Stephanie's Story - OFFGRID NOW® in a Tiny Home in Curra, QLD
Stephanie is OFFGRID NOW® and loving it!
It’s late afternoon as our Director Mark Leckenby, his wife Andrea and I roll into Stephanie’s driveway in Curra, a regional suburb just north of Gympie in Queensland. The tiny home is hard to miss, nestled in front of a grove of trees on the gentle slope of your typical rural Australian block. It’s a simple set-up: a set of three modest outdoor chairs with a small coffee table out the front. An organic raised garden bed with garlic, lettuce, tomatoes adorned with scraps of cardboard and straw. A pallet at the foot of the stairs provides a humble deck to get your shoes up, out of the dirt and off your feet.
Stephanie has invited us to come and see how she is getting along with the new OFFGRID NOW® Power Cabinet installed on her Tiny Home roughly 18 months earlier. Downsizing from a larger home, Stephanie moved into the Tiny Home on her mother’s rural block to care for her mum and she’s keen to share her story.
Stephanie greets us with a warm smile, and a kind voice. “Welcome, welcome – come in”, she gestures to the front door of the tiny home.
The inside of the tiny home is organized, clean and tidy. A comfortable looking chair sits beside a well-utilised bookshelf in the entry way. Books, magazines and balls of wool lie within easy reach. Peace lilies and vines add a soft, lush contrast to the white grooved dado boards cladding the inside walls. “Yes, I have a lot of things happening here... and I just love plants!”.
The kitchen looks as functional and inviting as any standard kitchen, albeit compact in the design and layout.
A clean and modern kitchen with fridge, oven, microwave, coffee machine, gas cooktop and sink trimmed with shiny gloss white and oak cabinetry make up one end of the lower floor of the tiny home. It looks as functional and inviting as any standard kitchen, albeit compact in the design and layout.
“So, how is everything going?” I ask.
“Well, it’s awesome to think that I can run the oven day and night and the solar has worked well with that. I’m about to expand to a larger fridge. It’s just all working beautifully – it’s just like living in a beautiful little apartment”.
Stephanie motions to the bathroom at one end of the tiny house. “I have a great bathroom, and it’s a good size. I have the washing machine in here too, and I have to say, I did 4 loads of washing yesterday and still turned on the oven last night and I was really impressed!”
Her proud declaration causes us all to have a laugh – this is great news and demonstrates that the OFFGRID NOW® solar system has been sized correctly and is meeting Stephanie’s daily needs.
It had not all been smooth sailing, however, and Stephanie has had to adjust to off-grid, tiny living. At the beginning of the first summer in her tiny home, Stephanie travelled to Canada for the winter, returning to Australia in the middle of a heatwave. Adjusting back to hot weather, the air conditioner was in high use and completely drained the batteries on more than one occasion. After purchasing a small back-up generator, Stephanie found the right balance when using appliances and had only used the generator 5 times in the previous 12 months.
“I use the sun when it’s out. I try to do my washing when it’s sunny. If I want to cook with the oven at nighttime, I am mindful of that. A couple of times when it was quite cloudy and I had a week of rain I did run out of power. So, I am understanding the balance that I need to have as far as the solar goes, and the generator is topped up with fuel and ready to go when I need it”.
The OFFGRID NOW® Power Cabinet is taking care of Stephanie’s power consumption needs.
It’s obvious Stephanie is proud of her tiny home, and her self-sufficiency.
“Quite often the power is going out here in Curra. I see it on Facebook regularly, and my Mum’s power is going out all the time”.
“So, are you the tiny house on the hill with the lights on?”, Mark jokes.
“Yes, I am the one with the lights on! I remind myself often how lucky I am to have this comfort and the ability to be off grid. To be able to live on some good land where it’s peaceful and quiet”.
Stephanie has plans to further strengthen her off grid solar system with the addition of a deck and additional solar PV.
“I actually wanted to go one step-up and install a larger system, but the finances just were not there at the time”. The plans for additional solar panels will greatly enhance the solar systems’ up-time during those week-long, cloudy seasons.
Stephanie, Andrea and Mark talk all things off grid and tiny living.
By this point, we have all moved outside to take advantage of the cool of the afternoon by the garden.
“What would you say to someone who’s considering going off grid in a tiny home?”, I ask, genuinely curious.
“Well, you need to really think about your life and the sacrifices you are willing to make in a tiny home as you are in a much smaller space. And really consider what you will be consuming appliance wise, then put in the proper sized system: if you like to bake all the time, or potter with power tools – think about this before you choose a solar system. If you do that, going off grid is not much different to normal life – I turn on the heat when it’s cold, and the air conditioner when it’s hot and run my computer when I like. I’m conscious of what I have running and it’s great to know I have the support from OFFGRID NOW®”.
It's great to hear stories like Stephanie’s. People who are living successfully and comfortably off grid, enjoying it and for Stephanie it’s a no-brainer – she’s OFFGRID NOW® and loving it!
