Living Off Grid

 
 

Vocabulary

grid	off grid	millionaire
rent	property	high street
earn	share (2)	square meter
heat	security	self-sufficient
solar	fossil (2)	otherwise
realize	after all	break (3)
access	sewage	municipal
wood	power (2)	fossil fuel
bunch	cloud (3)	come up with
loo	our lot	market value
offer	landlord	workshop

 
 
 
 
 

Video: Living Off Grid

 
 
 
 

Transcript

Before Clair and Charl moved to the off-grid, Welsh community of Brithdir Mawr nine months ago, they lived in the center of London.

She was a yoga teacher; he was a chef. Their two-room flat cost two thousand and five-hundred euros (€2,500). A month.

Charl Duvenage, Member of Brithdir Mawr Community: “All foreign millionaires just buying properties around us, and opening up coffee shops in the high streets. That’s the other thing that’s happening.

Yeah, and the rent just went up.”

Now they share three hundred thousand (300,000) square meters with thirteen adults and five children.

The community produces all its own food. Most people work just a little to earn some money. Otherwise they’re self-sufficient.

They heat and cook with wood — everything else is powered by wind and solar energy.

Charl Duvenage, Member of Brithdir Mawr Community: “For us, it was like a huge step. It’s like ‘Oh my god. The unknown. What are we going to do? Where is the security gone? What is it I’m going to fight?

And then when you do it and you break it, you realize ‘Ah, it’s not that bad after all.”

And more and more people think the same: around 150,000 of them in Britain are living off grid — independent of the municipal electricity and sewage supply.

Without access to local power and sewage services, life is slower, but uses far less fossil fuels.

However, there’s a cloud hanging over the community here: the landlord needs money to help his children buy their own homes in the city.

Carolin Moody, Member of Brithdir Mawr Community: “If we can come up with the market value of the property, which is a million pounds, where on earth is a bunch of us lot get a million pounds from?”

So now the community is also trying to make money: they rent out rooms online, offer workshops. Of course they could return to rented flats with loos and buy their food from the supermarket.

But for the residents of Brithdir Mawr that would be a step backwards.

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Questions

1. Clair and Charl were born and raised in Brithdir Mawr. They have always lived there. True or false? What were their former jobs?

2. They moved to the community. Why did they move there?

3. Do the residents (regularly) go to the supermarket to buy groceries?

4. They have plumbing and utility electricity. Is this right or wrong? Do the cook with gas?

5. In the beginning was it easy or difficult for Clair and Charl?

6. Are they completely unique and alone in the United Kingdom? What is the trend?

7. Their main challenge or difficulty is raising their own food. Is this correct or incorrect? What are some solutions to this problem?

 
 

A. Do you know of any off-grid communities or communes?

B. My friends and I would like to live in a commune or off-grid. Yes or no?

C. What are the advantages and disadvantages of living off grid or in a commune?

D. What might happen in the future? What are some trends?

E. Should the rich and the government sponsor communal living?