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How to Live Off-grid | 
 enlarge | Author: Nick Rosen
Publisher: Bantam Books
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.38
You Save: £4.61 (58%)
New (27) Used (3) from £3.38
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 10847
Media: Paperback
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0553818198
EAN: 9780553818192
ASIN: 0553818198
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 The off-grid reader November 4, 2008
Jeremy Williams (London)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There are lots of ways of living off the grid. The most familiar ones are narrow boats on our urban canals, caravans, and traveller or gypsy communities, and of course remote farms. Less well known are the communes, the renewable energy pioneers, the backwoodsmen and hermits. In his own off-grid converted bus, Nick Rosen travels the country to interview these various types. He meets a man with seventeen children, an armed survivalist community in an old manor house, gypsies, horse breeders, millionaires and subsistence farmers. Most of the book details this adventure. In fact, over half the book is one long chapter called 'meet the people'.
The diversity is fascinating, and there are different things to learn from each. Unfortunately, the author gives more or less equal amounts of time to each project. I found myself skimming ahead over more hippies in the woods, and wishing there was more on some of the more practical social experiments. A little editing wouldn't have gone amiss, choosing the best cases from the thirty or so here and exploring them in more depth. The book could stand to lose some of the travel detail too - some sections narrate little anecdotes, like how Nick got his van stuck in a ditch on the way to see someone, leaving only a paragraph at the end to talk about the project itself when he finally gets there.
After meeting the people, the rest of the book deals with more specific issues. There are chapters on generating your own electricity, sections on water, toilets, and buying land, and some good advice on planning permission. There are asides too, into foraging, the pros and cons of living in a commune, and histories of the grid.
If you're after a practical manual for off-grid living, this isn't it, despite the title. This is more of a source book of ideas, an inspiration for off-grid living. For the detail, see Rosen's extensive website, off-grid.net.
 SUPERB - BUY IT ! June 12, 2008
Jason Palmer (Near London,England)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
great book, i have just started reading it, a great way to learn about some of the issues and see how people are going off grid in different ways
How to live a little off the grid June 4, 2008
J. Grayland (Dorset & Shanghai)
A great book overall and I personally enjoyed Nick's style of writing. Good read with some interesting characters that crossed many boundaries and gave numerous personal insights into living fully off grid or just attempting to. I also thought it was a good adventure to carry out.
If you are already off grid or are planning to do so in the near future then this book may not be for you (though it does highlight some pitfalls). This book is not a diy guide on how to off-grid. If you sometimes head to the hills or are thinking about how you can make some sensible decisions that reduce your reliance on the power companies get this book.
This book has further encouraged me on the path of examining how I can become a little more independent and hopefully reduce my excessive use of resources.
Essential Reading May 2, 2008
Neil (REUK.co.uk)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
In How to Live Off-Grid, Nick Rosen investigates the possibilities and difficulties of living an off-grid lifestyle (no mains water and no mains power) in the UK.
This is not a typical "How To" guide to off-gridding although the book is packed with useful information. Instead the main focus of the book is on real people living an off-grid life - their motivations, their struggles, their problems, and their solutions.
In the 120 page Chapter 4: Meet the People, Nick Rosen tells the story of his own journey around the UK in his newly purchased camper van meeting off-gridders from all walks of life who are living off-grid with varying levels of success and for a range of different reasons.
These short stories give a fascinating look into the often difficult world of the off-gridder: seemingly a constant struggle against council planners, neighbours, and the elements. Living an off-grid existence is rarely easy, but is shown to be hugely fulfilling.
The rest of the book comprises chapters on generating power, obtaining water, and building shelter. In addition a chapter entitled We Were All Off Grid Once tells the story of how we ended up on-grid in the first place and looks into the main motivations for people to move off-grid today: environmentalism, post-consumerism, rising energy prices, water shortages, rising house prices, fear, and the availability of new technology.
How to Live Off-Grid is information packed and very easy and entertaining to read. The real world practicalities of living off-grid in the UK today are well covered in this unique and well researched book.
Inspiration to change the way you live May 2, 2008
David Allen (London)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Off-grid is a very thoughtful and insightful book, at last, a book about the environment which is not virtuous or solemn. This book about living cheaply is witty, and inventive, and surprising. The author has really lived the experience, and as a result he can evidently walk the talk. This book has inspired me to live in a different way.
The first chapter finds him buying a shepherd's hut for 10,000 sterling
because its all he can afford, and chapter 2 is a comprehensive and impeccably researched exposition on the foundation of the power and water industries as well as a survey of recent writings on looming social collapse.
The fun comes in chapter 3 where he buys a camper van and realises it's the wrong one. He then sells it and buys another one.
Its only in Chapter 4 that he goes round Britain visiting all the off-grid types - a chapter that lasts about 100 pages and is a really stirring guide to how, what and where to go off grid. This chapter is both educational and experimental and really instructs the reader in the trials and tribulations of the off-grid community.
The next chapters are rather similar to a manual, but that might be useful to some - the most complicated is the section on planning permission, but if you are going to stick your neck out and buy a chunk of land, you are going to have to prepare your planning permission strategy.
This second edition is better value and updates much of the information that I previously encountered.
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