Man Spends 6 Years Living Off-Grid with Rainwater & Solar in a Self-Built Cabin
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- Опубликовано: 13 мар 2023
- Canadian Castaway has been living off-grid in his self-built cabin for 6 years now, and we sat down with him to find out what it's like day-to-day, how much it cost him to build and live off the grid, and what he's changed over the years to make his alternative lifestyle more comfortable and functional.
You can follow Canadian Castaway on RUclips and Instagram here:
/ @canadiancastaway
/ canadiancastaway
He also has plans of his cabin for sale here:
ravenhouse-design.ca/products...
Canadian Castaway lives in an 18' x 22' cabin with his girlfriend and his cat. It has a kitchen, living room, and bathroom on the main floor, and a movie-watching space, a home office, and a bedroom in a couple of lofts above.
His electricity is from two solar arrays that are set up in different spots on his land to maximize sun exposure, and the panels charge a pair of lithium batteries. He also has a generator for backup electricity, which he runs for about an hour a day during grey winter days to top up his batteries.
His heat comes from a wood stove and his hot water and cooktop run on propane, although he has installed an electric water heater for use on sunny days (when there's extra solar power) so that he can reduce the amount of propane he uses.
He collects rainwater from the roof of the small house, and stores it in a 6,000-liter cistern in a shed. During summer months when there is plenty of rain, the tank is always full. During the winter, he goes for about 5 months without rain, so he has to ration the water (about 1000 liters per month). The tap water is filtered through a nylon filter to remove sediment, and the drinking water goes through a UV lamp filtration system.
He initially bought the land and built the cabin for approx. $64,000 CAD but that was done by taking a risk and building without a building permit. The building inspector has since required some upgrades that significantly increased the cost of the project, including putting in a road, putting in an engineered septic system, increasing the size of his cabin's footprint to meet the minimum building code size, etc.
He initially wanted to build and live off-grid because it seemed cheaper, and with the cost of land being so low, the entire project cost less than what an empty lot costs now. But he does say that while he enjoys the feeling of being self-sufficient, it's also very limiting because you can't leave the home unattended. He might eventually plug into the grid if the power lines get closer to the point where it would be affordable to do so.
Thanks for watching!
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COMMENTS
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CREDITS
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Music Credits: Exploring Alternatives
Editing Credits: Exploring Alternatives
Filming Credits: Exploring Alternatives
Additional clips provided by Canadian Castaway
(volthium battery and UV water filter)
#offgrid #offgridliving #cabintour 
Хобби
Thanks for watching! You can follow Canadian Castaway on RUclips and Instagram here:
www.youtube.com/@canadiancastaway
instagram.com/canadiancastaway/
He also has plans of his cabin for sale here:
ravenhouse-design.ca/products/sachas-cabin
The owner is refreshingly honest about the challenges of being off-grid -- very refreshing!
This guy is richer then any famous Hollywood person living in a 10 bedroom 8 bath house.
Absolutely 💯
Why he would not be? He got got close to 3 million subscribers, while we the viewers live paycheck to paycheck watching him live his dream life.
@@BookofJob3XVII why are you watching?
@@bonniewatson178 I’m not. Just reading the comments.
Some things were definitely luxury items for living in the middle of nowhere, like that lift system and those vehicles he had.
That project of living this way - 100% off-grid - is just awesome. Beautiful house, beautiful area. Great job.
What a beautiful home. Smart layout and it has a full sized fridge.
Appreciate the education on building costs, permitting, and adjusting to the reality of mother nature.
Thank you for sharing your world with all of us.
Fridges don't use a lot of power...Oven and Dryer are the 2 biggest draws in any house.
Totally agree with your post, I like it a lot! I do wonder why he isn’t using a mass heating wood stove, but just the steel wood stove. Of course a mass heater is very heavy and requires a stable foundation, lots of work or money, but it will heat any home thoroughly for hours (over night) with just one or two fires a day. Look up Finnish Mass Heater or Siberian Mass heater for example.
Cheers
Could save on fridge use in the winter!
I remember seeing this place shortly after it was built. Very cool to see how far it’s come. Truly a beautiful home
Yea, was it in this channel? I remember this
Beautiful home and amazing to hear that he had no experience in building. What an amazing job. Appreciate him being honest about the work involved and the limitations of off grid living. You should be very proud of yourself. Best of luck to you sir.
