Essential Guide to Modern Off Grid Living

Off Grid means different things to different people, for some its a small cabin or tiny home tucked away in a woodland clearing. For others its a Farm or even a small hamlet, who want a community power system. Either way access to the nation grid is either too far away, or as is often the case, prohibitively expensive. Large or small, dwellings all require electricity to make life comfortable, and an Off Grid Power System can often be the right solution.

We often get asked what is off grid life really like? We have lived off grid for years, and for us the answer is, not much different to a house connected to the national grid. We have everything that other modern houses have, and probably more! What we don’t have are rising electricity bills and pesky standing charges that go up year after year. Apart from filling the diesel generator up in winter, our off grid lifestyle is just the same. That’s because Victron Off Grid Power systems are very reliable. For most of the year you really don’t know your living off the grid.

Make the morning coffee, cook the weekend roast, do the laundry and drying, just as you would in a grid connected house.

A quick note here, although diesel generators can run on Red (reduced duty) diesel, HMRC recently declared that they should not use red. Regular pump diesel that you put in your car is what we use in our generator, and its cleaner and the engines run better on it!

Our off grid property also includes out buildings, a barn, a workshop, sewage treatment plant, electric gates, and lots of out door lightning, that is on throughout the night. A single Off Grid Power System provides all the energy we need to power our small holding.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just run a generator? No it definitely would not, initially the installation would be less costly, but a generator running 24 hours a day is just a waste of money. An environmental disaster. The high running costs would be eye watering, plus due to the hours run, it would need a service every month! Then think of the deprecation due to high hours and I bet after 3 years you would be buying a new one! A lot of the time the generator would be running with hardly any load and this is not good for them.

In in off grid system, what is the annual generator run time? That is dependant upon so many factors, how much energy you use, how many solar panels, the battery size, the generator capacity and the weather. For us its around 200 hours a year, but on some of our smaller systems it can be 100 hours or even less. The rest of the energy is produced by daylight.

Filling up a diesel generator is a messy job right? If you have a small energy requirement then you will probably fill up 25 litre drums and pour it into the generator with a funnel, this can be messy if you don’t have a steady hand. I usually recommend an electric pump with a petrol station type nozzle, that cuts off when the tank is full. This is a lot less messy and they are inexpensive, called a fuel transfer pump. Easily available off Amazon / Ebay / Machine Mart to name a few. They usually run off a 12v battery and you can use the generator battery for this. Fuel transfer pumps are easy to use, cleaner and can work with 25 litre drums, 205 litre drums or even large storage tanks if your running a large farm or hamlet.

We have found that our regular generator running period is from November through to the end of February. Jan and Feb we see some odd brighter days and then the Genny does not run, March onward it hardly ever runs. As I write this on 25th Feb 2026 my Neighbours system has had 10 generator free days already in February. With a Victron Off Grid Power System the generator will auto start, based on the level of energy in the battery, so its not something you need to consider as it happens automatically. There is the option to start it remotely from the app should you wish.

That’s the Off Grid Electricity covered - What else do you need for Off Grid Life

Water- You might be lucky enough to get mains piped water, as often getting water is not eye wateringly expensive, unlike an electricity connection. If not, a private water supply is the answer, a spring or bore hole, this water is piped and then filtered before is passes through a UV light to sterilize it and make it drinkable. Its all pretty standard stuff and there’s quite a number of companies in this field. Try searching Bore hole contractors or private water supply companies.

Sewage - A modern sewage treatment plant is very efficient if used properly. You must avoid bleaches and certain chemicals as they kill the good bacteria that is breaking down the waste. Just use the green ECO ranges of cleaning and laundry products, and you should be fine. If the bacteria doesn’t effectively break down the waste, then the system requires emptying more often, its really beneficial to follow the guidance.

Installation requires a large hole, a drainage field- currently slotted waste pipe in a figure of 8 shape. Again its all pretty standard stuff. There are some specialist contractors, but many general builders can take this on. Building regulations section H deals with the installation of package treatments works. The bubbler type with a small compressor use significantly less energy that the type with a large motor and spinning disks, for off grid the compressor types are often most suitable.

Gas - If its just for cooking then a large 47kg gas bottle is the answer, ours lasts around a year, before it needs swopping over. Its possible to have 2 or more bottles and a change over system for uninterrupted supply. You should find a local company who will deliver the bottles as you need them. Some will even swop them over.

Oil Heating - Then you will need an oil tank, and like an LPG tank the refilling truck will need access near to the tank location.

Biomass or pellet boiler - Another option for heating in rural locations. They can be economical to run, but the prices of pellets goes up and down, recently due to the War in Ukraine. A home with very high heat demand will often have a silo and the pellets are delivered by truck and blown in. Small usage homes, like our own have pellets delivered on a pallet, and we move them around on a small pallet truck, or you can carry them as they only weigh around 15kg a bag with 65 bags on a pallet. We use roughly 2 pallets a winter with the current cost being around £330 per pallet including delivery (2026)

Internet - A must in todays world. There are many rural internet services that beam the signal house to house, even across large distances. As the crow fly’s, our signal comes from over a mile away and its perfectly good for general use and watching Netflix. Sim card routers are an option for low usage households, if you can get the signal strength. Gaining in popularity is Elons Starlink system, several of our clients really like it, though its not the cheapest option.

Electric cars and Hot Tubs? - Yes and no! we try wherever possible to over size the solar array, in an attempt to reduce winter generator running. This has the effect of providing more energy than we can use in the summer. Were always looking for ways to use that surplus energy, hot water is a good use. Heat pumps, air conditioning, electric cars and even hot tubs can use that energy, and its free. But in winter that energy effectively comes from the generator and that would be expensive and not great for the environment.

Power cuts. Never had one. Our local village has regular power outages, I would say 4 to 6 per year, maybe a few minutes, sometimes half a day. Victron Off Grid Power systems are very reliable, and our power stays on when the nearby village goes off.

If you have any questions about what you can, and cant run from an off grid system, call us or send an email, and we will try our best to help you.