A growing movement of eco-conscious homeowners are choosing to forgo commercial power service in favor of their home-based systems based on solar and wind generators.
"Off-the-grid living is edging into the American mainstream. It isn't there yet, but about 180,000 homes, mostly in the West, operate on it.
National demand is soaring and the off-the-grid movement is yet to be felt in a significant way by the power industry, said Jim Owen of the Edison Energy Institute in Washington, D.C. In the short term at least, he said, ''I can't imagine any appreciable impact on the system.''
Nonetheless, the number of people going off the grid increases by about a third each year, said Richard Perez, who publishes Home Power magazine, dedicated to the topic, and Lori Ryker, who has written two books on the subject.
Much of the growth is in California. Off-the-grid living is also growing in Texas, New Jersey and Wisconsin."
FULL STORY: Green Homeowners Go Off the Power Grid
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