Living "off the grid" is usually the choice of the hardened survivalist, the mountain man and perhaps the odd fugitive running from bounty hunters. But more and more Americans are now opting to disconnect from the grid — i.e., government, electric and other utility services — which delivers increasingly expensive fossil-fuel-based power and is, as millions in the Northeast learned during the 2003 blackout, anything but infallible. In 2006, Home Power magazine estimated that more than 180,000 U.S. homes were supplying their own power. "Some people want to minimize their impact on the environment," says Dave Black, a disaster-response consultant and expert in off-the-grid living. "Some people want to ensure they have service if there's an outage. And some people just want to look green."
But going off the grid isn't as simple as unplugging your television. The grid isn't just electricity but water, heat, waste management — even your cable signal. And then there's the gas that powers your car, the government-funded roads you drive on and the air in which you fly. That's where Black comes in. He has just written a book called Living Off the Grid, a practical guide to weaning yourself off the electrical milk of modern life.
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