We Went Off Grid In Just 30 Days

We built an off-grid Micro Cabin living system at the end of 2023 for less than $25k! It took us 30 days of building to finish all of the off-grid systems for shelter, water, energy, sanitation, & food. We're tying together solar panels, a prefab shed, chickens, rainwater catchment, raised beds, methane digesters, and more into a fully functioning off-grid home. We hope this experiment shows you that affordable, sustainable, modern living is possible with off-grid systems!

☀️ Use the promo code ACORN10 to get 10% off the solar kits and components we use:

🏞️ The Acorn Off Grid Systems Course: (use code: "Acorn50" for 50% off - $75)

📗 The Acorn Off-Grid Home Book: eBook, PDF, Paperback, Hardback, & Audiobook

🪴 Epic Gardening Beds & Gardening Supplies:

🍁 Off-Grid in 30 Days - Building an off-grid home for less than $25k
🏕️ Episode 1: Canvas Tent, Clearing Brush, & Ordering the Cabin Shell
💧 Episode 2: Solar Panel, Water Pumps, IBC Totes, Composting Toilet, Methane Digester
🪴 Episode 3: Green House, Raised Beds, Seed Cells, Cabin Arrival
🏡 Episode 4: The 200 square ft Micro Cabin shell tour - inside and out!
🐓 Episode 5: Building a Chicken Coop for $50!
🏕️ Episode 6: Finishing the inside of the canvas bell tent
🐑 Episode 7: Insulating the cabin with Havelock Sheep's Wool
📐 Episode 8: Installing LVP flooring inside the cabin
🌧 Episode 9: Rainwater Catchment System + FirstFlush Diverter & Water Tank
🪵 Episode 10: Installing Plywood siding inside the cabin
🔥 Episode 11: Installing the Dwarf Wood Stove from Tiny Wood Stoves
🌿 Episode 12: Filling & Fertilizing Our Birdies Raised Gardening Beds
☀️ Episode 13: Installing a 2800W Solar Panel System with Batteries
🪑 Episode 14: Furnishing the Micro Cabin + Full compilation of the off-grid build!

Welcome to our 30 day off-grid build for October of 2023! We’re assembling sustainable, affordable, off-grid systems to provide for the 5 basic physiological needs for 2-4 humans: Creative shelter, fresh water, green sanitation, clean energy, and local food are things that make the world truly better and more enjoyable. Beyond having fun building all of this and sharing it with you, one big goal for this project is to clearly illustrate how creative & sustainable solutions can solve our housing affordability crisis and free young people to avoid working paycheck to paycheck to survive in our modern economy. We need a fresh vision for living well!

Big Thanks to All Our Partners in off-grid living:

Time Stamps:

Intro - 0:00

Days 1-3 (Bell Tent Setup & Buying Cabin) - 0:50

Days 4-7 (Furnishing Bell Tent) - 9:04

Days 8-11 (Methane Digester & Composting Toilet) 12:50

Days 12-15 (Greenhouse & Raised Beds) 23:36

Days 16-19 (Cabin Arrival & Chicken Coop) 30:49

Days 20-23 (Cabin Insulation, Flooring & Siding) 40:25

Days 24-27 (Rainwater & Stove Systems) 59:23

Days 27-30 - (Solar & Inside Cabin Setup) 1:17:49

🏞️ The Acorn Off Grid Systems Course: (use code: "Acorn50" for 50% off - $75)

📗 The Acorn Off-Grid Home Book: eBook, PDF, Paperback, Hardback, & Audiobook

Plan your own off-grid build using our Land Lab Simulator app!

[acornlandlabs]

The total cost for building materials, based on 2023 pricing, was below $25, 000. The versatility of this design is suitable for land parcels ranging from a quarter acre to two acres. For those seeking suitable land, Landwatch.com is a recommended resource. Particularly in rural areas, land prices can start as low as $5, 000 per acre. With a manageable down payment of 15% and modest monthly installments, the overall financial commitment for this lifestyle is significantly lower than the average down payment required for a typical American home, which currently stands at $416, 000. We Hope you enjoyed our Off Grid in 30 Day series! We made a 10 hour off grid course teaching about every aspect you see in this video! The course link and 50% code is in the video description. Our team appreciates your support immensely!

[shmrckmn]

As a roofer let me just say, you made the right choice going through the wall and not the roof. It may have been more complicated, but it’s going to save you many issues down the road.

[solarcabin]

20+ years off grid. Don't waste time and money on a tent. Get an older camper with working appliances to start in. Then you can transfer the stove, fridge, propane system. lights, water tank. shower stall, and cabinets to the shed/cabin and you are ready to go. It is still cheaper to build a cabin from scratch if you have basic skills and the time but a prebuilt shed can work. Then you can use that old camper for storage, work shop or even a chicken coop.

Methane capture produces very little fuel and most homesteads won't have a wood supply so you will probably need propane for cooking, heat and an OD water heater and a bigger solar power system if you need air conditioning. In low humidity an evaporative cooler is the best choice and low power consumption. 12 volt fridge and 12 volt pump. Small propane OD water heater like the Eccotemp L5. I use a 1.4Kw solar system and 800Ah of LIFEPO4 batteries and live off grid full time with that same system.

[CluelessWilson]

Ok these guys need a tv show. This is super entertaining and informative, they explain things well to ppl who have zero experience, they have those kind of trustworthy and easy to understand TV voices. Thoroughly enjoyed this episode.

[billyxkid]

Man is the life I’m hoping one day I can do this.

