OUR ENERGY BILL HAS DEFINITELY GONE DOWN

Off The Grid

Off the grid? Ten miles from an electrical outlet?

You imagine a log cabin, a couple of kerosene lanterns, and cots with sleeping bags. Instead, as far as we can tell, Brad and Rose Link have simply transferred a comfortable life in Longview’s Old West Side to their lakefront dream cabin, and are powering it themselves.

At 900 square feet it’s got cabin dimensions, but the Links don’t seem to be living a life of privation otherwise. Beautifully situated on Swift Reservoir, with a wood burning stove, propane appliances, and solar power that stores itself in their own battery system, the Links’s place is supremely practical and efficient, never mind the fossil fuel police.

“I’m the Watt Nazi,” said Brad, retired and supremely comfortable turning the family’s lifelong vacation retreat into a full-time retirement abode. “We use multiple sources of power, and we gauge our consumption based on what’s available.” The Links and their neighbors are tinkerers, trying new alternate energy fixes but not vying for LEED certification.

“I always wanted to have my own recreational cabin on a lake, somewhere,” said Brad. Added his wife, Rose, “We try to leave enough power at night to make coffee in the morning.” middlemen, the Energy Service Companies, or ESCos, it rejuvenated their home and industrial energy services and contracting businesses.

“It was such an easy thing. The energy contractor brought in all the bulbs and lights and switches,” said Michelle Casanover, owner-operator, with her husband Mike, of Grocery Outlet in Longview. “We had dark spots in the store that are now brightened up, and our energy bill has definitely gone down.”

Utilities have fostered the negawatt revolution by offering attractive rebates on energy-saving devices and systems. ESCos perform free energy audits, price an energy-saving “fix” for customers, then work with utilities to cut costs and offer attractive financing. The result is a turnkey solution for end-users, new business for the ESCos, and energy savings for utilities and their customers.

Michelle and Mike have a brighter store and lower electricity bills. Said Michelle, “They even disposed of all the old fixtures!”

An elaborate inverter — all part of the $7,000 worth of components necessary to make the entire system, from solar panels to TV power, work — apportions energy between current demands and storage in the lead acid batteries outside. Yes, as backup they do have a generator, but pride themselves on using what they’ve stored.

They pride themselves, too, on their inventiveness, and attention. “Our water supply is gravity-fed, pure spring water, another savings for us.”

It’s a putterer’s dream. Brad even has a measurer on his phone to let him track the optimal angle for the solar panels as the sun’s position in the sky changes over the seasons. But in the best spirit of that American dream, the lake cabin, the negawatts are less important than the campfires, family gatherings, and wine on the dock at dusk.

If this is life off the grid, bring it on!