After my previous entries on water, heating and power, I think it’s time to go back to the house and reflect on some of the details involved in the building process. I already discussed the foundation and some of the design decisions, but in this entry I want to go…

This entry took me longer to write than I hoped. Spring and summer here means there is a lot of work in a short time, and that leads to other things being placed on the back-burner. Writing was one of them… Water: everyone takes it for granted. It is a…

In a cold climate, effective and efficient heating systems are paramount. Because I’m off-grid, I also want a heating system that is fail safe, that is, at least one of the heating options has to be chosen so that it works even if there is no power at all. I…

In part one I analyzed the electricity requirements, so now let’s start putting this in terms of components, and what it all costs. The components that make up the entire system are: the solar panels, the battery, solar charge controller and the inverter (to make 230V AC). My goal for…

When someone mentions off-grid, one of the first things that come to mind is not being connected to the electricity grid so it deserves some extra attention. This is probably going to be the longest and most involved blog entry I’m writing in the entire series, and I will have…

In many countries the foundation of a house is a matter of pouring a slab of concrete on grade, or putting up some pillars, and calling it a day. Here in Finland, the latter is popular for summer cottages that are not year round in use, since it is a…

Before I began writing this text, I asked for some feedback on the previous posts. One of the things that has become clear to me thanks to the feedback is that I’ve been writing too many scientific papers: whereas these are full of passive voice, this might not be the…

After having compiled a wish-list and a set of goals, the next step in the adventure is trying to find the right plot of land to build on. Take your time with this. It took me around five years to find the right spot. Taking hasty decisions during this process…

… there was an idea. The idea to build a modern, comfortable, family home but off grid, in Finland. It took many years developing this idea into something that was realistically possible. Technological advancements have recently reached the point where it is, and in a cost effective way. The first…