But it got a boost after the COVID pandemic hit: City dwellers began to explore different ways of living, facilitated by improvements in alternative energy sources like solar power, and batteries for storing that power. Overall, the off-grid movement remains small. He has published books on the subject, and leads online classes.Īlthough precise numbers of off-grid households are hard to come by, Collins estimates that only 1 percent of those living off-grid are in truly remote areas. It just means you are not connected to utility grids,” says Gary Collins, who has lived off-grid, or mostly off-grid, for a decade. “Living off-grid doesn’t mean you don’t buy your groceries at a store or take your waste to the local dump.

Yet only a tiny fraction of people living off-grid do it like that, and fewer still live more than an hour from any town. Living off-grid conjures images of survivalists in remote places and a rustic, “Little House on the Prairie” lifestyle with chores from morning to night.

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