THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR NEED FOR ELECTRICITY.

BY CHRISTOPHER NYERGES

This large solar panel installation will also provide shade to the animals on this homestead.

We’ve all met the man who can live in the woods with next to nothing (maybe just a knife), wears leather skins and has learned to live off rats and squirrels. He brags that he pays no taxes and has no electric or gas bills. I say, Good for him!

However, we realize that we don’t desire to live off-grid in a cave and eat rats. Most of us have a family to support and a comfortable home to maintain. Even so, whether or not you’re concerned about the high cost of modern living or modern life’s degradation of the environment, you’re still interested in living better for less.

For most of us, the biggest expenses in life, besides our home, are the costs associated with living in that home and farming in relative safety and comfort. But, because our energy bills seem to constantly increase, we wonder if there’s a way to live that’s simultaneously better and cheaper.

There is such a way, and it’s the result of hundreds of little choices. You don’t need to pull the plug entirely and jump into an Amish lifestyle (unless you have the desire and ability to do that). And there’s also the issue that constantly nags at us: How do we maintain life on our little plot of land in the aftermath of a disaster?