Last fall I was fortunate to tour Peter & Eileen Allen's house in West Chazy. Besides being your typical rural house located a long ways from the road in West Chazy, it was totally off the grid and relied on almost no conventional sources of energy except for about 100 gallons of propane a year.

Yet, they also have all the modern conveniences of life � running water and bathroom, radiant heating, a computer, and a rather large television set. At the same time they aren't spewing the same toxins out the chimney of their house or buying electric from massive power companies that make power from cheap coal power.

They chose to build their house this way, as it was a new structure and they didn't want to live right on the road. Living deep in the woods, it would be expensive to run electric wires back there, making it very cost competitive to live off the grid. And all it took was a little bit of planning and years of hard work, to develop a system that works outside of the mainstream way of building a house.

Their house ended up as a superior product. They chose to install a whole foot of insulation in their house and bury it partially underground, instead of the typical double wide that dots the hills exposed to the wind and with little more then 3 or 4 inches of insulation to keep it warm. This cuts down on the energy they need to keep the house warm, and allows them to heat it with far less wood then a standard house.

Energy is produced by common things around the house. They have a large 400 watt solar collector that picks up solar electric energy, and a 200 watt hydro system that provide a significant amount of electricity that keep their batteries charged to provide peak power whenever they need it. They don't didn't lose much at all from living off the grid, except for the energy bills.

Their house shows that it is possible for one to live off the grid and in the woods without giving up so many of the conveniences we enjoy in modern life. You can have the toys, but not consume fossil fuels to produce them. You can live a relatively normal life, deep back in the woods, but also enjoy the constant pleasures of the natural around you.

To be sure, this type of living � essentially homesteading � and building the house from the ground up isn't for everybody. You need to have a healthy sort of curiosity, and a real desire to live out in the sticks. Yet, it can be done and for those who want to do it can choose to build this way. It might not be as sustainable as living in an existing structure on an existing developed piece of land, but it certainly has it's place in our world.