4:30 yes! Looks so much bigger than 500 square feet! Great build!
Oh I wish I was 30 years younger! I would certainly love this way! 😊
Oh man I appreciate your honesty about the composting toilets.
That was refreshingly honest. And such a beautiful spot!
Nicest most functional and efficient off grid cabin I've seen.
what a great looking home!! I love his transparency . Thank you so much! I hope for nothing but the best for him and his partner!
What a beautiful home, and property. This man has done a wonderful job. I’d live there forever
i really enjoyed the story, but, most of all, i loved the sounds of his spoken english. lived in Quebec for 35 years, moved away almost 8 years ago, and this video made it clear to me i miss home. thank you.
Great job! Stay off grid as looking as you can. Having to rely on others or other resources will come soon enough. Keeps you healthy as well.
loved watching Canadian Castaway build this cabin years ago
The place looks great. We are still transitioning to off grid living in Australia and can’t wait till we get to your stage! The snow is beautiful 😍
I love your cabin, it's very cozy! Thanks for sharing with us!
Very tasteful and well organized and pretty spacious too!
So refreshing to get an honest story and great that he is open about the costs to build the house. Thanks
Saw this house maybe 2 years ago? I've been dreaming of this layout since - one of the structures I'd like built for me!
Love the way he went into detail about the pros and cons of living off grid. Also like his tiny cabin. Thank you Matt and Danielle ❤❤
Very beautiful and cozy place to call home. Congratulations!
Love the honesty and humble, candid nature of this man! Great follow-up episode, thank you.
Thanks for posting and sharing. Very nice to hear from this homeowner.
I've followed this guy on IG for yrs.. such a cool set up
Same. Excited to see this. I've had their plans in my cart so many times!
What a beautiful little home!!
LOVE this, Quebec is very beautiful , This home has such spectacular views I love the design throughout . I appeciate his honesty of life off grid You have created such a wonderful home for you and your girlfriend . Ontario Canada
My favorite cabin so far 😍. Would love to see it in spring/summer .
What a lovely house and place around.
Your cabin looks amazing . What a beautiful place to live in.
Very proud of you!
9:09 thumbs up for the cat!
Replacing that wood stove with a very small masonry heater / oven would be a great idea & save a lot of wood.
Seen this cabin in his previous video a few years ago my favorite off grid cabin I’ve seen in my life inspired me to build my own off grid cabin looking for a property to build on!
Property was so much easier just a few years ago. Where are you looking?
This is so cool, I’m jealous - I admire the drive and the vision of the super cool guy, there are lessons to learn here…
He's adorable. Love his accent. Incredible build. Good points about off-grid being limiting, like not being able to leave town during certain times of the year (winter!). I definitely need winter escapes.
Awesome off-grid set up and well done on scoring that land so cheap :)
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. Your location is beautiful.
Note on Starlink: You can convert it to 12V and it will use less power. You can even bypass the Starlink router and use it with a Peplink device. Others have done it with great success
What an amazing and inspiring video!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for your comment :)
What an amazing place to be! Love all the thought put into the water setup and the honesty about how many showers a week you can really take!
Hello from northern Alberta ! just found your channel, awesome build you have there, You will never build a house for that price in or near any bigger city , and then you would never be able to use the thing that nature can give you :) but yes you do have some limits when you just heat with wood, I'm 100% off grid and have been for 10 years and love it :)
What size solar do you have?
A beautiful cabin!
It sure is, he did a great job designing and building it! Thanks for watching :)
@@ExploringAlternatives The cabin is so good that it’s almost discouraging to a lazy person like me. Love the cat!
Good to see you back, lots of improvements
I’d love to do this. Amazing work. 👍
Beautiful cabin. This is how most of my family lived for years. I miss it.
The view here is amazing, thank you for sharing
So cool to see this place after so many years and first time to see it in the winter. Looking great 😊
Love his honesty/humility…
Beautiful home, layout, smart builder with no experience, added as it go. Brilliant 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👊🏽💯🐈⬛, wood elevator!!💣💣
A really great, thorough look into the Canadian off grid experience
The timing of this is amazing! I was just looking at the old interview from three years ago for reminder/inspiration. Thanks for the update video @canadiancastaway and @ExploringAlternatives!
