I just came across this fascinating article in the Bangor Daily News about Maine families who live totally off the grid and generate all their own electrical power. I’ve always had the impression that people who live in rural Maine are a tough independent lot – all that snow and everything – but what struck me was how comfortable, even luxurious their lifestyle is.
The Maine Solar Energy Association estimates there are about 1,000 off-grid households in the state. Here are some of their stories:
Nine Years of Energy Self-Sufficiency
“Everyone in town feels sorry for me,” said Kim Paradis, 37. “But then I ramble off my list of amenities. I have everything everyone else has – it’s just smaller and energy-efficient.”
When Kim and her husband, Mike, moved into their home in the woods outside Fort Kent nine years ago, the nearest power line was several miles away. Since connecting to the grid can cost $45,000 to $70,000 per mile, alternative energy sources were their only option.
But Kim is quick to say they did not start out with the amount of available power they now have. Slowly, the couple built up their wind and solar power and storage systems to the point where they no longer have to wait for sunny and windy days to vacuum or watch television or use the shower with remote control music, water jets and a foot massage.
“Yeah, we went from simple to pampered pretty quick,” Kim said.
Off-Grid Living is a Life of Voluntary Simplicity
The Paradises’ neighbor, Karen Boutot, has been an advocate of conservation and alternative energy sources for years, and taught energy workshops during the last big energy crisis in the late 1970s.
Like the Paradises, Boutot has an electric water pump, appliances, television and a computer. A row of solar panels lining the railings of her deck and a generator supply her electrical needs.
“It’s a life choice,” Boutot said of her off-grid home. “We call it voluntary simplicity.”
“Living like this makes me more conscious of everything that is wasted in other homes,” her daughter, Grace Boutot, 17, said. “It’s almost second nature for us to read how much energy different things use.”
“I’m kind of the yuppie-preppy person.”
Patty Hill of Eagle Lake runs her entire home with solar power and is adding wind power. Two new free-standing Skystream wind turbines were erected in August and are waiting for an inverter before going on-line.
“I’m used to planning my life around my electric consumption,” Hill said. “When the batteries run down I turn the vacuum off — it’s good to have that excuse.” But, she said, “I don’t feel you should struggle just because you have alternative power. I have light bulbs, I take cozy, hot showers, watch television and use my computer.”
Hill readily admits entering into the world of alternative power knowing little about it — it was her husband’s idea.
“Dick was always the one into the whole organic and holistic lifestyle,” Hill said. “I’m kind of the yuppie-preppy person.”
“I did not understand it at all when we first got started,” she said, but “Now I can read the system’s meters better and begin to understand it.”
Off-Grid Living Is about More than Watts
Regardless of how much sun is shining or wind blowing, all three off-grid families say it comes down to more than watts produced.
“It’s about conservation,” Karen Boutot said. “If you are going to complain about fuel prices, think about what you are doing and what you are using.”
“It’s up to the individual, Kim Paradis said, to do his own part.”
“We look for energy-efficient appliances,” she said. “They don’t have to be made for ‘off grid.’ They just have to be energy efficient.”
“It’s not so much about being self-sufficient,” Kim said. “It’s more about being self-reliant.”
Read the full story for photos and details about their alternative power setups: “Living off-grid – 1,000 Maine Families” in the Bangor Daily News.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is cool! Being totally off-grid and energy independent is what I want – VERY soon. Like, by this time next year! I’m not into the environmentalist whacko bent (and let’s face it. Some of these guys, like Al Bore, are kooks!), but I’m just fed up with paying out the nose for utilities! These folks in Maine don’t strike me as being the “tree hugger” types. They’re like me. Fed up with being gouged in the wallet every month for more money! We’re like frogs in a saucepad full of water to the utility companies, and we are getting slowly cooked to death while these greedy buzzards gradually increase the heat!
Me too and I think a lot of other people too. I don’t have the money to do much yet — looking into various DIY options. Good Luck! Linda