I have a four bedroom house acreage and multiple shed and workshop,all totally off grid remote rural NSW

It's so great to see people succeeding in living off the grid...

oh... this is it.. been wanting to go offgrid with my solar and just cant start doing it.. thanks for sharing this video.. it helps me decide..

Kirsten your videos are very motivating and informative. Thank you for posting this for all of us to get ideas from!

Love how this guy has set the solar up so that each major appliance (fridge, lights) each has it's own solar panel/s, controller/s and batteries . That makes so much more sense. That means he could start smaller and at a more affordable price. Smart bloke.

@MrShabbyTiger

10 жыл бұрын

It also means the system has a built-in redundancy.. should any component break down you can re-config to cover yourself until you can fix it

@RunFromHumanContacts

6 жыл бұрын

Thats what i wanted to do. It just makes sense. Hadnt seen it done until this video! Happy someones gettin on good w it

@aFewBitsShort

5 жыл бұрын

Also if you have them on the ground and your roof leaks, no worries, you can still fix it.

@marilynbarker8255

5 жыл бұрын

Donk Enou Are snakes all over the place in Australia?

@kellyoconnor9773

2 жыл бұрын

@@marilynbarker8255 no I nearly never see a snake.

Tip: Hanging clothes on coat hangers can help reduce the need to iron and increase drying efficiency.

Living true...such a blessing. We should all try more of it.

This guy was really inspirational to watch.

Just realised that it's Link doing all the hard work. Good on you too mate.

tx for sharing Mate..All the best . Stephen

Kirsten, thank you for the great videos over the years. I look forward to your new postings every week. You most do allot of traveling.

This is awesome. Great to see something in Victoria. Thanks for posting

Gday, We are in Peak Hill NSW , 2 years ago we decided to go off the grid and we have developed our on systems very similar to what you have developed. I will have to post some videos one day

@MrWackozacko

5 жыл бұрын

Did you get that video up David?

@simonm1528

4 жыл бұрын

Videos?

Is this uploader an electrician? Very clever & interesting Indeed. Imagine a few licks of paint and some more sealed off areas , some insulation, some more wall boards & roof solar panels, storage areas, food supplies and this fella has everything on POINT! Maybe a security system if things went bad. But looking a bit shabby probably would turn people off if things did go bad so I am impressed! this has probably improved over the 3 years time period! I worked for CSR and due to Australian Standards we used to throw out Fire/Ceiling/Wall/Dry boards due to inconsistencies that were so anal, after a few years the amount of "waste" product thrown out could have built over 100 houses easily, no shit, it was sickening the waste..... EDIT +Link Knight ?

when my uncle was alive the newspapers were 8 foot high in the kitchen. some rooms couldn't even be entered. there was a side door (now my bathroom door) that had a foot deep of plastic bags. stuff strewn outside in the rain. couches the dogs had shredded up (he had 23 dogs and cats total). you don't know mess until you've seen stuff like that firsthand and been the person who had to clean it all. don't even wanna hear about the mice.

thanks. it is easy enough with a bit of knowledge and access to the right things.

The video was well done and covered all possible points. Very informative for those who would like to live off the grid. Watched the whole thing through.

I've had people at work tell me they've never seen them in the wild. however there are quite a few in the bush near where i live.

bloody good on ya mate!!! would like to see a update?

they may know my situation as i talk a lot about my uncles bankruptcy and stuff. and the fact I'm always busy. there's a never ending run of chasing weeds (ignored for 50 years) and watering trees and grape vines. then little things like firewood cutting and mowing (it's law around your house to reduce fire risk) and sheep work and fencing but my father takes care of fencing generally.

Nice video and some cool ideas that might work for me. I like how you approach the necessities piece by piece through solar or water collection, backups, etc. If one system goes down, it sure would be simple to trace the root cause, Or, to upgrade one system to improve it. Thanks

apparently my grandmother was just like that. my father told me about big stacks of magazines and newspapers in the house as a teenager. my uncle wasn't much better. some rooms the papers would avalanche. one of my rooms in this house, I couldn't even get in the door.

