“[People] think off grid is being a caveman.”

Off-grid living might seem like the lifestyle of a hermit, but that’s not accurate.

In a video, TikToker Sarah (@its_sarahann_) takes her viewers through a day going into town from her typical off-grid place in New Mexico. She says she lives around an hour from the nearest town and tries to go there every 7 to 10 days.

Her day consists of getting her nails done, shopping for groceries, and returning purchases. She shows her viewers how living off-grid does not mean she lives without comforts like Wi-Fi or carrot juice.

At the end of the video, she returns to her home and shows a quick view of her skylight and the rainstorm that rolled in.

Sarah’s videos have earned her over 178,000 followers and 4.5 million likes, raising awareness of the off-grid lifestyle.

Many in the comments showed a fundamental misunderstanding of what it means to live off-grid. At the most basic level, off-grid living just means independence from public utility services.

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Usually, this means having a well for water and solar panels for energy.

As one commenter summarized, “Off grid just means you do not get energy or water from the grid… why are people hating on this?”

Not being beholden to the power grid can also help with resilience during extreme weather conditions. When others attached to the grid may have a power outage, independent energy from something like solar power can continue running.

Off-grid living also generally uses less energy, especially energy sourced from dirty energy sources like burning coal. In addition to saving on energy bills, this also helps reduce the heat-trapping pollution that is contributing to climate change.

Even if you are living on the grid, installing solar panels can be a great home energy hack as they can bring your energy costs down to nearly nothing. EnergySage provides a free platform to get installation quotes from vetted local solar installers.

Although buying solar panels might not be in everyone’s budget, leasing solar panels could be a good option depending on your situation. Palmetto’s LightReach solar panel leasing program installs solar panels for no money down and lets users lock in low energy rates.

One commenter wrote, “[People] think being off grid is being a caveman.” However, Sarah’s videos show that this is not the case.

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