Video & Computer in an Off-the-grid Cabin

Tonight I’m proofing some website pages so we can launch the new Ariela Group website tomorrow. And, we’re watching a video… all in an off-the-grid alternative power cabin sitting in the north central mountains of Georgia.

Martin has been building his cabin to be as close to nature as posible, and still be comfortable and allow us a modern lifestyle. It is built on a mountain ridge facing south for passive solar energy benefits. It has a large solar panel that produces enough electricity for everything we need, and it is wired for both DC and AC current. Water is provided from a spring down the hill with an electrical pump that sends it up to a holding tank in the loft next to the propane on-demand water heater. The kitchen sports a fancy five-burner propane stove and propane refrigerator.

Even though the cabin is off the main electrical grid, it has telephone service, and in fact also broadband DSL internet service. That is rather ironic since many people don’t have internet service at all here in the mountains, and here an off-the-grid cabin has DSL!

So, tonight we’ve got the tv, dvd player, computer, DSL modem and a light, and we’re using 5.4 watts of electricity runing these all together. In the morning the sun will recharge the battery bank through the solar panels and we’ll start all over for another day of sun-generated power.

At night we turn off the electrical inverter and there is total peace in the house. No wiring with energy flow surrounding us. Just peace and quiet without the extra sensory static caused sometimes by being surrounded by electrical currents in the walls.

I had always talked with others about off-the-grid living, but it wasn’t until I met Martin that I had to really walk my talk and experience it first-hand. It takes more time and effort to support and maintain all of the systems, but it takes less power and is non-polluting clean energy. In choosing this life style we are supporting conscious living and ecological sensitivity.

So, tonight I’m busy multi-tasking and soon we’ll turn off all of the systems and sleep in total peace and quiet. We love our lifestyle!