Our off-grid home. [Editor’s note: I first published this opinion piece in the National Observer, January 29, 2021. In terms of obtaining a mortgage for an off-grid home, nothing has changed in the last two years since I first wrote this article.) Leaving the grid isn’t as easy as packing a bag, moving to a piece of land, throwing up a couple of solar panels, and kicking back. Last March, as we began the process of buying an already built home that was off-grid in southwestern Nova Scotia, we didn’t anticipate the problem we’d encounter.
Fantastic article. My sister from Ontario is trying to live somewhat off grid in Little Pond PEI. A tiny 8x12 shed as the main cottage with dining area, kitchen and plumbing for a kitchen sink. An off grid modern outhouse with a modern Sunmar composting toilet. Bunkies (sheds) for sleeping. She has been running into numerous legal problems with the province over the the permits for such things. They keep giving her permission then revoking it. She was forced to put in a septic system for her bathroom. Composting toilet was allowed at first then they changed their mind. Forced to connect the bathroom to the “cottage. “ So major structural changes were needed. Is no longer allowed sleep in the bunkies (sheds) but tents are not an issue. So she sleeps in a sometimes leaky tent from Canadian Tire. It’s terrible.
When we went to buy raw land, we ran into the same problem. I'm still impressed that we pulled off, but it took a nightmarish 3 months to make it happen. It was one barrier after another. Bylaws and permitting are also not friendly to those of us who want to live life a bit differently. One example, in the district we'll be living in, they have a minimum dwelling square footage, which no one can account for. It was enacted in the 70s, and since then it's been kept because *shoulder shug ... They also require foundations (nothing moveable). My hope is things will change in the near-ish future. We live on a changing planet, and many of the old paradigms no longer make sense. If you're not going to be able to get fire insurance, doesn't it make sense to build a less permanent dwelling? Say a yurt? At least it should be a consideration. If we're seasonally affected by floods or wildfire, doesn't it make sense to allow dwellings that can be moved out of harm's way? Say a tiny house on wheels? Again, I say it warrants consideration. As we work towards moving to our forever home, my partner and I live off-grid in a small off-grid house. I won't get into the details, but we're not yet off fossil fuels. (We're working toward that goal for our forever home.) Even so, our consumption is far lower than it has ever been. We run a 1000 Watt generator, which is adequate for our needs 99.9% of the time. It only runs during the day when we need it. There is no ghost use, and we have very few appliances. That's not to say it's a perfect situation, but we're trying, and in these times, we need to start thinking about new (and sometimes it's old) ways of doing things, and our governments and banking systems need to catch up.
We have a similar problem in New Zealand. Our neighbours are currently selling their off-grid property. When they bought it, it was on grid, and they converted it to completely self-sufficient. The market was at a high as well, and interest rates low. Now, people who want to purchase it can't get a loan. Same story. And, it had two floods through the land in the last year, which has driven insurance premiums to a new record and making banks very nervous. I suspect they will be stuck with it for some time.
Much of this applies to purchasing "as is, where is" properties, especially here in NS. That's why a lot of them used to sit around unsold for many years. The house that I bought was on the market for a decade after the previous owner went into a LTC facility and her son inherited the property. Don and I kept seeing it on the realtor listings during the years when we were considering moving to NS. I ended up buying the place when I moved out here. Paid cash. I can't tell you how many people around here have told me they looked at this house but couldn't get any kind of financing to buy it, and/or, realized they couldn't afford to finance fixing it up out of their own pocket. A lot of these old houses are also very hard to insure which is why so many are uninsured. A lot of companies aren't interested in covering a house that is 200 years old and has plenty of skeletons in the closet. Sadly, all of this has probably resulted in the downfall (or falling down) of many houses that could have been restored. I think more are being rescued recently as people from other provinces who have sold their properties and arrive with plenty of cash to buy and restore houses, so I guess that's one good thing to come of what is going on.
I hear you about reduction of environmental footprint when moving to off-grid. My old place here in NS was so basic when I arrived, that I was pretty much already living almost as though off-grid. A lot of these really old places are about the same. A few years ago, a friend and I built an off-grid cabin out on the desert in southeast Arizona. I spent the last 2 winters I stayed in AZ at the cabin - hauling in water, using 4 x 100 watt panels to run a small fridge and recharge our laptops and internet devices. We used propane to cook on a barbecue in an outdoor kitchen. All of the lighting was with LED lamps and a yard lamp running off small solar panels. We built a clay oven for baking bread. It was an okay way to live -- very rustic, but it's actually getting so much easier to do so with the various appliances and LED lighting, etc.. I continue to live a lot this way back here in NS even though I don't really need to. I feel it's good and right to try to live simply and not waste energy and other resources when it isn't actually necessary.