Wow Link! My family and I plan all year to go out in the wilderness and camp for a week, but you do that all year. Hmmm, we need to rethink our lifestyle. Thanks for sending the video to Kirsten.

For sure! Hopefully he makes an update on this one, one of the best offgrid's ive seen

Cheers mate for the video. Im also in Australia and plan on living off the grid when i buy some land. Must be a great feeling knowing you are self sustainable for power. I noticed you had a fire place, if you ever run low on power check out thermoelectric generators for which you could attach to your fireplace to charge the batteries. Make them yourself though none of this small scale stuff. cheers

I have been going through your channel, really great videos you have here. I love to be inspired about self sustainable living, also I am an Aussie, so cool to see. So, yes I subscribed Marty Ware

I love these types of videos, great lifestyles...

I have lived in a similar set up with gas fridge and solar set up, we had a part solar water heater that was hooked up to the stove that had a water jacket, worked too well.

The hardest and most expensive part of going off grid is acquiring the land. Unless your uncle gives you a block of land

I love your way of living man, you've really thought of the necessities for your house. Sure it's not flash, but that's clearly not what you're going. Function > Form. I like the fact that you are in touch with the outside world rather than like most modern people who just waste away indoors.

Mate, i just discovered that we are neighbours, leaving a few hundred meters from you. I am very fascinated by solar systems too and i am slowly trying to get myself off the grid too. Hopefully we can meet one day and share our experiences... Keep on going the great work with your vids....

@petal979

8 жыл бұрын

+emmanuel theron only a few hundred metre 's , Im surprised you don't know of each others existence?

@alantaylor6691

8 жыл бұрын

+emmanuel theron Well take a stroll over and say gidday! Don't be shy!

@emmanueltheron3347

8 жыл бұрын

+Jim Thompson thanks for the invite jim, i will definitely come over one day to say hello with a couple of frothies...

a great aussie showing how its done with no bullshit great vid thanks for sharing

Very cool.... I could see myself living that way. Gotta get busy :)

Doesn't look like you filmed this one. Great material to show the road to self sufficiency.

most of the stuff outside is already moved. there's a bit more i gotta move and some of the stuff seen here has to go into a shed I've got. when i get done with my current project I'll start on weeds again and move some stuff. but you gotta realize this house had newspapers 8 foot high, plastic bags a foot deep outside one door, literally tons of scrapmetal and 23 cats and dogs when i got it. ALL of that has gone ( bit more scrapmetal in 3 piles to go).

i actually started a business cleaning out hoarders houses. had everything worked out to be able to clean places out cheaply and efficiently and get rid of all the stuff very cheaply. damn advertising costs basically wiped me out. it was only just getting going and i basically run out of money from all the money I'd spent on advertising.

got a wood stove my uncle had left in his friends shed but it was missing the hotplate. made one but it was 1/2" instead of 1/4". works but takes like 15 minutes b4 its hot enough to use.

Now for a coat of white paint - would make the place look much brighter - that plywood would probably take about 10 gallons of paint but at least it would "look" clean

Great video, I hope to move off the grid one day

I would be using water catchment ideas, rain catchment of the roof as much as possible. Use the grey water in a reed pond to clean the water and send back to the garden to make vegetables to live on.

@james787324

5 жыл бұрын

I think he does, it's collected inside the house.

Why the hell is he not using the sun to heat his water?

i admire his spirit. hes not real worried about it being cluttered or messy looking though is he? ;)

good job mate, ive lived in worse conditions but similar. your uncle sounds like my dad

He has found what works for him, then figured out how to do it. Appears his biggest is the cost for the water to be trucked in.

thanks. I'm more into living without spending heaps of money to do so. I see so many people crippled with bills and debt, and the house had never been connected to the grid. the technologies were there (and I didn't have much money at the time), so I become an off gridder using what i had and what I could afford.

Would love to see an update mate! :D

cool to see LinkKnight's spot!

Addicted to this channel!

