How can I live a ecologically sustainable life and not have any bills?

Question

I know it's hard work to "live off the land" and lessen our impact on the world, but I'd like to do so. Some ways I know already, like using solar panels as my sole source of electricity, and growing all my own food. But what about things like heating water (I guess I could do that over a fire) and getting running water (from a nearby stream is convenient, but not all that practical)? What about refrigeration and going to the bathroom? Anyone know these things?

Answer 1

work hard and pay off all of your current debts, move to an island and live there.in the castaway movie,tom hanks managed to survive just fine without a computer and internet connection.people in the city are too spoiled by technology, me included lol sure, it's fast and convenient but it causes some people to take the simple pleasures of life for granted.living naturally in nature like that mancub, mowgli did in the jungle book isn't easy but gradual adaptation is all it takes.i'm still in the process of paying off my bills and such things but soon i'll become a spear throwing jungle woman:-D

Answer 2

You will have to learn from the ways of our ancestors. For water, have a well drilled and install a hand pump, or drink from the local stream (I would have it tested to make sure it safe). To get hot water, get a black tank that is as flat as can be and long (it will catch the sun better) and put it in the sun. Attach this tank to a tree or a pole and drill a hole in the bottom and attach a valve so that you can open and close it. Gravity will give you running water, and the sun will heat it (although probably not in the winter). You can attach a hose from your well to fill the tank as needed with a hand pump.

For food, plant your own garden. Keep in mind that the food will not grow in the winter, and that you will get a lot more than you need all at once; you will have to preserve the food until you need it. To do this, you will have to dry or home can it. You should also raise your own livestock, such as chickens, pigs, cows etc. An added bonus with the chickens is that they give you a constant supply of food, as they are always laying the incredible edible egg. Cows are also a good investment, as long as they are bred for milking they will give you milk everyday. Because the milk will not be pasteurized, it will have to be drunk immediately or else it will spoil. You can even make your own cheese from this milk. If you do not eat meat, you will not need refrigeration. However, what you can do for refrigeration is dig a hole as deep as you can into the ground and make a box that will be buried, except for a trapdoor to get into there. The ground will act as insulation, but you can also add your own commercial insulation. In the winter, chop large blocks of ice from a nearby pond and fill the box with this ice. Then cover the ice with hay or something similar to keep it from melting. Keep your food in there; because it is under the ground and is well insulated, it should stay cold all summer long, as long as you don't enter it too much.

As far as waste, if you own a large plot of land I would say be just like the animals--go wherever you want! Nature will decompose of the waste the same way it decomposes the waste from all of the other animals. If you do not want to degrade yourself like this, then simply have a septic tank with an outhouse attached to it. Of course, you will have to have the tank pumped every few years, but there is no way getting around it.

As far as not having any bills, you are probably out of luck. If you own land, you will have to pay property taxes. If you work, you will have to pay income taxes, and so on. However, if you can live in a small shack that you are able to build yourself then you will not have a mortgage payment. If you use a bike as your main source of transportation, you will not have to make car payments or pay for the insurance. If you pay for everything with cash and not credit cards you will not have a credit card bill. If you decide that you don't need a phone, then you will not have a phone bill. If you install an electric generator powered by the running water from a nearby stream you will not have to pay an electric bill (although you will probably not have enough money to buy the generator with cash, so you will in effect make yourself a bill). However, by following these steps you will become self sufficient and be almost bill free.

Answer 3

You might be able to do it, but it would be very much a full-time job, and one that you may not really love doing. Unfortunately, we discovered long ago that subsistence farmers can indeed subsist, but without trade and money, that's about all they do.



There's no particular reason to believe that by living independently you'd be doing the environment much of a favor, either. Professional sewage treatment is better than using septic tanks, and those solar cells contributed plenty of greenhouse gases to the earth when they were manufactured.



The big problem is always health care, of course. Those herbal remedies ain't gonna be so great when someone gets sick, and I would worry a bit about that stream you want to drink out of, lest you have an upstream neighbor.



Wanna make the least ecological impact? Get a small apartment in a big building in a big city and use public transit. The earth will never know you're there.

Answer 4

Okay, heating water can be done with fire (not so ecologically sustainable), with geothermal energy (more sustainable, but expensive as all get-out), or solar energy.



How do you heat water with the Sun? There's a detailed book at:



http://www.jc-solarhomes.com/how_to.htm



As far as heating your house, A different part of the same site is good:



http://www.jc-solarhomes.com/



Running water isn't too hard. Either a. Dig a well uphill of any contaminants, or b. Let your roof and gutters give you water every time it rains.



They sell 50-gallon collections tanks for about $70 online. That would be enough for an average person for 2 or 3 days. Just attach 2 of them to your gutters, and you have water. I'd recommend filtering the intake (gutter covers will win half the battle) and boiling it before drinking (just as a precaution... I personally think roofs are pretty dirty).



If your tank is above your head, gravity will carry the water out of the sink, just like any municipal water company.



Refrigeration isn't so easy. Hmm, I have an unproven theory. Heat is just energy. So all you have to do is minimize the amount of heat entering an area, while maximizing dissipation of heat. Something as simple as a shaded tank full of water could provide cooling enough to keep a few spoilables good for a week or so. Although isn't this really about keeping meat, cheese and veggies edible, right?



