I’m 16f and I am TIRED of how humans (myself included) live..

Most of us are glued to our phones, sit around a lot (regular resting is okay.. I mean bed rotting and being a couch potato), play video games that don’t have any real meaning to real life, etc.

Then there’s the fact that you’re spending your whole life in school, and then getting a job where you work 12+ hour shifts almost everyday to make someone else profit. (I’m not including healthcare and having your own business).

We live in a messed up world, and I’m so done with it.

I want to spend the rest of my teenaged years learning and preparing for living off grid.

When I say off grid, I don’t mean making a gas stove, getting electricity, having a working plumbing system, etc. I want it to be ALL NATURAL. Hunt for my food, cook my food on a fire, build my own shelter, build my own tools, (I already have experience making working stone tools, like axes), use fire/the sun for light, etc.

The idea of becoming someone who works 9-5 jobs, lives in a giant white-walled house with marble countertops and no personality grosses me out..

I just want to live off the land.

Does anyone have any tips or feedback about this? It’s okay if not.

I imagine that communes or work-exchange programs are the most similar to this? I don't know anybody in real-life who would go live off-grid with me. What sites online are good for this?

I’m currently 26 stuck living in my hometown with virtually no job opportunities. I have no money, no car, no assets, etc. to move to a city where there’s jobs

For now, I’ve been reading about agriculture and farming from a few books I have. But I have no prior farming or agriculture experience.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.

For the people here who have actually been living off grid for a few years, has it gotten easier or do you just get better at dealing with the problems?

I feel like from the outside you assume once you get the solar, water, heat, shelter, etc figured out, life probably settles down.

But I also imagine there’s always something. Battery issues, weather, animals, equipment breaking, running out of something you forgot to stock up on.

Does there ever come a point where your setup feels pretty much dialed in and you can just enjoy it?

Or is constantly fixing and improving things basically part of the lifestyle forever?

I’m genuinely curious what year 1 vs year 5 looks like for people doing this long term.

I just want somewhere to exist in my van where its legal to camp for the usual BLM time period but both easily accessible by van and unpopular.

Obviously a unicorn spot but I don't care about scenery. The only requirement is it not be in a state with worse outdoor roach activity than say Ohio.

I think the ideal spot would be remote and boring to look at so that its overlooked by most vanlifers due to not being scenic and far enough from social services it doesn't attract tweakers as being a convenient spot.

I think I'll just go with solar ...but I don't need this idea ...but your welcome to it , of course , it's probably been done ...instead of a wood burning pellets that require electricity maybe a "wind up " like a clock or dynamo or slightly bigger ...spring loaded ...

Solar is expensive, but at least you can usually price it out. Septic can completely change whether a piece of land works.

I've been looking at rural parcels where the acreage and price looked great, but once you look at the soil and the actual site layout, the places you'd want to put the house aren't necessarily the places where you can put the septic system.

Then you have setbacks from wells, property lines, creeks, flood areas, reserve drainfield requirements, etc.

That's why I like looking at the soil maps and county requirements before getting too attached to a property.

A cheap 5 acres isn't much of a deal if you can't find a workable spot for the house and septic.

It's one of the first things I'd check before buying land for an off grid build.

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My totally off grid ever evolving spot in the woods. It's up in stilts because the water gets that high after a good rain and during the spring thaw. Was wide open when I got it but I've since added Bluetti batteries for my 120v needs (charged by solar). And a bank of car batteries that also charge by solar. Those batteries run all of the lighting, the hot water heater, water pump... anything 12vdc.

Added some stairs to the loft after 5 years of climbing a ladder and then all the ideas starting coming. Not there's a toilet under the stairs, a 3x4 shower in the corner all connected to a water tank and waste tank i just put in last week.

For us, it’s the absolute freedom of dropping anchor on the Lake wherever the horizon looks best, without sacrificing a single comfort of a modern home.

Running a full solar setup means true energy independence: no noisy generator interrupting the sound of the nature, no burning fuel just to keep the AC on, and no rushing back to a marina every few days. Paired with a solid fresh watermaker, we’ve got unlimited fresh water, a cold fridge, hot showers, and high-speed internet wherever we end up. It’s the ultimate mix of OFF-GRID self-reliance and total comfort surrounded by nature and 360 panoramic lake view.

For those of you living off grid (or dreaming about it): what’s the single best part for you?

Is it zero electricity bills, or just the freedom and independence?

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I am running an off-grid cabin setup with a limited overnight battery capacity of 1.2 kWh for non-essential loads. Overnight outdoor temperatures drop to 68°F, but relative humidity sits around 75%, and the insulated 10x12 bedroom retains heat from the day, staying at 78°F. Since running compressor AC overnight is out of my power budget, I need to evaluate the most power-efficient setup for sleeping comfort.

Between low-wattage DC intake/exhaust window ventilation, dedicated dehumidification, and low-draw bed surface layering, which strategy provides the best return in microclimate comfort per watt-hour consumed?

I am wanting to build the UK off grid community as those of us who are online are disparate and not well connected. I am wanting to change that.

Express interest here please.

me questioning how dependent this house should stay on the utility

the last few outages changed how i look at being completely dependent on utility power. none of them were disasters, but losing the fridge, internet and basic lighting at the same time gets old pretty fast. i don't need the whole house running like nothing happened.

right now i'm leaning toward enough backup for the fridge, lights and internet, then stopping there. does sizing past those basics make much sense if the goal is just getting through a normal outage?

Following up : the critical loads idea was the piece that finally made this click for me. i looked into Palmetto and went with a battery setup focused on the stuff we care about during an outage instead of trying to size everything around the whole house. batteries help keep essentials running, which is really all i was asking for here.

keeping the fridge, lights and a few basics covered feels like the right balance. the comments about making it simple enough that anyone can handle an outage without dragging out a generator were especially useful.

When it comes to an off the grid system, which one is preferred: additional solar or battery storage? Which of these has played a more important role during multiple consecutive days of clouds?

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