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How to Live Off-grid

Author: Nick Rosen
Publisher: Bantam Books
Category: Book

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

14 reviews
Sales Rank: 3892

Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1

ISBN: 0553818198
EAN: 9780553818192
ASIN: 0553818198

Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days

Also Available In:

•	Paperback - How to Live Off-grid: Journeys Outside the System

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Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

SUPERB - BUY IT ! June 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

great book, i have just started reading it, a great way to learn about some of the issues and see how people are going off grid in different ways

3 out of 5 stars

How to live a little off the grid June 4, 2008
A great book overall and I personally enjoyed Nick's style of writing. Good read with some interesting characters that crossed many boundaries and gave numerous personal insights into living fully off grid or just attempting to. I also thought it was a good adventure to carry out.

If you are already off grid or are planning to do so in the near future then this book may not be for you (though it does highlight some pitfalls). This book is not a diy guide on how to off-grid. If you sometimes head to the hills or are thinking about how you can make some sensible decisions that reduce your reliance on the power companies get this book.

This book has further encouraged me on the path of examining how I can become a little more independent and hopefully reduce my excessive use of resources.

5 out of 5 stars

Essential Reading May 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

In How to Live Off-Grid, Nick Rosen investigates the possibilities and difficulties of living an off-grid lifestyle (no mains water and no mains power) in the UK.

This is not a typical "How To" guide to off-gridding although the book is packed with useful information. Instead the main focus of the book is on real people living an off-grid life - their motivations, their struggles, their problems, and their solutions.

In the 120 page Chapter 4: Meet the People, Nick Rosen tells the story of his own journey around the UK in his newly purchased camper van meeting off-gridders from all walks of life who are living off-grid with varying levels of success and for a range of different reasons.

These short stories give a fascinating look into the often difficult world of the off-gridder: seemingly a constant struggle against council planners, neighbours, and the elements. Living an off-grid existence is rarely easy, but is shown to be hugely fulfilling.

The rest of the book comprises chapters on generating power, obtaining water, and building shelter. In addition a chapter entitled We Were All Off Grid Once tells the story of how we ended up on-grid in the first place and looks into the main motivations for people to move off-grid today: environmentalism, post-consumerism, rising energy prices, water shortages, rising house prices, fear, and the availability of new technology.

How to Live Off-Grid is information packed and very easy and entertaining to read. The real world practicalities of living off-grid in the UK today are well covered in this unique and well researched book.

5 out of 5 stars

Inspiration to change the way you live May 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Off-grid is a very thoughtful and insightful book, at last, a book about the environment which is not virtuous or solemn. This book about living cheaply is witty, and inventive, and surprising. The author has really lived the experience, and as a result he can evidently walk the talk. This book has inspired me to live in a different way.

The first chapter finds him buying a shepherd's hut for 10,000 sterling
because its all he can afford, and chapter 2 is a comprehensive and impeccably researched exposition on the foundation of the power and water industries as well as a survey of recent writings on looming social collapse.

The fun comes in chapter 3 where he buys a camper van and realises it's the wrong one. He then sells it and buys another one.

Its only in Chapter 4 that he goes round Britain visiting all the off-grid types - a chapter that lasts about 100 pages and is a really stirring guide to how, what and where to go off grid. This chapter is both educational and experimental and really instructs the reader in the trials and tribulations of the off-grid community.

The next chapters are rather similar to a manual, but that might be useful to some - the most complicated is the section on planning permission, but if you are going to stick your neck out and buy a chunk of land, you are going to have to prepare your planning permission strategy.

This second edition is better value and updates much of the information that I previously encountered.

2 out of 5 stars

Dissapointed February 18, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I purchased this book on the back of an article that I had read in the Sunday Times, expecting it to give me tips on how to avoid the surveillance society.
Having got halfway through it I'm disappointed that it seems to be a series of interviews with people who want to drop out of society. The author does raise some good points about why we need big grids to do everything and that doing thing on a local basis is a good idea. The book does have a slightly lecturing tone going on about so called `big issues' as global warming and other spurious environmental issues.