How to Plan an Off Grid Home
There is a lot to think about when going off the grid or starting a new homestead from scratch.
While we had planned to live off the grid at some stage in the future, the nature of the property market in our area meant that it all happened a lot sooner than we thought! We very quickly came to realise that there was a lot more to consider than a few solar panels and a water tank.
Every site is different and the rules that apply to sites in different areas are even more varied but here are some of the key things that we had to consider and would recommend for others to look at prior to making significant plans for any new property.
site access
One of the first things you will probably notice about a site when you first arrive is the access. Getting onto the property from the road should be straightforward (although safe entry & exit is something to look out for on busy roads) but where to from there? Is there existing vehicle access to the house or building platform? What condition is it in?
In our case, the access is steep and was only really a grass track when we first arrived. Fine if the weather conditions are dry, also not too bad if you happen to own a 4wd. We didn’t.
If your property has a sealed access, fantastic. If it doesn’t, do not underestimate the cost of driveway upgrades or the impact of wet weather on your ability to safely access your property. The cost for us to upgrade our driveway to suit our 2wd cars would have been in excess of $20,000! We decided trading in our existing vehicles for 4wds was much more cost efficient. We also metalled our driveway to improve performance in the wet. Not cheap & also not bulletproof. It requires maintenance & good stormwater control, especially if your access is steep like ours.
Another thing to consider is not just access for your vehicles, but those of anyone likely to visit your property. Friends, family, tradespeople, courier vans – any assortment of vehicles may need to visit your property and your access needs to be planned accordingly.
building platform
If there isn’t an existing house on site, is there a legal building platform? This may seem straightforward & most of the time it is but it always pays to check, especially if the section you are looking at isn’t a brand new one.
Here in NZ the planning and building rules are constantly evolving. What may have been legal in the past, may not be anymore and it is up to you to find out.
In our case, the District Plan Rules (under the Resource Management Act) had changed between our parcel of land being subdivided and our subsequent purchase of the land. What had been a perfectly legal building platform no longer complied with required yard setbacks from neighbouring properties. Realistically, that gave us two choices:
a) Create a new, complying building platform. Since the site is pretty steep that would require extensive earthworks & probably retaining walls. Not a cheap exercise.
b) Try to get planning consent to build on the formed platform. We could try reasoning with Council since the platform was legal at the time of subdivision. Or easier still, we can get sign off from our neighbours that they really don’t mind our house being a bit closer to the boundary than it should be.
Geotechnical requirements for buildings has also changed over the last 10 years, especially in light of the Christchurch earthquake. Always check that your site has a geotechnical report completed for the area you want to build on. If in doubt, talk to the local Council or even better, the Geotechnical Engineer involved in the subdivision of your site.
water
One of the fundamental requirements of life and one that needs careful consideration, even if you have access to an existing supply.
The first question to ask is – where is your water going to come from? Do you have access to a mains supply? A bore on site? Are you going to collect rainwater?
Sometimes a combination of supplies might be the right answer. All have their advantages & disadvantages. For example, mains supply is easy but you have very little control over the quality & quantity of your water and may still be subject to water restrictions in the summer.
For us, mains supply was not an option and while there does appear to be a bore supply nearby that we have legal access to, we have opted to have tank water collected from our roof. There are two reasons for this:
- This gives us complete control over the quality of our water, how much we decide to store and where it comes from.
- There is far less infrastructure involved in getting the water from the source to our taps. This means less ongoing cost.
There are calculators available online (here is one from a local tank supplier) which can help figure out your water storage requirements. With a bit of background knowledge, we did some more detailed calculations. There are 3 key things you need to know:
- What is your daily water usage going to be?
- What is the average yearly rainfall in your area?
- What is the size of your collection area?
Depending on the resultant numbers, you may have plenty of water or you may have to increase your storage tank size or reduce you overall water usage.
Relying on rainwater also means water use needs to be considered carefully. Rainfall is not guaranteed and with climate change comes a significant amount of uncertainty in predicting future water availability. Low or no water use options are available for most household appliances these days and can be well worth the investment.
wastewater
Just like water supply, there are a couple of options in terms of off grid wastewater. The choice between them probably comes down to the applicable regulations in your area and how comfortable you are with a composting toilet!
For most people, a conventional flushing toilet connected to a septic tank is the obvious and sometimes the only viable choice. Many councils will not even consider allowing an alternative option. Luckily there are some septic tanks around that are more environmentally friendly and a bit easier on the maintenance & power consumption budgets. Important things to consider if you have a limited power supply or are trying to keep costs to a minimum.
If you have enough slope on your site to have a gravity fed disposal system (rather than pump fed) then you can save a lot of hassle in ongoing power needs as well as pump maintenance.
Worm based processing systems like these ones can also cut down on maintenance of mechanical parts and are great if the system is not going to be used all year round.
For us, the amount of water required for a standard flushing toilet made it a non-option. Clean drinking water is far too precious to literally be flushing it down the toilet. Around here even non-potable water is used for the more critical tasks or watering the gardens, washing cars & providing the dogs with water to drink & swim in.
Our option of choice is to have a composting toilet paired with a greywater treatment & disposal system. We understand that not everyone is comfortable with this option but for us and our priorities it made the most sense. It is the ultimate set up for us for the following key reasons:
- Low water usage
- Free source of compost for our native & timber trees from the solid waste.
- The greywater & urine are a great irrigation & fertiliser source for all our trees.
Luckily we live in an area where composting toilets are allowed in certain situations and our site is large enough to deal with both the solid & liquid waste streams easily.
To find out what is & isn’t allowed in your area, check with your local and regional authorities.
power
Power connections are expensive!! Especially if you don’t have a current supply to your boundary. Even if you do it can still be more expensive than it is worth to connect to.
Here in New Zealand, running a mains cable from your boundary to the house platform costs in the vicinity of $100/m and that doesn’t include actually connecting the power to the house and doing any internal wiring. Due to our house platform being about 250m from the boundary, it was looking like costing us upwards of $25k to have grid tied power.
We always planned to have solar panels at some stage so once we considered the up-front connection costs along with the ongoing power bills we simply decided it wasn’t worth the hassle. Most commercially supplied solar set-ups we looked at would cost us less than a grid tie cable with the added bonus of no future power bills.
Bit of a no brainer really.
We have had to make a few adjustments to things like appliances to make sure we don’t run out of power. We no longer have an electric oven or hot water (both run on gas) and we currently don’t have enough power to run things like microwaves, blenders or food processors. While it has changed the way we cook, it hasn’t inconvenienced us that much and it has been well worth the changes just to know that we don’t have a power bill to pay every month!
internet
The easiest of the essentials to figure out in most places. If you can get a decent 4g mobile data plan, do it. It’s as simple as that. In most cases it isn’t significantly more expensive than a cable based internet option and you have far more ability to upgrade in the future as technology improves.
overall
There is a lot to consider when planning to go off grid or start a new homestead but with a decent amount of research you can save yourself some nasty surprises. For those who have been through the process already, what do you wish you had known before you started?