For a little sweat equity, you can build a rudimentary smoke house... just a fire pit with an enclosure around it. Treated wood is NOT recommended for that purpose, but smoked foods tend to last longer. Dehydration and carbon and whatnot, I'm not smart enough to explain why.



You need help going to the bathroom? Oh, my... Well, the easiest thing to tell you is to dig a deep hole, build an enclosure around it, and when you do your business put a little lime on it to keep down the smell. But that's not gonna fly, long-term.



So, after you've arranged a chamber-pot or personal sewage system, you'll need to do a search for a product that people can use to make pet crap into fertilizer. Use this for your own crap. And save your morning whiz... it's also good fertilizer, dilluted 1:20 in water.



At its most basic, your water system just comes from above, goes through your house (and through you, not to sound disgusting), and then into a storage tank, where you can mix it with your compost.



But I have three unfortunate words for you: Property taxes, buddy. You won't likely escape them. And it's always a good idea to keep some coin-of-the-realm, just in case you wanna splurge on something. So I suggest (and note that I am _not_ a CFP, so my opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it) you purchase either a. rental properties that pay you every month after they pay for themselves, or b. stocks or mutual funds that pay a decent dividend that can buttress your lifestyle. You might also check out Prosper.com, where you can lend to people for good interest rates. I'm currently checking them out, not sure if it works, but it's worth investigating.



Hope that stuff helps.

Answer 5

I know that you have gotten quite a few answers but I have a working solution to the water indoors.



In Bermuda the roofs are painting with a special paint (made from lime juice I believe). Under the houses are like basements that hold the water. The rain water goes down the treated roofs and is collected into the basements. Then they get the water for their taps there.



As far as not chemically altering the water - well they do drop goldfish in there. The fish eat the algae. Of course who really wants to think about the fact that goldfish poop is in your water.



I do know there is a longstanding joke that drinking the fish water increases memory. Ask anyone on the island to tell you a story about when their cousin was 4. It seems they'll remember it in vivid detail.

Answer 6

To you intend to raise crops, forage, or raid your neighbors?



Solar as a sole source of electricity s usually not enough. Consider adding a wind turbine and if you are at an appreciable altitude, remember that thinner air cuts down on power generated, so oversize it.



If you are generating all your own power, use a refrigerator. Build a root cellar for storing crops if you are raising any.



Learn about septic systems and how to construct and maintain them.



Build a cistern to hold water and spend all summer heating it with the solar panels, which will heat it even in the winter. Use solar heating for your shower, too. Done properly, you can get the water uncomfortably warm.



But first, go look at an Amish farm and see how they do things without electricity.

Answer 7

The "not have any bills" part seems like a problem, although you can certainly minimize them. A concern:

Medical care. Your options are:

1) Choose not to receive professional medical care.

This is not a big deal with a cold, really distressing with a broken bone, and lethal in some other cases. Pioneers' lives were shorter and more sickly than ours. Cavemen never lived long enough to need reading glasses.

2) Choose to receive professional medical care and attempt to pay in chickens, canned beets, and firewood. Most medical billing offices are not that open minded, but you never know.

3) Choose to receive medical care at least for true emergencies (like when your axe misses the firewood and slices an artery) and not pay your bills. That's not "socially sustainable".



Most of us like paved roads, at least having them available for the squirting artery trip to the hospital. I'm happy that police are at least theoretically available to protect me and my stuff if needed. Hey, someone might covet your tricked-out solar collector. These services are available courtesy of tax payers. This is another example of how if you're in the U.S. of A, it's pretty hard to entirely remove yourself from the goods & services grid.



An ecologically sustainable lifestyle is really cool. I'm interested. It needs to be socially sustainable too and that's where the bills come in. If there's something or some service someone has & you want, there will be "a bill" whether it's in canned beets or dollars.

Answer 8

It is amazing how little you actually need. In my country, Paraguay, people often live in houses which really don't have a lot of the things houses in the western world have - and once you're into the techniques of handling that, that is not a problem anymore.

The easiest way to go fully sustainable is to simply sever all our civilizational "nice to haves".

Go to bed when it's dark, put on more clothing when it gets cold, bathe in rivers and streams, eat your own, organically grown veggies in the raw (doesn't get any healthier than that), and walk everywhere.

I know you asked for a technological solution, but consider that the manufacturing of solar panels and battery banks may well equal the damage and cost caused by continuing to live conventionally.

Experimenting with that kind of lifestyle though would not only make your bills slimmer - it would change your entire outlook on life, and the experience of it. To make it happen, all you need to do is shut everything off which costs money.

Answer 9

Buy your land in NH where there are no property taxes. Heating would be best with a wood stove. You can cook with it too. Passive Solar heating you can have through good windows. Solar heating planes can be on the roof. For elec. you would need a windmill, to make it. For pumping the water you can use a hand pump, by your sink; or hope the windmill makes enough elec. for you. I know an area, not in NH; but elec. wires do not go to their homes and at least one has a computer from elec from the wind mill. You may have to take up a lot of gardening and canning; if you want to go all the way.

Answer 10

Your dream is unrealistic. You have missed the point. Unless you become a bum and a beggar, you WILL HAVE BILLS.

