How to Live Off-Grid: Journeys Outside the System - Tapa blanda

Literally, the word 'off-grid' refers to places or people without mains water or power . Off-grid locations can range from private islands to yurts and tree-houses; the people living there might be back-packers, right wing survivalists, international business travellers or hippies; they may move around in buses or yachts, houseboats or 4-wheel drives. All are outside or in between the criss-crossing lines of power, water and phone that delineate the civilized world. Some are trying to save the planet, some live that way because it is all they can afford, some just want the freedom. This book is about that physical sense of off-grid. But it is also about taking the off-grid attitude into your local park or your own back garden. It is part travellogue as Nick Rosen, his wife and baby take off in a camper van to visit off-gridders representing every aspect of living off-grid, both part-time or permanent. And it is also a guide to avoiding the pitfalls and finding the best solutions - and the most appealing gadgetry - for going off-grid yourself.

Off-grid: a place, building or person without mains or power. Static or mobile - in a house or a hut, a boat or a camper van - it's all about loosening the ties that bind us to the familiar world of commuting, mortgages, no time, fast food, in order to find our own space and rediscover the joys of the natural world. Complete with camper van, Nick sets off around the UK to find off-grid heaven and meet people who are living the dream. Along the way he runs into backpackers and businessmen, radical hermits and right-wing survivalists - and plenty of working-parent families too. Some off-gridders want to save the world, some live that way because it is all they can afford, and some just want to be free. Sincere but irreverent, this is Nick's guide to avoiding pitfalls, to finding solutions (and to some brilliant gadgets) as he strives to perfect the skills of this practical, freewheeling kind of self-sufficiency.