Fantastic article. My sister from Ontario is trying to live somewhat off grid in Little Pond PEI. A tiny 8x12 shed as the main cottage with dining area, kitchen and plumbing for a kitchen sink. An off grid modern outhouse with a modern Sunmar composting toilet. Bunkies (sheds) for sleeping. She has been running into numerous legal problems with the province over the the permits for such things. They keep giving her permission then revoking it. She was forced to put in a septic system for her bathroom. Composting toilet was allowed at first then they changed their mind. Forced to connect the bathroom to the “cottage. “ So major structural changes were needed. Is no longer allowed sleep in the bunkies (sheds) but tents are not an issue. So she sleeps in a sometimes leaky tent from Canadian Tire. It’s terrible.
When we went to buy raw land, we ran into the same problem. I'm still impressed that we pulled off, but it took a nightmarish 3 months to make it happen. It was one barrier after another. Bylaws and permitting are also not friendly to those of us who want to live life a bit differently. One example, in the district we'll be living in, they have a minimum dwelling square footage, which no one can account for. It was enacted in the 70s, and since then it's been kept because *shoulder shug ... They also require foundations (nothing moveable). My hope is things will change in the near-ish future. We live on a changing planet, and many of the old paradigms no longer make sense. If you're not going to be able to get fire insurance, doesn't it make sense to build a less permanent dwelling? Say a yurt? At least it should be a consideration. If we're seasonally affected by floods or wildfire, doesn't it make sense to allow dwellings that can be moved out of harm's way? Say a tiny house on wheels? Again, I say it warrants consideration. As we work towards moving to our forever home, my partner and I live off-grid in a small off-grid house. I won't get into the details, but we're not yet off fossil fuels. (We're working toward that goal for our forever home.) Even so, our consumption is far lower than it has ever been. We run a 1000 Watt generator, which is adequate for our needs 99.9% of the time. It only runs during the day when we need it. There is no ghost use, and we have very few appliances. That's not to say it's a perfect situation, but we're trying, and in these times, we need to start thinking about new (and sometimes it's old) ways of doing things, and our governments and banking systems need to catch up.
We have a similar problem in New Zealand. Our neighbours are currently selling their off-grid property. When they bought it, it was on grid, and they converted it to completely self-sufficient. The market was at a high as well, and interest rates low. Now, people who want to purchase it can't get a loan. Same story. And, it had two floods through the land in the last year, which has driven insurance premiums to a new record and making banks very nervous. I suspect they will be stuck with it for some time.
Much of this applies to purchasing "as is, where is" properties, especially here in NS. That's why a lot of them used to sit around unsold for many years. The house that I bought was on the market for a decade after the previous owner went into a LTC facility and her son inherited the property. Don and I kept seeing it on the realtor listings during the years when we were considering moving to NS. I ended up buying the place when I moved out here. Paid cash. I can't tell you how many people around here have told me they looked at this house but couldn't get any kind of financing to buy it, and/or, realized they couldn't afford to finance fixing it up out of their own pocket. A lot of these old houses are also very hard to insure which is why so many are uninsured. A lot of companies aren't interested in covering a house that is 200 years old and has plenty of skeletons in the closet. Sadly, all of this has probably resulted in the downfall (or falling down) of many houses that could have been restored. I think more are being rescued recently as people from other provinces who have sold their properties and arrive with plenty of cash to buy and restore houses, so I guess that's one good thing to come of what is going on.
I hear you about reduction of environmental footprint when moving to off-grid. My old place here in NS was so basic when I arrived, that I was pretty much already living almost as though off-grid. A lot of these really old places are about the same. A few years ago, a friend and I built an off-grid cabin out on the desert in southeast Arizona. I spent the last 2 winters I stayed in AZ at the cabin - hauling in water, using 4 x 100 watt panels to run a small fridge and recharge our laptops and internet devices. We used propane to cook on a barbecue in an outdoor kitchen. All of the lighting was with LED lamps and a yard lamp running off small solar panels. We built a clay oven for baking bread. It was an okay way to live -- very rustic, but it's actually getting so much easier to do so with the various appliances and LED lighting, etc.. I continue to live a lot this way back here in NS even though I don't really need to. I feel it's good and right to try to live simply and not waste energy and other resources when it isn't actually necessary.