So happy you enjoyed this update! We definitely had fun catching up with him again. Thanks and have a great day :)
What a fantastic set up. Absolutely brilliant
I adore your super cute kitty 🐈⬛
Beautiful home .
An excellent overview about living off-grid, the benefits and challenges. This guy is very real.
Beautiful comfy off grid home!!!
Wonderful
I get that those expenses are a lot to him. They would be a lot to me. But the people that have property around him are spending WAY more than he is. They spent more for land. They probably did pay to have services hooked up. They probably have bigger houses. And there is a good chance that's a weekend/vacation home for them. It's a very nice place, it's comfortable. He's had to update some things, but things like using just a fan to pull in warm air so the water tank doesn't freeze...brilliant. Yes, he would have a difficult time leaving for a week during the winter, and not just because of the kitty, although she is a concern, but the fire is what keeps his water from freezing up. So, he leaves for a week during the summer and the neighbors come to take care of the kitty.
As always an excellent and honest video. Many thanks.
Great video...👍
All you need! Love it!
Not that easy to live without Hydro Quebec in winter it is quite clear but he does so well getting all my admiration. What a guy! And loving cats!
Details of the house are clearly detailed, septic pump, heating off grid, waking up at night to keep going the stove, shoveling solar panel etc. The day doesn’t have enough hours to do everything! Very well done, like very much the fact it is during Canadian winter. Thanks for all informations you provided!
Very cool. Thank you for sharing!
Very practical guy. I lucked out and as a condition of sale the sellers provided a letter from Nova Scotia Power that the 25 yr old line already here would be renovated for use at closing. They tried to get out of it. Too bad, so sad. But, they are hardly a reliable source of power. It’s privatized and their lines arent maintained and outages last way too long. It’s a coal based grid as well.
What a beautiful home
The man uses his brain a natural surviver well done
The cabin is beautiful. Congrats
very informative, thanks!
Nicely done!
Great video. This property is very similar to ours, so it was interesting to see how he approached various aspects of off-grid life.
Tellement honête! Merci!
Wonderful work
Nice work!
This guys my hero!!
As Napoleon said on witnessing the arrival of Blucher's Prussians, " Wow!!!! " CC's home is stunning. Really stunning.
I love this sooooooooo much!
Another great video guys! Somehow, I wasn't seeing your new videos... now I need to go back and check a bunch of missing episodes! Cheers
Thanks so much, happy you enjoyed this follow up on Canadian Castaway :) Have a great day!
This is an amazing accomplishment my friend!
The double loft is veryyyy cool! Beautiful house
They have standalone propane heaters that have thermostat control with an electronic spark igniter that runs off of C batteries. Put new batteries and a fresh tank of propane and set it to 50°. You should be good for any trips under four or five days.
Your cabin look amazing.
Craftsmanship is as good as gonna get.
What. You need to do next is put energy windows on the south side of your house.
Im 5 years offgrid . Solar,well,woodstove, lpgas,genorater. Self built cabin .
Beautiful home!
Very nice. Would love that. But far away from people. Deep in the woods. 😍
On the one hand, that was probably a lot of money to come up with. On the other, compared to Ontario pricing, that's one hell of a steal.
Being an adult is knowing that 1k is a lot of money, but also not a lot of money.
Irrespective of the conundrum of to be plugged-in, or not-to-be-plugged-in, the house is stunning! I don't understand why people like having homes that are larger than 500 square feet, that's perfection in my book. 😊
Wow! What a homey, beautiful cabin, and an awesome setting! Fantastic lifestyle!
Awesome! Very nice!
Awesome house! Honest interpretation of the total cost and what its like living in a high end off grid home! Safe adventures!🤙
So cool! And so honest about problems and challenges! ))
C'est magnifique!!
So cool
Bisa irit sekali dengan model kehidupan seperti ini
It's a beautiful little house.
It sure is, he did a great job with it! Thanks for checking out the video :)
A few oil filled radiant low electric use heaters may keep things warm enough from freezing or ck Toyotomi heaters
11:50 look into putting mini hydro power plant if you have any streams on your property. It can make 5-10x power than solar