If you cook over a fire, you will use up the trees and pollute the air. If you pee in the stream, the water that you want to drink will be polluted. If you live off the land and plow it up to grow your own food, the soil may erode and silt up the streams. If you fertilize your crop, it may be a better crop but the fertilizer may run off into the streams. Before we had refrigeration, people dried and salted their food so it would keep. And you want HOT WATER & ELECTRICITY? What kind of pioneer are you anyway?

Living an ecologically sustainable existence doesn't mean that you live free. In fact it might cost just as much but instead of paying ConEd for electric power, you pay someone else to design & manufacture solar panels. It costs money to be politically correct.

Answer 11

Grow your own food, build your own house and run it off either wind power and solar power, get water from a cistern or spring, and make your own clothes. That about covers the ecologically sustainable part.



The next part is a bit harder and that is the "self-substaining economic part. Unfortunately, unless you live somewhere "off the radar screen", you will need to pay taxes and for that you will need some form of property for which the taxes are low or non-existant (maybe found in Alaska). None of this is impossible but it will take a LOT of determination and self-discipline on your part. Oh and by the way, learning to shoot a rifle will figure heavily in your future plans for survival.

Answer 12

Hard to do for everyone because of the improbable population growth we've had as humans. Part of the solution I hadn't seen here was a new invention by an Australian for a sort of drum turbine - looks about 6 feet by three feet, cylindrical, with three round facetted... well... blades, kinda.



Two of them can power a ranch in AU, and cost about $800 AU each. As far as not having any bills, the only way I know how to do that is by being homeless. There are obviously many good ideas here. I have a blog below that discusses reducing our energy dependance while maintaining some of our lifestyle choices - not for the greenest of us, mind you, but a start.

Answer 13

You can't! You will always have bills no matter what ever you do. As long as we have governments and there is someone out there that wants to rule we will owe money. We will be taxed by those that govern. No matter where you go you will have to depend on someone else to supply you some kind of service. The only thing you can do is reduce those bills. You can conserve. Wast little or nothing and do without whatever that you really don't need. It will be a dull, dull life for you. The only other way I know of it to depend on someone else solely. That they will support you. Like living off you parents or a boy/girl friend. You may get away without having to do anything and not be responsible to anyone. Good luck.

Answer 14

well, it's not that hard. you don't need solar panels or any of that stuff. all you need is 40 acres planted in fruit trees and grain, and maybe some cattle, an outhouse, a hole in the ground lined with something for a refrigerator, a hand pump with a well, and a fairly small house with a fireplace or woodstove. however, if you want to live like the average american, it gets considerably more difficult and expensive.

the 'no bills' idea is a myth. you will always pay taxes.

Answer 15

One way to live an ecologically sustainable life and not have any bills is to live in the woods by a stream or well, and plant your own vegetable garden. Don't use any of the modern devices or electricity. Cook only for the day. Fish you can catch and keep it alive in the water. Raise cattle, goats, chicken, ducks for milk and eggs. Heating water, use the stove. Use a wood burning stove, as wood is available free from the woods. But you would probably need couple 50 acres wooded land to get enough dry wood to burn.

Answer 16

Actually, using a bicycle with a generator to generate electricity is a more reliable form of electric source. Using solar panels as the sole source isn't adviseable, since they aren't that reliable to give continous electricity.



And if you want a continous electricity without hardwork, I suggest using a watermill with a generator on a nearby stream.



Don't forget to store the extra electricity. You can use batteries. But you can also store the extra energy by pumping water to a water tower, the water can be use for other things and even the water movement down can be converted to electricity.







As for heating water.



If you live in a hot/warm enviroment, you can use the heat from the air around you plus the sunlight to heat the water.



If you live in a cold enviroment, you can use the ground's heat to heat the water.



Don't forget to insulate the hot water with insulator, to prevent the heat from escaping.







As for getting water.



If you live in a relatively humid enviroment, you might want to condense the water vapors in the air around you.



You also might want to gather all the rain water you can get.



Don't forget to store the water inside a water tower.







As for refrigation.



Unless you want a refrigator or live a cold place, you might want to process your food to make them last for a long time.



How about pickling them, smoking them, and so on?



Don't forget to secure your food in a safe storage area.







As for bathroom.



Build your own septic tank, it's as simple as that.



A much more simpler and more controversial way is to use a running stream.

Answer 17

You can heat water with fire and in a solar system, but the fire is going to emit pollution.



No one ever said living of the land was practical if it was so easy and wonderful then why did our ancesters ever change into the lifestyle we have now.



Nope its hard and not practical at all. You could get water thru a cistern atop a hill and let gravity feed you home. The Amish in the area use hand pumps to get the water out of the ground.



They also have outhouses with hand dug poopers LOL



They dont have electricty so they use oil lamps for light and ice to keep things cold... The ice is stored in large underground pits covered in straw. If they can keep the ice they do without cold storage. Drink the milk fresh that day and kill and prepare only what they will consume that day or week



some meat is dried to store it.

Answer 18

This would actually not be practical. First of all, if everyone lived off the land and grew their own food, we would push all the wildlife off their land. Which is why it's better for land preservation for people to live in urban centers in apts. rather than in country subdivisions where we use much more square footage per person. This would actually be less green to burn wood to heat your water. A new water heater would be much more energy efficient and less co2 emissions. Anyhow, I think the best thing we could do would be to live in an urban center in a green high rise apartment complex. We could preserve much more of our wilderness lands that way. Buy locally grown produce from green farmers who know what they are doing. Take public transportation or walk. That's what's great about cities like NY or SF. You can walk everywhere.

