What does it mean to be "off-the-grid"?

Friends:

The EcoCenter at Heron's Head Park, formerly known as the Living Classroom, will be San Francisco's first and only formal off-grid environmental education center. Alot of folks are always asking why we are building off-the grid, which always brings up the question of, what is the "grid" itself.

I would like to start sharing with our broader community, a little bit of information about why this building is considered to be "off-grid". Over the next few months, while we are building the center, I will be sharing information about each particular building component so that the broader audience can get a little more insight about our work and our program.

What does it mean to be "off the Grid"
"The grid" is a common name for the power grid -- the linked system that delivers electricity to the masses. A typical house is connected to power, natural gas, water and telephone lines. Going off the grid means shunning these public utilities in favor of creating your own energy or treating your own water. Some homeowners have historically choosen to be partially off the grid by supplying their own electricity and ditching their phone line, while relying on the convenience of city water and sewage. Others choose to live completely off-grid by digging wells or using a cistern system to collect water.

The term "off the grid" or "off-grid" refers to living in a self-sufficient manner without reliance on one or more public utilities. Off-grid homes are typically autonomous—i.e. do not rely on municipal water supply, sewer, natural gas, electrical power grid or similar utility services. A true "off the grid" or "off-grid" house is able to operate completely independently of all traditional public utility services. It's impossible to get an accurate count of exactly how many people in the United States live off-grid, but in 2006, Home Power magazine estimated that more than 180,000 American homes were supplying their own powe without being tied to the local utility Because many citizens around the world have never had the chance to go on the grid, current estimates are that (at least) 1.7 billion people live off-grid worldwide. When you consider all the individuals and communities living on the water, in the rural outback, and in emergency situations around the world, the number grows even higher.

There are many factors that inform a person's choice to go--"off the grid":

-Location: How far is the building site from the central infrastructure grid? What is the cost of "tying in"? Are their regulatory or easement challenges in bringing the "grid" to the site? Is there a "grid" to tie into. Many folks living in outback areas (military, water based environment, rural, permafrost zones, industrial) have no access to a utility grid.
-Financial Cost: What are the up-front infrastructure costs of tying to the grid?
-Philosophical Cost: What energy inputs are used to operate the utility grid? Coal? Petroleum? Nuclear? Many persons who decide to go- "off-grid" consider these factors.
-Life-Choices: Some individuals want to live autonomously and independently from centralized systems.

For the Ecocenter, the team was influenced by many, if not all of these factors.I would love to hear from anyone about their experience moving off the grid in an urban environment.


http://www.off-grid.net/

EcoCenter Goes in for the Living Building Challenge

We are very excited to be applying to become the first living buiding in San Francisco. It's alot of hard work, but we're getting there.

The Living Building Challenge Mission: To encourage the creation of Living Buildings, sites and Communities in countries around the world while inspiring, educating and motivating a global audience about the need for fundamental and transformative change.

The ILBI is a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to the creation of a truly sustainable built environment in all countries around the world. Comprised of the leading green building experts, futurists and thought-leaders, we believe that providing a compelling vision for the future is a fundamental requirement of reconciling humanity’s relationship with the natural world.

The Living Building Challenge is a program initially launched and continues to be operated by the Cascadia Region Green Building Council www.cascadiagbc.org (a chapter of both the US Green Building Council and Canada Green Building Council) and has quickly become the most advanced green building rating system in the world.

We have Windows!

Thank you Rebuilding Together and Anderson Windows!

We received a beautiful donation of white terrazzo marble from the great folks at Rebuilding Together in San Francisco! I look forward to figuring out creative ways of using the marble!

Today we also received our gift of greenhouse windows from Anderson Windows!

Thank you both!

Thank you Glide Youth Build!

We had a wonderful day last week working with Glide Youth to implement our workplan around construction waste management. The youth built out bins and starting sourcing material for either re-use or waste diversion. We were joined by Kevin Drew, who is the construction waste management direct at the SF Department of the Environment, and founder of Building Resources. Thank you to Jeff and Steve of Glide for working with us and especially Andey Nunes for coordinating the day!

The EcoCenter has been Framed!

Greetings Friends, I am so happy to report we have a roof on our building. After ten years of work, two architects, three geotechs, and hundreds of hours of design and engineering we have arrived at a building. And its quite beutiful. Check this out.

Happy Thanksgiving: The EcoCenter Foundation has Been Poured the Tanks have Been Delivered!

Greetings friends, it is only appropriate that on the dawn of Thanksgiving I write you all to let you know how much we have to be thankful for this year. A Lease, A (near) healthy capital budget, and, ta da, a Building Permit and a Permit to install our WastWater Treatment System.

Its been a while, almost a year since I last "blogged" in, I hope someone in cyberspace forgives me. I have been pulled in many directions and am just now coming down to earth---if you will. I know you have all been dying to find out about the next regulatory challenge or mile of redtape we have had to move through to get our precious center on line.

So let me bring you all up to speed!

I am happy to report that truly, we are well on our way to finalizing the building!
We received our building permit in August--eight months after applying for the permit--in good time. With permit in hand, we worked with Ryan Engineering, a San Francsico based soils excavation firm, to do all of our soils work including all the excavation, import, and compaction. They were extremely generous--we owe them a great deal!

Last week we finished the foundation pour, using a specially batched mix thanks to Bode Concrete which boasts of 75% slag and 100% recycled aggregate. If anyone has any connections to a concrete trade mag, please let me know, we need to get an article out asap! The foundation is already testing 4000psi--1000 more than mandated by our structural engineer. Bode concrete was very generous and worked with our team very closely to adapt a really sustainable mix for us that we can boast for our foundation to the structure. The pour went really smoothly, with very few bumps, the aggregate was a bit chunky at first, but it smoothy out quickly. The foundation has 12 tons of rebar in it and it magnificently floats over the site.

Alltold, it took three months to complete all of our survey work, soils work, site preperation, and foundation slab.

Stay Tuned, our waste treatment system install is coming up!