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Explorer

Past stories Living off-the-grid New Brunswick's Saint John River Ontario's Bruce Trail Canadian Ski Marathon Elk Island National Park Rallying for rallysport Montreal - Circus city Beluga Bytes Dawson - a musical adventure Bald Eagle Confederation Trail Boning up on the badlands Ukkusiksalik National Park Geocaching Discover Cypress Hills Saint Joseph's Oratory A walk through Stanley Park Sudbury's science centre Acadia continues Toronto's underground world

PHOTO: ISTOCKPHOTO.COM

You will have to pardon Ziggy Kleinau for looking a little smug when the lights go out in his Lion's Head, Ont., neighbourhood. While others are plunged into darkness during the occasional power failure and wonder how long it will be until the ice cream melts, Kleinau took his power supply into his own hands 14 years ago and has never looked back.

"Those around me have gone long times without power," he says, "but I have never had an outage."

Kleinau is a pioneer in modern-day off-the-grid living, a sustainable, renewable lifestyle once the domain of only hippies and eccentrics that is gaining popularity as utility costs rise and consumers become more informed about their effect on the environment. Today, it is not unusual for home owners to shop for solar panels, wind turbines and other tools that allow them to reduce their ecological footprint.

"There is absolutely more interest," says Kleinau, founder of the Lion's Head-based Citizens for Renewable Energy, which runs workshops for people interested in living sustainably and lobbies governments to subsidize materials that will make the lifestyle more affordable.

Anthony Ketchum and his wife Mary got the idea to build a sustainable weekend home in Hockley Valley an hour north of Toronto a decade ago when they foresaw difficulties servicing their four-acre property the "old-fashioned" way. Now the couple offers public tours of their house each April during Earth Week. Ketchum guesses about 1,500 people have taken the tour.

Before the Ketchums began building in 1996, they picked out a spot on their densely wooded property for the new home. Then they met Greg Allen, a consultant who specializes in building sustainable homes. Allen took one look at the land and suggested they build on a steeper, more thickly wooded part of the property that would give the house southern and western sun exposure. The Ketchums took Allen's advice, adding large glass walls to the western and southern sides of the house to take advantage of the sunlight and trap heat in winter. They also used tiles floors and brick walls that act as thermal masses, absorbing the sun's heat and warming the house. Building on a steep slope also turned out to be an advantage. The Ketchums were able to tap into ground heat to provide additional warmth. Many buildings are beginning to use this technology, called ground-source heating, to provide heat for homes and offices. The Ketchums' second home, in Toronto, is heated using three holes 53 metres deep. But the decision to produce your own energy is not without its challenges. The Ketchums largest hurdle was building a roof that kept out the rain, but that also allowed them to collect rainwater for washing. (The water is used again in their indoor garden.)

They also spent considerable time getting work permits because some of the unconventional nature of their techniques and construction methods. Their plans sat with the county health department for a year because of a composting toilet the Ketchums wanted to install that would avoid a septic system. "There were times when I really wondered whether we weren't completely crazy," Ketchum says.

As living off the grid becomes more popular, more colleges and community organizations are offering workshops on the lifestyle. Several provincial associations, such as Ziggy Kleinau's Citizens For Renewable Energy, provide workshops. Ketchum attended courses at the Toronto Region Conservation Authority.

Read an excerpt of the May/June '07 Explorer from Canadian Geographic magazine.