Also, if you happen to get sick, you have experienced Doctors in the area. If people lived in green cities that would be a much better idea.

Answer 19

Oh there's loads of options.



Find a nice location, where you can either place a wind turbine or water turbine or solar panels, or a combination. If it's a new build home, think about locating it in the side of a hill or mosrtly underground, passive solar energy is enormously energy efficient.





Human waste and food waste can all be recycled nowadays into good compost, which you will be needing for your superveg!



Good luck, there's loads of links online to products and info for self-reliance and sustainability.



Props to you too



x

Answer 20

Installing a geothermal heat pump uses tubes filled with an antifreeze fluid that run in a loop under the ground to warm your house in winter and cool it in summer. The system uses some electricity, which would work well with the solar energy you plan to use. GHPs can also be set up to provide hot water for your home. I plan to install a system when we buy or build a house.

Answer 21

We recently bought a tankless water heater that is electric, I'm sure your solar generated electricity could power it, It only heats the water as you need it. They sell something called a composting toilet that actually turns human waste into compost that can be used to fertilize your garden and instead of wasting our shower, sink, and washing machine water by putting it into a sewer we have 2 gray water ponds that we use to water our plants. There are ways, it just takes a little imagination and research, Check out the Mother Earth News magazine.

Answer 22

Find a cave near a stream of water and move in. Eat only what you find living in and around it. You will not be spending any money to live there. You also will not be causing any greenhouse gases except for what comes out of you. You will not need any electricity since you will not have any electric appliances. Your light will come from the sun and you will go back into the cave at night to sleep. You cannot burn any wood or other substance because that will pollute the air as well as deplete the forest of its trees. Therefore you will have to lay in a large supply of blankets until later, since as you hunt animals for food, you can use their skins for clothes and warmth. You will not be using up any resources that can't be renewed since the plants and animals around the cave reproduce themselves. If you use the proper sanitary methods of digging latrines found in any Army field sanitation manual, you won't be polluting the environment with your waste products. Unfortunately, you probably won't find a mate to live with you unless you happen to find a cave person from the Geico commercial.

Answer 23

I "lived off the land" for 3 years in a 4 season tent. We stayed at camp grounds with bath houses & electricity. It cost us about $300. a month. not including food & gas for the car.

Looking back it just makes me realize how much electricity we all waste, we power up our big houses with all our electronic & gas devices, most of which are always running: the fridge, water heater, clocks tv, computers ect...

I didn't use any of that when i was camping.



I would still be doing it, but we thought it would not be fair to make our children live that way while they were in school. Now we own a home & live like the everyone else.

But as soon as they are off to collage we're selling the house & going back to the good way of life, waking with the sunrise and birds singing, falling asleep at dusk...oh the good life, I miss it.

Answer 24

a solar water heater is one way to heat water.



if you can get the water from the stream (if it is not owned by someone else or public water that you are not allowed to use) then you could have it filtered and use it. on weather channel website , they had a video of a woman who filtered her water i do not if she got it from a stream but she had numerous filters for water she would drink or otherwise consume (ie - by brushing her teeth or cooking).



as for going to the bathroom, the woman used recycled water for her toilet. that is the water she used to wash her hands and clean dishes and wash was used in the toilet since toilets waste so much water even more modern ones.



refrigeration can be avoided in some cases by preserving food by other means (salt, perserve, etc). buying food fresh daily or growing your own food. on the weather channel website, they featured a couple who is trying to limit their environmental impact and they kept their food in a cooler.



you can find out what your impact on the environment, your ecological footprint is by going to the global footprint network's website. it can help you identify ways that you need to improve and areas that you are already doing good living off the land.



i am by no means an expert in this area, but perhaps i know something other people have not told you about yet, so i thought i would answer your question. when it comes to helping the planet, i figure it could not hurt to give you more information or inadvertantly repeat key points.

Answer 25

1) Live near a stream - get water from the stream

2) Use solar or wind generated electricity

3) Do not use any gas powered appliances (stove, furnace)





Fires actually pollute a lot - the smoke they make releases toxins in the air, so that's not a very good idea.



Get a true "ice box" - filled with ice, and store the refrigerated stuff in it.



I'm not sue about how to use the bathroom in an acological manner, though.

Answer 26

First place to look is here.



http://www.motherearthnews.com/



This is the website of a magazine that has promoted the kind of off the grid, back to the land lifestyle you are talking about for several decades.



Get their CD of their early back issues. Costs about $20. That contains some of the best info you could ask for on everything from foraging for food, to vegetable gardening, to raising small livestock, to building your own solar hot water heater.



They also have many books available there on all subjects relevant to sustainable living.

Answer 27

You can filer and re-use "grey Water" and use wind powered turbine for electricity, together with solar power. There are a lot of solutions. Many were covered in a TV programm running in UK - it's called Grand Designs. They have covered a lot of sustainable housing there, and have examples to show.

Here is a link to all the houses that were covered in the program : http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/grand-designs/houses/index.html, and here is the link to the most sustainable house being build on this program: http://www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/grand-designs/houses/S/suffolk_eco_house.html

Have a look - there may be some more.

