Can solar technology fuel modern life? For this video series,
American Experience is traveling to three different climate zones
across the United States to find out how and why people live off the grid. A one-bedroom cabin in Minnesota. Because of this lifestyle, I've just been
able to do more things that I want to do. A twenty-five acre
homestead in New Mexico. As a society, we have gotten away
from the basics of just growing your own food, of raising your own
animals, of taking care of yourself. And an off grid family-run farm
in northeastern Vermont. We just hope to move the world
in a better direction. I'm Cierra Meyer-Berg. I'm Kyle Helmberger. We've been living off grid
for about four-ish years. I lived a couple of years in Alaska. That's probably
what planted the seed for living this way. And then after a couple of years,
it was like, okay, all my family's back in Minnesota,
and Minnesota is a great place to live. Lots of outdoors, just like Alaska.
Lots of lakes. I knew I always wanted to live in
Minnesota. I love it here. We both hunt and Skeeters,
a bird hunter, our dog. So he likes having the space. Some people think living off grid means
you're way out in the middle of nowhere, never going to have contact
with civilization ever again. But really, all that it means to me
is that you're not tied to the power grid. We decided to go off grid because we enjoy being self-sufficient,
and we also wanted to own our own home. So rather than taking out a loan
for a house because housing is so expensive nowadays, we thought
that we would build a simple little place, own it free and clear,
and then over time add on to it or make improvements. He introduced it to me. I got more and more like inspired
to have more of a free lifestyle. Which is probably the biggest reason. I mean, that's what it's always been about for for me
being able to spend time together. And when we have kids, you know,
being able to spend time with our kids. Wake up and first thing we do is start
the wood stove and make coffee. Got to get the coffee to get us going and motivating us
to get the chores around here done. You know, living without running water, we don't have a faucet
where we can get water. So I'm always melting snow. A lot of chopping wood, melting snow. So this is the temporary shower right now. So I melt that snow
and then I'll fill this up. That stockpot is five gallons,
and this is a five gallon jug. So one full stockpot is one full jug. And then if you crack the nozzle on this,
you actually get really good water pressure out of it
and it's all just gravity. So it's a really simple way to have a sink
or a shower. Basically, with off grid living, it's everything just takes
a little bit more time because you don't have a thermostat
that you can just set and then walk away. You can't just like throw dishes
in a dishwasher and walk away. You have to do it. So it just takes more work and more
time is all. It’s a lot more rewarding, though,
for sure. Yeah, it's more rewarding. You feel like you’re more connected to things
and you don't take things for granted. Solar panels charge a few different batteries
that we have, and then, especially during the winter in Minnesota, here,
when you're not getting much sunlight, you do have to top off the batteries
with the generator oce in a while. You're just running the generator
a lot more during the winter compared to during the summer when you're
actually getting that sunlight. This is our closet
and our mechanical room, basically. So this is the solar power system. So from the solar panels, there's a cord
that comes in and charges these batteries. This cabin is wired
just like a normal house would be. But then instead of the wires landing into an electrical panel,
they land into the batteries. It looks like
we're bringing in 175 watts of solar. So the sun is actually charging
this battery right now. And this is the one we mainly use
because it's the biggest one. What I miss the most about when we lived on grid
was just being able to plug in anything and not have to worry about it or not
even think about it. Water is everything I miss. Running water
just makes everything so easy so fast. Just going up and turning a faucet and then even having hot
water on demand is awesome. The power situation too, with solar
and batteries, you only have so much so there's limitation
with certain appliances. I would just love to be able
to plug in my Keurig, but with being off grid
you have to put those things in consideration of how much power do we have
on the batteries? We are planning on growing this homestead
and getting more animals on the property, a bigger garden this year
and for the years to come. And one day have a family. We're learning it all as we go,
so we try not to bite off more than we can chew. Kind of take baby steps, where over time,
maybe in ten, twenty years,
we really have it going on out here. The goal is to try to be as self-sufficient as we can.
