The term ‘living of the grid’ refers to an increasingly popular way of life, where individual homeowners aim to supply all their household energy needs without recourse to the established energy grid. Those living off the grid gain their energy from renewable energy sources, like the sun, the wind and the heat of the earth’s surface, that are free to us all. The result is they have cheaper energy and their energy usage has a much reduced impact on the environment.

The practicability of living off the grid is increasing all the time, mainly due to advances in technology that is making solar panels, wind turbine sand geothermal heat pumps more affordable and reliable for individual households. For this reason the number of people choosing this way of life is rising all the time. People are attracted by the need to do something for the environment. They are also driven by the rapidly increasing prices for traditional energy sources, to look for a cheaper energy solution. Add to this the fact that it has a cool and trendy image at the moment, and I should imagine that the number of American households that are now living off the gird is much higher than the figure of 180,000 that was reported in USA Today in 2006.
» Read more: What Does ‘Living Off the Grid’ Mean?