Answer 28

Go live on one of those 'hippie farms' (like a CO-OP) where everyone lives off the land and you all support each other and it's ecologically sound. I saw one of them on the show of that guy who did "supersize me"..he had two city people go and live for a month on one and they ended up cleaning up their acts a bit. They became more ecologically friendly. I would google the "supersize me" guy's name..then check out his show and see if you can find it from there.

Answer 29

By being mindful. There is no way for you, or any living organism, to live without consuming resources; therefore, you need to understand the consquences of using the resources you do need. Realize what it takes to produce various foods and decide which consequences make the most sense (I recommend reading The Omnivore's Dilema by Michael Pollan ). Realize how many energy resources you consume each day. In general, learn about the reality of your existence. Good luck.

Answer 30

Well, you could set up a tent in the woods and build dig a latrine for your bathroom needs. Buy a bow and arrow to catch your food and cook it over a fire. It's also easy to filter your own water from a river using tubes, buckets and an old t-shirt.

Answer 31

Onica, it's very smart of you to start researching this early. My husband and I thought we had the American dream when we bought a one-acre place back in 1979. It's not possible to produce enough to live on only one acre,without a lot of help!



solar paneling, and some other solar technologies, will begin to return some energy to you in about 10 years. You can grow enough fruit and vegetables for two on one acre; two acres if you have two children. If you are going to raise your own meat, you will need hundreds of chickens and many layers of chicken wire to keep the chicks in. Cattle need a minimum of 1 acre each; pigs need lots of supplemental feed that raises costs, and most communities require licensing or permits for meat animals, to maintain standards.



Research "carbon neutral" living, which is more reasonable. You will probably always have bills, though few will have to be energy bills. There are also kinds of earth-friendly, green construction you can look at, if you want to learn how to build your own house. Some of those are hay bale (the real ones), insulation foam houses, mud brick, underground or partly underground and exposed houses, cave living (yup, people really do have some great cave homes.) There are others, like cement with wine bottles in it, and other unique forms like geodesic domes. You can email me if you have other questions, through my profile.

Answer 32

For a little sweat equity, you can build a rudimentary smoke house... just a fire pit with an enclosure around it. Treated wood is NOT recommended for that purpose, but smoked foods tend to last longer. Dehydration and carbon and whatnot, I'm not smart enough to explain why.

Answer 33

Your unusual cost - Build your house from scratch, on 2 to 5 acres, to provide space for a windmill - noisy sometimes for neighbors (a new development should have a windmill for every house, they are not that noisy with a/c houses). Add 5000 sq ft of solar panels for instant power in daylight - yes, batteries and wind power at night. Estimate $30,000 to $50,000 for the most excellent design and installation. All this juice for your refigerator, freezer, washer and dryer, and those hot water heaters at each bathroom (tankless; or 1 water heater for portions of house, tankless).

1000 to 5000 gallon cisterns collect the rainwater for plants/yard, and for toilets. This would limit usage of supplied water for drinking and bathing, a small amount $20- $150 depending on services with another charge for garbage collection. Unless totally out in the country, where a water well would be necessary and septic lines established (with additional septic tanks).

People in cities can grow food in large pots or greenhouses. With acreage you can grow what you want, in various climates. In desert areas, you will hope to grow a little, maybe by hydroponics. Also, you may want learn to work with livestock, or just get the fresh eggs from another farmer down the road.

With a stream nearby, you can pump water up to a smaller cistern, for volume applications. A separate cistern could be setup for filtered water for showers or baths. Solar heated water pipes can be built around the solar panels also.

So, depends on how much money you have to invest, and the time available for gardening and maintenace.

I am thinking new houses in plot developments should have their own cisterns as well as windmills with solar energy added too. Yet, now building might slow with mortgage investment slowing. Best to build as you can afford.

Answer 34

depending where you are living yes you can live off the land you forgot your ancesters did .if you own land in a wooded area wher there is game and streams for fishing and you have land you can till a garden,you can grow your own food hunt your own food and fish for your own food if your working you will need money to pay your taxes and expenises to and from your job and clothing. and your other bills dealing with insurance and medical bills

Answer 35

In my opinion one cannot live without using electricity, it does control our every day life, only we have to use it wisely and economically, one has to switch off gadgets when going out. The television if there is nothing interesting there is no need switching it on. Iron dress once, all these will save electricity and bills, we will have bills but reasonably.

Answer 36

You can use solar water heaters. Also you can operate a refrigerator off of electricity generated by your own solar panels, you just need powerful solar panels. Also, you can install an underground cistern and divert rain run off into it, this can be used to water your plants throughout the year, though it would not be safe as drinking water.

Answer 37

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Answer 38

I too am answering this question because I want to be able to refer back to it! It is possible to have a negligible footprint but it takes a lot of upfront research to gather info on what's available. It varies in different parts of the country. Systems definitely exist for everything you've mentioned, but feasibility differs depending on the natural environment & the marketplace in which you find yourself.

Answer 39

Don't forget about wind power. In some locales, especially along coastal areas, this is an excellent source of power generation.



Also, if wanting to reduce your footprint, don't forget about materials used in constructing your home, outbuildings, etc.

