Off The Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy

by Lori Ryker

Off the Grid confronts the ecological and cultural problems associated with the way we get and use energy, and explains how it is possible to live in a beautifully designed home using much less--no matter where your home is located.
Our homes are connected by a nearly invisible grid of infrastructure that binds us together. It is a system of electrical poles, wire, substations, hydroelectric dams, telecommunication towers, and water extraction and sewage systems. From within this system we work, play, and raise families. We have also created one of the greatest environmental challenges known to modern civilization. The signs of our impact upon the world can be recognized in the reports of environmental changes occurring across the earth, and they can also be seen in the growing failures of the energy grids across the world as the current system is stressed beyond its capacity.
Technologies that can be used to live off the grid (geothermal energy use, wind turbines, photovoltaic arrays, micro hydropower, rainwater collection and reclamation, and more) are explained as author Lori Ryker shows how to choose and incorporate these sources according to geography and climate.
Off the Grid beautifully illustrates that this is not just a concept for rural living; examples of homes that are "off the grid" to varying degrees are found in New York City; Ontario, Canada; Stuttgart, Germany; Belmont, California; Pipe Creek, Texas; Clyde Park, Montana; Twin Lakes, Minnesota; Laytonville, California; Venice, California; and New South Wales, Australia.
Off the Grid shows how we can take responsibility for our future choices and conveniences now, and proves that off-the-grid living is a concept that can be easily understood and adopted by everyone, regardless of where you live or how much money you make.
Lori Ryker grew up in Texas and has lived and worked in a variety of locations, including Boston, New York City, Portland, and Basel, Switzerland. She now resides in Livingston, Montana, where she teaches in the School of Architecture at Montana State University and is a partner, along with Brett W. Nave, of Ryker/Nave Design. Their work has been published in The House You Build, and Western Interiors and Design. Ryker holds a MArch from Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Ph.D. from Texas A & M University. She is the author of Mockbee Thought and Process.

Genres: Architecture, Design

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2005

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't hate this, but just found it a little light on hard information. I had flipped through it before picking it up and saw a couple of very small houses, off the grid because they are so far from everything else that they have to be. But it turns out that these are merely vacation homes for people who live elsewhere, presumably very much on the grid. In fact, my biggest issue with the book is that it features high end construction. The final house was made entirely of glass and steel, so while there may be some good ideas and pretty pictures, there is not much that can be implemented on a budget. To see what you can do when money is not an object, this book does a great job, but there are certainly no earthships here.

[Ed]

Good case study book with amazing images

[William · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful photos and great ideas.

[Martha Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book.