Have you gone "off the grid" and retrofitted your home to become energy independent? Are you considering it?

Question

What have you done to get off the grid? Solar? Generator - powered by what? Your own windmill? Or...? And have you been able to disconnect your home completely from the power company and their electrical grids, or do you still rely on the power company as a back-up or auxilliary power source?

Answer 1

I own a windmill it produces 2-3 times the electricity that I need and so the rest is sold back to the power company.  I will not go off grid because to me that is a waste of energy; power is lost when it needs to be "pushed" into batteries to be stored and when the batteries are fully charged the turbine would need to be shut down.  So by not using batteries and staying on the grid I am supplying clean energy to 1 or 2 of my neighbors.  So the way I see it I am twice as green as people who live off the grid.

Answer 2

If I owned a home this would be my biggest priority! Where I live I believe it would be best to run both solar panals and a windmill and it would probably be costly to set them up but once they are there your never paying for electircity again. Or atleast thats the idea... Someday I will own a home and this will be a reality for me :)