Answer 40

Better yet, how can you live any life without any bills? If you find out, please share with the rest of us. Taxes count as bills so you would need to not have to pay taxes on your property. Good Luck!

Answer 41

A lot of people will not like what I have to write. Some of them have been sold a shoddy bill of goods by eco-nutters who never think about the ecological costs of their alternatives.



Solar panels for electricity are a poor joke in my estimation. Unless you are prepared to take proper care of batteries you may find you have to replace them prematurely, which almost doubles the ecological footprint of the solar panel electricity system and extends a payback period to decades. If you happen to live close to a source of grid power then it is very difficult to see how solar electricity cells save anything, including CO2 emissions. A solar electricity system is likely to cost around $15,000 for a fairly modest set-up. That is many years of electricity bills, a couple of decades if you take reasonable electricity saving measures which are widely known. Fundamentally, money is a representation of energy.



It makes far more sense to install a solar hot water service with a GRID power backup if your local climate is such that the water in the solar collectors will not freeze and split the tubes. Other systems using a non-freezing fluid in the collectors are also available but may need an electricity powered heat pump to drive them. These can halve electricity bills or take even more off depending on the claimate.



The water you take from a nearby stream is quite likely to have high levels of giardia and e.coli from time to time and if the steps you take to purify it have their own ecological footprint. Apart from that removal of water from a stream has it's own footprint and consequences. If there is a municipal supply of clean water going past the door it is wasteful in my opinion to not use it.



Sewage treatment is another case of the same sort of thing. How are you going to treat sewage and how are you going to dispose of the treated effluent? If your locality has a municipal sewage treatment system you can almost guarantee that treatment will be to a higher standard than anything that you can achieve even with a major investment in equipment. That investment has it's own ecological footprint.



All these things depend on economies of scale. It is far more efficient (read, "has a smaller ecological footprint") to use services that are already supplied than to try to duplicate them on a small scale.



Refrigeration? Stop buying and drinking canned or bottled drinks and use tap water. That means a smaller, less powerful fridge and less opening of the doors!



If of course you are living in an isolated farmhouse all bets are off.



I recommend you look at the Rocky Mountains Institute website for sane advice on these matters. Some other sites are just plain nuts.

Answer 42

Check out this guy, he is kind of trying it,

http://blogun.podshowcreator.com/podcasts.aspx?feedid=561



He has solar panels, windmill and a 1500 pound battery for storage.

Answer 43

Have you ever watched that UK TV show, 'The Good Life'?'



They tried what you are asking - it didn't work for them either.



What you are talking about is similar to communism - it sounds good in theory but doesn't really work out in practice!

Answer 44

You can do your cooking and heating with a woodstove, and they make them with water heaters on the side with a pump for bathing. Use all of your waste water that isn't filtered and reused for irrigating your garden.



A composting toilet is also a good idea. It uses sawdust or similar material to cover waste much the same way as a cat box.



A gravity fed cistern ( where rainwater is stored higher than the level you will eventually use it) can be used if your home site is sloped properly. Catch rainfall from the roof to drain into the cistern, then thru the filtration system to the kitchen/bath on the lower level of the house.



A building that is superinsulated, like one made of strawbales, and uses passive solar is another great way to reduce the amount of resources necessary.

Answer 45

Living off the land is not hard. The minimum we need to survive is food, water, and shelter.



We humans make it harder because we don't just want to live, we want to live in comfort. Do you really need electricity? Do you really need refrigeration? Do you really need a hot shower? Do you really need a toilet that flushes?



Living off the land is not hard, living comfortably off the land is the hard part!

Answer 46

Simply put, you can do it but it will cost a lot of money up front. You are looking at about a 30+ year simple payback.

Answer 47

Study the Amish way of life. They have lived this way for hundreds of years. Works for them.

Good Luck.

Answer 48

For refrigeration, you can use dry ice in a large container. It never melts only dissolves into a fog. It lasts a very long time and now these days we have those blue ice packs that can last for up to one week!! For bathroom, you can get a well and a septic tank, you would have running water from the WELL and it would go to your tank...either that or you could go to the gas station when you want to take a leak.

Answer 49

I am responding because I want your question in my list to refer to. I naturally live green. I use a bicycle for transportation.

Live in a tent in a place where heat is not needed.

Answer 50

SILLY TO THINK BUT UNDER A BRIDGE AND BEGGING FOR FOOD IS ONE WAY NO BILLS NO HASSLES OUT IN THE COUNTRY BUT IN REALITY WE ALL HAVE SOMTHING TO PAY BE IT FOR GASOLINE OR JUST FOOD

CELLAR ROOT DUG IN TO FROST LINE AND DEEP TO REFRIGERATE

Answer 51

As unpopular as his answer is, Alexander G has the best answer I expect to see here. 'Living off the land' is the ecologically UNsustainable lifestyle. Heating with firewood would produce more pollution in on month than I do all year.

Answer 52

well as far as refrigeration goes, as long as your water is cold then u can wrap your food up and keep it in cold water. As far as the bathroom goes, do like the animals do. go in like the woods or make something where you can dump the waste and reuse it, or dig a hole in the ground, then when you are done, cover it up.

Answer 53

Go live up in the woods or live like an indian.

