Working with Nature and Living off the Grid

We have a 5kw solar system, which comprises 20 solar panels, 24 storage batteries with an 1100 amp hours storage capacity. Powered by the sun, this provides sufficient energy for both our home and the studio.

Generally it’s a seamless process, although we ask our guests to be mindful in their use of electricity, particularly on wet or cloudy days. Anything that requires instant heat like a kettle, toaster or hair dryer draws more power. 

We rely on Mother Nature to fill our rainwater tanks, which she has dutifully done over the last nine years. Our gardens are designed more for a dry, Mediterranean climate, which enables the plants to survive with very little water once they become established. We can also access water via a gravity-fed pipeline from a nearby creek, which is used on the hottest summer days in the garden, although it normally dries up around early February.

We are fortunate enough to live in a home where the temperature is always comfortable, We have no electricity bills and only pay a service fee for water (which we don’t use), because TasWater insists we do so – apparently in case we ever want to hook back into their facility…I don’t think so!

So why did we decide to do this in the first place? Some reasons were quite practical – we’d both lived in cold houses previously that took a lot of heating and in doing so, consumed a lot of energy. Other reasons, which have become increasingly important to us over the years, were about how we wanted to live in a world of climate change, where energy demands – and now costs, are generally spiralling out of control.