Beautiful

the machines I've got are essentially an agitator in one side, and a (not heated, upright ) spin dryer in the other side. my uncle used to have this big cast aluminium one that was a huge agitator in a tub and a wringer above it and as the clothes went thru the water dropped back into the agitator. don't know where it went after bankruptcy. but the rollers eventually rot on them.

You don't have to explain to me Link. I know too well what you are talking about. It sounds way too familiar. And perhaps that's why it left me feeling bummed remembering the work. But I'd take it all back to be able to visit with my dad again.

Nice video. I love to see how you live off grid and I am jealous. Ignore all the negative comments here. No one online knows your situation or what you were up to in this short video. To each his own, brother.

My van has 375 watts and I`ve got another 120 spare, all for 12 volts. Got12v100Ah AGM and 2x12volt calcium batteries at 530 +560 Ah. Also a 1500W peak pure sine/1000 W Continuous converter. You really don't need a lot of power to live and managing it consciously makes you realize how much we waste.

the clutter is only the good stuff my uncle left behind. i had to get rid of 8 foot high stacks of newspapers, there was a door that I'd open (where the bathroom now is) and there was a foot deep of plastic bags out there. threw out hundreds of gallons of stuff each week when cleaning up. the stuff i still have has to be moved into the storage shed that my laundry is in. don't like throwing stuff out that i may have to buy again later.

Fascinating. I have relatives in Brittany, France who are LARGELY off the grid (but not entirely at this point -- a few have phones and electricity these days).

that is just about the line I live by. when i had my old car people at work used to say to me "isn't it about time you got a new car". and I'd say "well that thing runs perfectly and until it doesn't, there's no point". funny thing is, 2 weeks later the same guy would be whinging that he was sick of the place but couldn't leave his job coz he had a car loan to pay off still. i think about these things before they jam me in a corner like that.

the birds are pretty beautiful around here if you don't trip over a few old roof sheets or a drum or broom or something. at least i got all the wood into piles.

Youd love the system a friend installed at his business. 120 Panels, 30 kw's.

i missed my off grid live seventeen years ago.

Well, you certainly have everything you need to live off the grid there. I cant believe how much more solar energy you get over there in Aussie. I am sitting in the dark now with drained batteries after three days of rain. Ouch.

thanks man. remember you from troys channel.

painted the outer walls cream. but every morning i wake up looking at a wood grain ceiling. nice if you like wood grain (not that i really do but its nicer than flat colour).

thanks!

I suggest you use a washing plunger and wringer for your laundry... They save on water and power... Regards, Sander Tel

1.) actually it'd be illegal to put them inside my house. the miniscule amount of hydrogen that they COULD release has authorities scared. strangely sealed batteries have the same laws as unsealed. 2.) you're right. was trying to keep the inverter cool because the first rubbish chinese one (with blue and red seen to the left lower down) didn't like even warm weather. i learnt about having heavy cables and cable distance when i got my fridge.

nothing a match wouldn't fix

noticed you subbed. got videos on breaking free of the on grid mentality.will be putting one of them up soon. but have a few older ones already.

Thank you!!! : )

Would love to live like this.

Good one.

Cool. You have to make the best of kind of tough solar situation there TDIYW. Look forward to seeing the Idea of panels on both sides of the meadow put into practice. I've been kind of surprised at how little wattage Link seems to get by on. Perhaps it's just the much more consistent sun and longer number of hours per day due to no shading obstacles. Remember also my idea of raising the panels up higher for more hours. Camper in the meadow could be a solar rack. ;-)

thanks. she done great editing.

i can get part of the kitchen with an extension cord. but honestly I'm pretty crammed for time. actually at one point there was no-one in the house for about 20 years and the sheep used to be in it and lets just say the floors needed shoveling out before my uncle replaced part of the floor. sheep crap is probably the cleanest crap there is though.