Answer 54

I have to say I admire you for wanting to live this way. A few years ago--as I was watchiing a Pat Robertson show on TV --he was talking about the importance of living debt free. At that time I was in debt with many stores rearing three teens. I was so caught up in the truths he was sharing about being out of debt that I started to try to live this way. One by one we paid off our debts, In doing this as we paid off our debts we started to realize that we didn't need half the things we were charging. It took some thought and much wanting to live free of debt and worry. We stopped charging things and said if we buy anything we pay for it--otherwise we don't buy--because really in essence when you charge things -that means you don't have the money to buy it then!!! we were only living on other people's money! a sobering thought! we paid off all our debts--except for the electricity--gas and water phone things like utilities that have to be paid by the month. We then started to have more money to spend so we started paying off chunks of our house principal amt. God really showed us that you can live this way--We never stopped giving God his 10% tithes and he blessed it with more. I am so happy to say that today I live in a house that is over 300,000 dollars paid with cash money when we purchased it. We drive a car paid for -- We owe nothing except our utilities that come in monthly. What a freedom to live this way. People look at us and wonder how we do this--Its because of the principal of owe no man nothing!!!

Now to get to the ecology part of your letter--- I had an aunt that had a spring (water running out of a mountain) in case you are so young that you never heard of this! She (alone) built pipes that ran from this spring water into her house into her sink and her bath room, The water never cut off -it ran freely through the pipes and on to the pipes to take the water away from the house. What a pioneer woman she was.! She built her own canning room on the outside of her house to keep the heat from the wood stove from heating her house when she canned vegetables and fruits that she grew in her gardens. She stored a large room with canned vegetables and fruits that would feed all the county--It costs her nothing except labor -sweat- and a want to help people. She saved her seeds from one year to the next and bartered things that she didn't have to make up for needed things. What a life-- She is gone now---lived to be 82 yrs young--but fed and took care of so many people, yet she had no job that paid her anything. She truly lived off her land--bought for her by a daughter that grew up to be very wealthy by learning the saving rules. She by the way- kept things cold by putting jugs of milk into the cold spring water.. Her fire place was hardly ever with out a pot of something cooking in the winter months as she kept the house warm from wood off the land. People from every where went to her house and were fed if they were hungry--warmed if they were cold and entertained by her wit and her charm. You have the right idea- work at making it happen!

Answer 55

Don't buy a TV, don't buy cable.

Couldn't you buy a generator for the washing machine, dryer, refridgerator, stove, (skip the microwave.), water heater.

Answer 56

You should scape to the amazonas or met haborigens joining their tribus. They do not have to pay bills because goverment determined that they have property lands...

Answer 57

hhmm the Amazone region is ideal or Ushuia

no bills and all natural

Answer 58

i'll make this quick, use ur noggin and when in need look up for the answers.

Love u

Bye

Answer 59

I dont know, but if the cavemen did it, why cant we? Maybe you should research the cavemen. By the way Im not trying to be smart or funny.

Answer 60

Ok, One delima if you want to live bill free. Solar power requires Maintenace. So you will have a bill sooner or later. sorry. Good idea. Seems that the Survivor Guy on TV is what you will need to study if you want NO bills. Good Idea though. We can all learn from this. Keep sharing.... Thanks, Geenie

Answer 61

Start with baby steps.



then ha ha, I don't know.



It's great, at least you care. :):)



Peace & Love,

Madeline.

Answer 62

have you tried living in a tribal environment yet? in a third world country?

Answer 63

Live in a tent in the woods and use leaves for toilet paper and such.

Answer 64

The first part is easy, living a fully modern life is ecologically sustainable.



No bills is a bit more difficult. Owe no one else any money. No services or goods (and somehow no taxes either).



Looks like you might have to move to an uninhabited island.

Answer 65

PERMACULTURE ANSWER

this is the most famous and best philosophy



What is PERMACULTURE



It is a collection of sustainable ideas from around the world coupled to present level of knowledge

ideally suited for those who want to get back to the country and build a auto sufficient situation for themselves and the family or a community .



People plant rather for the quality of life and to feed their families, than for the market ,so the motivation and the manner are totally different from ordinary agriculture .



Although the basic concept of Permaculture also applies to Organic and sustainable farming,



Utilizing soil management ,and mulching



The utilization of space is more concentrated ,thinking in cubic and vertical terms instead or merely horizontal on the plain ,



Having many principle to follow such as utilizing all resources and following and enhancing energy flows ,

for example the ditch around the house catches the rain water and leads it through the chicken house where it cleans and picks up the manure to deposit it in the vegetable patch





Permaculture means permanent agriculture

a concept put forward by Bill Mollison in the 60`s



Which offers practical solutions for energy systems ,infrastructure ,intelligent design in housing,

animal shelter ,water systems and sustainable agricultural practices.

With the world and it`s history as it`s source

From the chinampas of Mexico to the terraced gardens of the Andes.

From the dessert wadis to the steppes of Russia.

Covering all climatic conditions temporal, dessert, humid and dry tropics.

with chapters on soil ,Water harvesting and land design,Bio diversity

Earth working ,Spirals in nature,Trees and water ,utilizing energy flows,

Strategy for an alternative nation



this book also has many gardening tips,bio-gas,companion planting and ideas for structures ,how to cool down houses in hot climates ,how to warm up houses in cold climates with out using technology but rather by design.



