, those with advanced knowledge and the technology will have an advantage over those that cripple them selves with ignorance. You must agree that some one with medical training has an advantage over some one ignorant of such skills.
When planning for or resorting to off-grid living one should always consider the distinction between what is survivable and what is comfortable, and know when comfort becomes a matter of survival. One can survive in the bush without a roof to keep the rain off, but a roof is a lot more comfortable. The comfort of a good roof (snug dwelling) can often be an important survival asset. Sleeping warm and dry lets you make the most of the next day, rather than just stumbling around like a zombie. Discomfort can be a real energy thief, and a constant drain of productivity. Shoes are a another good example. If you can't walk comfortably you won't walk much. Or fast. Or far. I find it difficult to understand why making survival footgear is not considered a skill almost as important as making fire. And why some people go camping in flip-flops. I watched a YouTube video of a guy who decided to live for a year alone in the woods. He unloads his backpack and sets up camp. Then he starts cooking a meal over a fire set in a ring of rocks. It was a real clown show. Very entertaining. A small fire grid would have saved him a lot of time and trouble from Day One. Being made of steel, that's something he won't be whipping up in the bush. And a lack he'll have to compensate for at every meal. Depending of course on climate, a person can live off-grid/in the bush with no more than the Seminole Indians had over a hundred years ago. They didn't have steel fire-grids. Wanting a flat-screen TV can really complicate the basic problem of off-grid survival. Thinking it necessary can scuttle the whole idea. I guess one has to adjust their expectations to accommodate their realities of their new lifestyle.
I grew up roughing it in the woods of Mississippi with an outhouse, garden, no running water and a wood stove. Now we live off grid but we have all the modern conveniences plus. I know I could survive in a tent if push came to shove but until then I will enjoy my off-grid Air Conditioning.
Yeah and you can bet your ass that if the tech had been there, everyone would have used it. I remember getting an indoors bathroom with a flush toilet at my grandparents farm. I remember getting a party-line and our first color television. If it was so great, you'd still be using a chamber pot, but going off-grid usually starts with an outhouse, woodstove, hand pump and you do what you can to make it easier: a pipe from the spring to the kitchen, a septic tank, why should you use candle-light to read when an led will light the whole room and you can recharge the batteries by sunlight?
