a day ago
The financial and psychological benefits of off-grid living inspires new generation
Tucked away in southern Tasmanian bushland, Eily Stevenson and Jon Oliver are embarking on an off-grid journey.
The couple, originally from Sydney, moved to Tasmania for the weather and the lifestyle.
"We knew we wanted to have a family and the idea of raising a young family off-grid in nature was really attractive to us," Ms Stevenson said.
They purchased their bush block a few years ago, which already had the dwelling on it.
Now, they are beginning to transition the property off-grid, which means being disconnected from the main electricity grid.
Off-grid can also mean disconnected from other public utilities, such as water and sewerage.
Their first major task will be switching the home to solar, for which they have budgeted about $25,000 to include up to 24 panels and a few batteries.
"Five years ago, probably would have been upwards of $30,000, any longer probably up towards … $40,000, and the technology was nowhere near as good either, so definitely it's become more affordable to move off-grid."
They have already spent $45,000 on their driveway and access.
They expect to spend $18,000 on improving the septic system, $3,000 on adding two additional water tanks, and $25,000 on upgrades to the house.
Phillipa Watson is a research fellow at the Australian National University and has been studying the social change in energy uptake across Australia for two decades.
Although there is no national database on the number of people living off-grid, Dr Watson said there had "certainly" been increased activity by power companies over the past decade to create more off-grid systems for their customers.
She said that shift was primarily thanks to solar power systems becoming more affordable.
"The old school off-gridders needed to have a lot of technical knowledge and were getting involved either because they had to, or they really, really wanted to," Dr Watson said.
"Then we had this newer kind of household that had to consider the new connection costs which could go into the tens of thousands in those edge-of-grid or remote areas … which then became comparable with putting in an off-grid system."
Dr Watson said with the increased uptake, technical support had become more readily available.
"We saw in those households they didn't need to be technically able about their off-grid system because the installers were becoming more sophisticated and were able to offer them a long-term support program."
Mr Oliver said their property was already connected to the electricity grid.
Council regulations can also pose a challenge.
"Contact your local council if you've got your eye on a property to make sure that you can do everything, that it's permitted," Ms Stevenson said.
Dr Watson said resourcefulness was a huge motivator.
"Especially in Tasmania, we see a really strong resourcefulness streak … people who are just really, really proud of being efficient," she said.
Ms Stevenson said the "psychological benefits of knowing that you are living off the land and producing a lot of your own resources is really attractive".