The Permaculture designers manual by Bill Mollison,which cost about 40 dollars.

and is the best all round book you can get,on Environmental design,.(tagiari publishing, [e-mail])



Some other writers that are on the Internet are

David Homegrown

Larry Santoyo

Kirk Hanson



Masanobu Fukuaka has written ,

One-Straw Revolution

The Road Back to Nature

The Natural Way of Farming

http://www.context.org/iclib/ic14/fukuok...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/masanobu_fu...



Simon Henderson

and Bill Molisson.



a Representative of the concept in USA is

Dan Hemenway at [e-mail]

[e-mail]

http://barkingfrogspc.tripod.com/frames....

http://csf.colorado.edu/perma/ypc_catalo...





there is a Permaculture Institute in Australia

there is also a Dry land strategy Institute in North America



Source(s):

Until recently I was a permaculture consultant for the department of Ecology for the regional government of Guerrero in Mexico

relevant links

bio diversity

https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20070504150425AAAwVwA

more

http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=Air7R3XrM06xhiuR4g4Vj9kjzKIX?p=permaculture&cp=1&tp=3&tnu=24

http://answers.yahoo.com/my/qa/index;_ylt=AstliBNggQUMzyA2KVzM3RXsy6IX?link=starred

Answer 66

You could live on a iland

Answer 67

There are only a select few states that don't have a property tax. In texas it's impossible to have no bills because of that so you have to work even if you live totally off your own land.

Answer 68

Yes we are doing it.

I mow the lawn with my horse

I only eat plants and animals that died of natural causes.

Never cook eat food raw or warmed in sun.

I drive a donkey cart to store

Wash clothes in creek by hand

dry the on rocks.

I only turn electric on for 1 hour a day.

take bath in creek or shower in rain.

Remodeling a cave to live in 50 degrees car battery for light.'

most of our clothes are hand woven out of hemp.

shoes for kids are made from leather road kill sandals and tires for bottom of shoes.

repaired old shopping cart for kids to collect empty soda cans.

Beds are old newspaper & tree Moss with hemp covering. furniture is made from logs and tree stumps.

Floor carpet is woven out of brightly colored rags woven in circle.

My job is picking seed pine cones for forestry dept

This cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000. -- Lowell Ponte "The Cooling", 1976



If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000...This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age. -- Kenneth E.F. Watt on air pollution and global cooling, Earth Day (1970)



What we've got to do in energy conservation is try to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, to have approached global warming as if it is real means energy conservation, so we will be doing the right thing anyway in terms of economic policy and environmental policy. -- Timothy Wirth, former U.S. Senator (D-Colorado)



If radical environmentalists were to invent a disease to bring human populations back to sanity, it would probably be something like AIDS -- Earth First! Newsletter



Human happiness, and certainly human fecundity, is not as important as a wild and healthy planets...Some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along. -- David Graber, biologist, National Park Service



The collective needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of humans. -- Dr. Reed F. Noss, The Wildlands Project



If I were reincarnated, I would wish to be returned to Earth as a killer virus to lower human population levels. -- Prince Phillip, World Wildlife Fund



Cannibalism is a "radical but realistic solution to the problem of overpopulation." -- Lyall Watson, The Financial Times, 15 July 1995



ALL USEFUL IDIOTS of GREEN PARTY



SO the ANSWER to YOUR QUESTION IS THEY WANT a CARBON TAX to tax evil OIL Corporations DEM Senator DODD. that means trickle down to you $6.00 a gallon Gas Higher food prices TRUCKS deliver food run on FUEL,higher electric they will build NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS its a low carbon foot print .



ANSWER: ask teachers What happen to the polar bears during the last 5 ICE AGES?.

Al Gore JET do you agree Al needs to drive a electric Golf Cart instead of a Jet his power bill is $3,000 a month for 1 of his houses



Step it UP We want a carbon Tax,Carbon tax on internet, it would increase gas $8.00 a gallon increase food and goods because of shipping cost .and a increase in electric price ,Its a problem lets fix it by Shut off all electric 6 days a week,only turn water on city for 1 hour a day, We have to SAVE the EARTH ,ride bikes outlaw driving except politicians, 1 gallon of gas a day , mandatory jail think live green ! EU Carbon Tax paid by the Workers,Bush Al Gore & Hillary Trust the UN carbon Tax

Its not the SUN its YOU

Answer 69

go and find a island by yourself

Answer 70

To live in the modern world, with the population densities we support, what you suggest is almost impossible except for a very few people. It is not want you'd want any significant number of people to do.



The abundance we enjoy for so many arises from everyone doing their specific job, sharing the results, and using modern methods of production, distribution and storage.



That said, if you want to go to Walden Pond for a little while, find some land you can lease in the middle of nowhere and go for it.

Answer 71

You can live an itinerate lifestyle under bridges and over passes. Theres lots of stuff to eat out in the woods. The hungrier you are the better you'll get at it. Hang out behind restuarants they throw lots of food away.

Answer 72

If you want help just look at the guy named "survivor man". He has built a house that you want.

Answer 73

no idea

Answer 74

J-LOVE

Answer 75

You should watch wife swap sometimes - they have folks like you on there all the time with new ideas :)

Answer 76

If you find out, let me know please!