Mate I think its great what your doing most people don't realise is how unprepared they really when it comes to survival situations especially in a natural disaster the first thing that goes in most natural disasters is water & electricity I see solar power for future living but at the moment people take this for granted but someday electricity wont be affordable for the average person the general public are already complaining about the high cost of electricity imagine 10yrs from now

you'd be right. i did. the whole lot was uploaded thru a 3G modem and took literally 20-24 hours to upload the raw footage. i got a good camera but could only email 15MB files at a time and had to drop the quality.

Off-grid to me means paying no power bills. But still run a normal home in the middle of a town. yes the power go's out. Not mine. Respect ppl that dream and follow that up with a lifestyle. I love living in Australia where yes you can still own firearms and dream.

@OffGridInvestor

10 жыл бұрын

I can only dream of owning firearms. friends at work have gone thru a year or forms to just get a licence. and then got a gun later.

@MelbournePrepper95

10 жыл бұрын

Link Knight A year? Which state do you live in?

@MaZEEZaM

9 жыл бұрын

AusSurvialist as far as im aware in Vic, you have to wait 1 year after applying for a firearm to be allowed to purchase it.

@MelbournePrepper95

9 жыл бұрын

MaZEEZaM That's not right at all. The last person I know that got a firearms license had their first rifle around 4 - 5 weeks after submitting the paperwork.

@JCSolarPowerandBushCamping

9 жыл бұрын

AusSurvialist yes i can get a gun the same day. in Western Australia.

you half get it. it's not so much "the less he live on the more he buys". it's more like "the less i spend on living expenses day to day, the more i save, and can then advance my comfort of living". hence the freezer and stuff. I can function fine in regular social situations, but ain't out partying every weekend and I don't "need" interaction with other people as many feel they do. I see people for a reason, but not to just "hang out". too busy for that anyway.

yeah. all my footage. and the 3G modem isn't quite like real broadband internet. so i was limited to quality. took literally about 20-24 hours to send some raw footage a fair bit of which appears in the video. but much of it is footage already on my youtube page.

if you have a USB modem look at it and see if there's a little cover on it that when you open it has like a tiny circle inside another circle. that will be the plug for an extension antenna which has a cable on it (like 1.2 meters). you can plug one of those in and get it up as high as you can and you may find your speed goes up quite a bit. they are like $50 or something. i'm using one now.

it gets scared and hides, then you have to pretty much dive on it.. I had to catch a few baby bunnies once..and yes, i helped them..not hurt them..

having been in the building industry, i can construct a small building for WAY less than the cost of a bare shipping container.

actually that bit was lost in translation. I'm not in the outback, just in a country area in south western victoria ( its a state in the south east ). evap coolers don't take much at all. one takes 90W and the other is like 70W. frankly though, the cooling pads are too small and they are a joke (should build my own big one). but its good on those days early in summer when its hot during the day but cool at night. i suck outside air in, and blow hot air out. set timer for an hour.

What about using LP gas for cooking & fridge & warm water -- free up the power for other stuff.

Silly nay sayers, he is doing something most could never do. go without all the mod cons, if something ever does happen, he would blink and nothing changes, whereas many will cry when their mobile phones don't work, or no tv etc, only concern for me would be snakes, sneaky sods you can't see them most times, let alone hear One If the s ever hits the fan, there would be heaps begging to join him or do the same, the more simple the less maintenance Would go for bigger solar setup myself, but we have family

@alantaylor6691

8 жыл бұрын

+Yoda Dundar Yes, very sneaky buggers. And ya can't hear em! hahaha!

@busybumblebee9661

7 жыл бұрын

Yoda Dundar snakes are more likely to bite you if you freak out. You just quietly walk away, the snake will eventually does the same. It's just part of growing up in Australia. What freaks me out is the amount of fire arm power that Americans carry

@randzopyr1038

6 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure what you think will happen that will so severley cripple the world that it won't recover for years if ever. But he could live in something that doesn't look like it was assembled out of a dumpster and it still have the same function. This isn't Mad Max.

