5 Tips for Lowering the Cost of Your Off-Grid Build

Kirsten Jacobsen • November 1, 2022
Interior of small earthsip studio greenhouse with windows on one side and bottle wall on the other, a small planter with white flowers is in the floor surrounded by flagstone.

While the majority of the world lives off-the-grid by default due to lack of access to electricity, water and sanitation, there is a preconception that modern off-grid living is only for the wealthy and we are starting to see more examples of expensive off-grid homes that are out of reach for most people. Part of our mission as Eco Build Lab is to help make off-grid living more affordable and available to everyone. A few ways you can do that are: 


1. Assess your wants vs. your needs.  We all need shelter from the elements, comfortable temperature, clean water, food, and safe sanitation to survive.  And though it is possible to live without electricity, as much of the world does, we think that electricity falls in the category of need as it does so much to improve quality of life.  While there are many things you may want, no one needs stainless steel appliances or granite countertops to survive.  Make a list of your needs and a separate list of your wants.  Come up with a plan to address your needs first.  Living off-the-grid fits well with the ethos of a living simpler life with fewer things.  If you are able to downsize your possessions, pare down your wants and look at how to provide for your needs, you may realize that you can live in a more modest, less expensive home yet still be comfortable. 



Interior of a small, 500square foot studio earthship with bed and kitchen.

2. Start small.  If you are an individual, could you live in a small but well-designed off-grid tiny house? If you are a couple, or a small family, ask yourself if it would be possible to live in a small studio or one-bedroom home if it meant it was more affordable and you could add on to it in the future as time and money allow? Starting small is less expensive and less resource-intensive.  It also takes a lot less time!



3. Build it yourself.  If you have the itch to build your own home, there are fewer things more rewarding than building your own OFF-GRID home. You can save on labor expenses if you do it yourself.  You can also spend extra time looking for free, inexpensive or repurposed materials to incorporate in your home.  You can be your own project manager, ordering materials, scheduling subcontractors, organizing your jobsite. BUT there’s a whole world of considerations before you start on this path.  Sign up for our newsletter and keep an eye for our soon-to-be-launching podcast for future posts and advice about the off-grid owner/builder experience.



Four Eco Build Lab Workshop participants on a jobsite with gravel and wheelbarrows.

4.Learn as much as you can first.  We can’t tell you how many failed/unfinished off-grid house projects we’ve seen due to the owners rushing in, all inspired, without a realistic idea about what they were getting themselves into.  It’s easy to underestimate the amount of time things take to build, especially if you are new to construction.  It’s also easy to look at your budget with rose-colored glasses, even when you are paying someone else to build the house for you.  Building is expensive, especially these days.  Wishing that your budget is going to get you the finished house of your dreams is not enough.  It’s also important to understand the interrelated nature of off-grid power, water, and wastewater treatment systems.  Please don’t rush out and start pounding tires, or ramming earth, or stacking straw bales, without having a comprehensive plan for your off-grid systems in place! 



5. Help others. A great way to learn is attending a natural building workshop or jumping in to volunteer on a project.  If you have a friend, family member, or acquaintance who is also building an off-grid home, offer to lend them a hand.  Sweat-equity can be accumulated with a work trade.  You help someone, they help you.  Start banking work trade hours before you even start your house.  You can learn so much in the process and the energy created by teaming up is super motivating!


WWOOFING is also a great way to travel around the world, discover possible places you would like to live all while learning more about farming!


Have you already built your own off-grid home and have more tips to share?  We’d love to hear from you!

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Aircrete dome seen from the front with off-white plaster exterior and arched glass front door.

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By Elizabeth Wolfe • January 30, 2021
Adobe is more than Photoshop and Acrobat. It’s a building material that has been used for thousands of years! Adobe is a mixture of high-clay content dirt, course sand and long straw. It has excellent thermal mass qualities. The adobe mixture is put into brick forms (standard size is 10”x14”). With the right mixture, the forms will slip right off and the wet bricks are left to dry out in the sun. After the bricks are fully dry, they can be used for construction using typical bricklaying methods. The best mortar to use with adobe bricks is composed of the same materials used to form the bricks- dirt and sand. The mortar mixture is simply a wetter adobe mixture- minus the straw, which is not necessary. In many Southwestern states in the U.S., adobe meets building codes as long as your first two courses of brick are reinforced with a stabilizer (Portland cement or asphalt are commonly used). Adobe works best in dry climates since it does not hold up well against water infiltration. If your building is covered with adobe plaster on the outside, you will, most likely have to re-apply the mud plaster on the exterior of your building every year. One way to not have to re-apply as often is to have large roof overhang to help protect the adobe mud plaster. You could also finish your mud plaster with a lime plaster which is more waterproof, and still allows your building to "breathe". Yet another way to get around this maintenance is to cover the exterior with a cement stucco mixture. Hairline cracks can develop with stucco, so you will need to re-stucco every 5757706203 years, but it will keep the water out, and you will have to reapply much less often than mud plaster. Another downside to stucco is that your bricks won't breathe as well, and your walls may fail or need to be repaired if the bricks are too suffocated. Really, adobe bricks can be finished in a variety of ways! We recommend insulating the exterior of the bricks to take full advantage of their thermal mass capabilities on the inside -this will help you stabilize your interior temperature and possibly help you heat and cool your home under the right circumstances.

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By Elizabeth Wolfe • January 30, 2021
Almost two-thirds of waste water produced in a home is classified as greywater. Greywater is water left over after it has been used for bathing, dishwashing, and laundry, basically any used water in the house except the water from the toilet. This water, while not drinkable, has a much lower volume of pathogens than the black water coming out of the toilet. It is much easier to treat greywater than black water and make it available for landscaping or toilet flushing and it’s legal to do so in states that use the International Plumbing Code. While many states still classify greywater as sewage, some municipalities (especially in desert environments) are looking at the advantages of greywater re-use as it relieves some burden from already overworked sewage treatment plants and reduces the demand for precious fresh water. For the autonomous homeowner those advantages also apply as treating and re-using greywater can reduce the burden on alternative waste water system, potentially improving performance and reducing the frequency of required maintenance. Greywater is also packed with desirable nutrients for plants such as nitrogen and phosphorous which act as fertilizer. Greywater is an amazing source of irrigation for exterior plants. It can also be used to grow food both inside and outside the home. Source separation is the key concept that makes greywater available for use. Conventional plumbing ties all the waste water lines together, mixing the not so dirty greywater, with the very dirty black water and sending it all to either a municipal waste water treatment plant or to an on-site septic system. A house that has alternative waste water treatment systems would be plumbed to separate the water coming out of your bathroom sink, tub/shower, and washing machine drains, and plumbing them to a greywater treatment system. Greywater from the kitchen sink has a high volume of organic matter and either needs to be pre-filtered or sent directly to your black water treatment system.
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