Living Off the Grid

Three years ago, Rick Dunsmore had a vision of a house powered solely by natural, renewable energy. But he had to promise his 14-year-old daughter she could still plug in her hair dryer every morning.

It's not quite as simple as flicking a switch tied to coal-fired electricity. In living off-grid, the Dunsmores live independent from the municipal electricity system. There are no power lines running to their farm house outside of Blackie. But Dunsmore has proved that, with a few minor changes in habits, you can live a normal life while tapping into the vast resources of wind and solar energy.

When his daughter gets up every morning she checks how much energy has been stored in the batteries overnight. If it's been windy, she can turn on her hair dryer. If the energy storage is low, she flips on the propane generator.

Dunsmore is the owner of Goose Creek Renewable Energy, which designs and installs wind and solar systems for residential and commercial customers. In creating his company, he says, "I had to live it to prove it." So his house became his company's working brochure, complete with top-of-the-line appliances to demonstrate that lifestyle doesn't have to be sacrificed to go off the grid.

His roof is covered in solar photovoltaic panels and evacuated tubes, which collect the sun's rays to produce electricity and hot water respectively. He also has two small wind turbines: "The sun goes down at night but the wind can still blow," he says.

On one recent day, the weather was cloudy and calm, apparently bad news for a house reliant on solar and wind power. But Dunsmore's wife, Connie, wasn't worried because the wind had blown the day before and the battery bank had enough stored power to operate the refrigerator, lights, stand-by loads and the computer - though it wasn't the day to be running energy-intensive things like washing machines or vacuum cleaners.

"Once you understand the process and philosophy, you become more aware of what the sun and wind are doing and how we can use our power," says Connie. What was initially an adjustment has become second nature. Our homes are the largest single largest source of energy consumption. Living this way, the Dunsmores are preventing about 12 tonnes of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere annually.

It's not cheap to become independent of municipal electricity. For a three kilo-watt hybrid system of solar and wind, you can expect to spend approximately $35,000 to $40,000. However, it is viable in a rural situation where it could cost just as much to tie a new house into the electrical grid.

Another option is to adopt some of this technology while still being grid-interactive. Peter Bull has installed 18 solar photovoltaic panels on his Edmonton home, in tandem with 60 large batteries. Although Peter doesn't need to pay attention to weather forecasts like the Dunsmores do, it has affected his energy awareness. For example, he replaced an old freezer that was essentially sucking a quarter of what his solar panels collected.

"I'm much more responsible now," Bull says. "It affects you in your day-to -day consumption and in recognizing what your daily habits and needs are."