Ever though about becoming more “Energy Independent” and “Living Off The Grid”?  For Kathleen Jarschke-Schultze, Living Off The Grid has been a way of life for a full 25 years.   On April 1st, 2010 Kathleen celebrated 25 years of living completely off-grid, beyond the grasp of power lines.  Their off-grid home is transparent - visitors comment that if they hadn’t been told that the Kathleen & Bob O’s (Kathleen’s husband) home was off the grid, they wouldn’t have know it.

The first real clue is three digital meters on the wall between the dining room and kitchen. Their meters include an Outback Mate, a Tri-Metric 2020 and a Xantrex Link 10. These are products they sell through their business, The Electron Connection and if possible, they incorporate products they sell into their Renewable Energy system to test out its performance in actual daily use. By glancing at the meters they can tell the battery bank state of charge. If the batteries are at 100% they do laundry or run the dishwasher – their biggest energy loads. To a degree, weather determines their housework schedule.

From a tankless water heater to to their Sunfrost refrigerator and freezer, Kathleen & Bob O’s home is a mastery of appliances and systems that use no electricity.  Using a combination of solar, wind and micro-hydro power, the Schultze’s have fine tuned their monitoring of their energy systems for optimal times of the day to use specific appliances.  A peek out the window is another simple method for determining what can be accessed for power on any given day.

Now a common site in stores, motels and many homes, their lighting of choice is compact florescent (CF) bulbs. They have been using CFs since they were big bulky things that wouldn’t fit in a regular lamp and now have found that a selection of compact florescent lights is a perfect housewarming gift for on or off-grid friends.

In the summer, the Schultze’s use something rarely seen today – a clothesline – their summer solar clothes dryer.  Their Staber washing machine is very efficient on electricity.  They use a Sealand one-pint flush toilet that operates very similar to those used in RV’s and guests are offered instructions before heading to the bathroom.  Their Asko automatic dishwasher is Swedish and is very efficient on electricity and water consumption.  It contains it’s own heating elements for the water, as do most European appliances.

Their Myson tankless water heater runs on propane. The couple also have a shunt, in a large water heater tank, which uses any extra electricity when the batteries are full to heat water there. When water flows from the tank through the Myson, it is checked for temperature. If the water is above a certain temperature the Myson does not turn on. The flow rate must be above a certain rate for the burners to light.

Another source of energy efficiency is through preventing "Phantom Loads", which come from appliances and equipment like VCRs, instant on TVs, any appliance with a electronic clock, gas stoves with a 'glow bar' used to light (and keep lit) the oven. These items sit and use electricity even when they are not being used. Some TVs use as much as 100watts of power just sitting there waiting for to be turn 'on'. By eliminating these loads using a fused plug strip, a substantial amount of energy can be saved.  Their TV, DVD player, VCR , computers, printer and satellite connection are on a fused plug strip.  For example, Kathleen only turns the stove on when she cooks – the range is plugged into a wall mounted fuse plug strip for ease of turning it off and on.  Rechargeable batteries are used for the camera, toothbrush and drill.  They have also learned that if recharged before the battery is fully discharged, the battery will only charge to the level of previous charge.

Thanks Kathleen and Bob O – you are an inspiration and true pioneers in living out the “Spirit of Green”!