@brett8667

6 жыл бұрын

Yoda Dundar Each to there own least he doesn't care about people judging him i say well done mate nice setup!!

fortunately it wasn't. the house is not gonna last forever. but I've actually seen houses worse than mine. some in suburbia. the house is hidden by trees and due to the council stuffing up the paperwork, they thought there was no house on the property and actually TOLD ME i didn't have a house. until i showed them photos. by that time the place had been cleaned up and fixed and painted the outsides. they done a valuation when i wasn't home ($0, which was why they first thought there was no house

its not a solar refrigerator PER SE. its a 12V car fridge. a very high end one. its called engel. they have a compressor in them that is essentially a solenoid one end, and a spring the other end (sawafuji swing motor) which is REALLY efficient compared to the average car fridge. it takes like 18.5watts and the first one i had (waeco, don't bother 1/3 of customers regret buying them) took like 72 watts. the main thing is HEAVY wiring between battery and fridge. waeco fails there all the time.

its not about cost i just like the idea of a house being modular and recyclable, also they have a cool industrial look.

My my, your a pleasant person.

Why do you use an inverter? I run everything with the exception of a washing machine off 12 volt

Yes, it takes me forever to upload too. The connections are generally poor in the country. To far away from the base signal or something like that, maybe satellite would be better. Have lots to upload on all kinds of subjects but, it takes 3 hours for five minutes. Good luck with what your doing.

Have you put up the panels on the other side of the field yet? ;-)

Nice

Its one thing to go off grid....its another to live in squalor.

@JulieStudies

8 жыл бұрын

I was both impressed and grossed out! He'd gone to all that trouble, but won't tidy up nor get rid of the cobwebs & crap. He still washes dishes in the hand basin! Off-putting for us sheila's:)~

@aprielledawn

7 жыл бұрын

YES!!!

@mirriulahwaterdog

7 жыл бұрын

Good on ya Julz... Kristen has probably been resigned to a life without a sheila when he lobbed in here.

@yarpos

7 жыл бұрын

no granite benchtops or anything!

@ohshitnotanotherknob

5 жыл бұрын

No, untidy is different to squalor. Same stuff as in everyone's home just not hidden. Looked under your fridge or behind the cupboards, yup can get pretty gross.

Lives like my 89 year old dad used to. Loved him, but how depressing to see all the clutter and completely devoid of order or beauty. Still, it was informative to see how he's doing it on just the few panels and batteries.

Good stuff I,m in aus as well been of grid for years only use generator when building things drills grinders welder ect because its a little easier, otherwise sun and wind for power, my own water for drinking washing with no chemicals in it and so cheap to live.

Camping but with extra steps. My dream

It’s not good to have an open flame on the galvanized metal .

i noticed that. actually it was full sunlight. i think the video didn't convert or something went wrong. thats the only glitch i saw though.

Mate what does ur mrs say about living out there? What an amazing way to live.

We invested in solar power, in regional Qld back in roughly 2009. Yes, it wasn't cheap but we are getting a feed in tariff of .44 cents a kw. It paid for itself about a year ago and we haven't been paying any power bills since we put it in but we get an annual rebate cheques, too boot. Our feed in rate should be good untill 2028. It was worth the sacrafices we made for awhile, replacing our savings. We were in a good place as our home was paid for and we have no debt. We extended the system once the panel prices came down, that accelerated paying it off quicker. We had made allowance for the increase power on initial installation. People dream of making life easier and simpler for their family but most families aren't prepared to make sacrafices. After Cyclone Yasi, we were self sufficient for the six days we were without power. We have since increase that to a much longer period. Food wise we would be good for at least six months or longer. We have provision to go off grid with our solar. Emergency food supplies backed up with pressure canning, water bath preserving, dehydrating and vegetable garden. Plus we have a rainwater tank and several means of filtering and purifying water. Having lived in Cyclone areas for 22 years, self sufficiency is a necessity. The larger populations get, the more self reliant we need to be. They use to say you needed emergency supplies for three days. I honestly feel that should be a minimum of at least two weeks now. The better prepared you are, the better your survival rate. People who commute over an hour each way to work, should carry a bug out bag with them all the time. In summer, make it over 30 minutes, especially if you aren't fit.