[leifhietala]

To make the cabin a LOT more self-heating in winter: add lean-to greenhouse along the entire front. Not only does it capture heat that can be moved into the structure, but at night it provides a big tempered space so one whole wall doesn't experience the full overnight cold.

[BladeStar]

This ended up being the best video i have seen in many months. The editing, pacing, cinematography, boat loads of info literally everything you need to go and live off grid in a comparatively short format. Incredible. 10/10.

[DJ-ukmm]

It’s rare that I watch the full format YouTube videos all the way through, but I have to say this was one I couldn’t stop watching. it was absolutely brilliant. The way you went from initial design all the way through to finished. Homestead in one episode you should be justifiably proud of yourselves……, thank you . I’ll be buying your book for sure:-)👍👍👍👍👍🕺🏻😀

[critique]

This is SO effing COOL!! A group of bros hanging and building an off grid system is my legit happy place. I'm gonna see what I can do to do something like this in the northeast.

[TheWickerShireProject]

Been doing this for 3 years. Its 100% important to get that infrastructure in. Utilizing the land to grow food and having chickens + solar power makes this tiny home run awesome! Cannot stress enough to super insulate the walls with very thick insulation. This is where most off gridder fail and pay for the excess heat and cold that infiltrates year round. All in all thats a good start.

[RussellHank-tt]

The problem with this plan is that not everyone has enough money at the onset for even the basics. I started with a rent to own, improved lot in town, a pickup truck and the safe room of the house that used to be there. My first purchases were a used chest of drawers, a deep cycle battery, some very cheap wire and a pack of cheap RV LED lights. I slept in the truck until I could afford a fan, more batteries, an fridge, an inverter and 200 watts of panels with charge controller. I still had to charge the batteries with the truck also. From there, peanut butter and preserves sandwiches were a staple as I located an RV heater and thermostat and bought a couple of 20 lb tanks of propane. After that, I rented a 10x12 garden shed with the corners framed for paneling. The rest was a gradual increase in batteries and other solar components to finally become totally self sufficient over a three year period. That doesn't mean that I live free. I still like food that I don't have to cook and I bought a second vehicle and pay for insurance and the other obvious expenses of car and truck ownership. I also have cable broadband Internet. My non-survival expenses are $4580 annually. This includes vehicle insurance and taxes on property and vehicles. A typical month casts me $600 when I factor in laundry and dining out. It's less expensive than you might think if you're single. The highest costs are the effort you have to put in and the comfort that you have to do without. Now I have it all and can afford to be generous when I find someone worthy of my help. It's good to be finally much more free than the average American.

[solarcabin]

I gave you a promo on my channel and groups guys. I think you have solid advice and good intentions. Don't let making money drive your videos and keep it simple and affordable for all people. Use more salvage materials and recycled materials that people can get free. Keep in mind most off gridders have little money to get started. -LaMar

[harmonic]

I understand rockwool is hazardous to install and that it doesn't compost. But the extra insulation factor and the fact that its fireproof. Expecially in the wall that has the stove pipe. Certainly makes it a hard sell not to use. Plus the sound insulation is phenomenal.

[Noobert]

man thats some solid stuff. i recently got a 3kw portable power supply and 500w of solar it was suprised to learn how much space you would need for the number of solar panels required to run a home. getting ready to do a rimworld but in irl video and needed to cover all the learning basics to replicate the game irl haha

[eileenmcloughlin]

On another note. I used pellet stove pipe parts for my "Nuway" (made in Michigan) woodstove and also went through the wall. To prevent leak issues later on. I would NEVER go through a roof. I also installed my wood stove with cement board and installed it over rockwool for fireproof safety.

[OldSchoolPrepper]

very cool....think it's awesome...the only change I would make would be to put wire over the plastic fencing you have on the chicken coop...any critter worth their salt, will get thru the plastic...oh and a 2nd roof on the greenhouse, I used a clear/white float on top pool topper, it makes the greenhouse (really a high tunnel) 10F warmer and will last longer.

[rlt]

Great Video!
Just a small tip for heatshrink tubes: A few seconds of holding the tube above a pocket lighter or near the stove would've done the trick aswell instead of using 10% of the battery for the hairdryer ;)

[ericerkkinen]

I just have to make a note. This micro cabin is made out of t1-11 with no barrier between your wool and basically the inside of your cabin. You spent 2x as much for insulation to ensure your health and safety, however, read up the msds on t1-11 in regards to the amount of formaldehyde, ethanol and and other alcohols due to the type of glues used and the fact that the t1-11 is painted on the outside with exterior paint. Same with the osb used for the roof. You are in-effect, negating your positive health effects of using the wool batts by literally driving the gases inward. I think this needs to be very clear to anyone breathing deeply in their Home Depot shed cabins for 20 plus years and wondering why they end up with those huge hospital bills anyhow, even though they used wool insulation at the cost of 190 dollars per 90 sq ft.
Solar: mind your mc4 connectors. As O&M for 240 commercial sites, I have personally witnessed 59 mc4 connectors (typically on home runs) that have arced out and lit themselves afire. I had a bucket of the burnt and failed ones in the office. This happened generally in strings of 12 panels or more, and to have a flammable surface beneath it (like a roof) leaves me to suggest NEVER to put solar onto a roof.
Good stuff otherwise, enjoyed the video

[nicoleellis]

You guys did an AMAZING JOB!! Thank you for creating and sharing!!

[trw]

Would have went for rockwool. Mice will tunnel through the wool isolation.