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A MicroHome at sunset on a remote block by the water, with no services visible.
Off-grid

A home for the block that hasn’t got a power pole

What off-grid means here

Off-grid isn’t a different kind of MicroHome. It’s the same 3.2m-wide home, with its own power, water and waste instead of a connection to somebody else’s.

That matters because the usual trade in this category is that going off-grid means going without — a composting toilet, a camp shower, an extension lead to the house. It doesn’t have to. The point of doing the engineering properly is that the home behaves like a home whether or not there is a pole at the boundary.

See the range Tell us about your block
Who asks for it

Three quite different reasons.

Most people who ask about off-grid aren't making a statement about self-sufficiency. They've got a block with nothing at the boundary and a quote from a utility that made their eyes water.

A block with no services at the boundary

Rural and bush blocks where connecting power and water is a five-figure quote in its own right, if it is possible at all. Going self-sufficient can be the cheaper and faster path — though what your council needs to see is still a separate question to put to them.

A second dwelling a long way from the house

Down the back paddock, over the ridge, past the point where running a trench is worth it. Self-sufficiency turns a hard site into an ordinary one.

Wanting to be less tethered

Some owners simply want lower bills and fewer connections to worry about, on a block that has town services available. That is a legitimate reason and we build for it too.

How it's put together

Three services, three separate problems.

They get lumped together as one word. They aren't one problem, and the one that catches people out is almost never the one they were worried about.

  1. 01

    Power

    A solar and battery package sized to the home and to how you actually use it, so the fridge, the induction cooktop and the reverse-cycle system all still work on a grey week in July. Sizing is a conversation about your block and your habits, not a number off a price list.

  2. 02

    Water

    Rainwater capture and on-board storage, with pumping and filtration. On a block with no town water this is the difference between a home and a campsite, and the sizing depends on your roof area and your rainfall as much as on the home.

  3. 03

    Waste

    A self-contained waste solution for blocks with no sewer connection. This is the one that most often has its own approval pathway, so it is worth raising with your council early rather than at the end.

We don’t publish system sizes here, because the honest sizing depends on your block, your roof, your rainfall and how you live. A number on a web page would be a guess dressed up as a specification.

The honest part

What going off-grid doesn't do.

You will hear off-grid sold as a way around the rules. It isn’t one. Where a home can be placed, and how long anyone can live in it, is a planning question your local council decides, and being self-sufficient does not change who decides it.

What it can genuinely change is one specific hurdle. Connecting to mains water and sewer can need council approval in its own right, so a self-contained set-up may take that particular step off the table — but whether it does for your block is something to confirm with your council before you plan around it.

And on-site waste treatment usually has an approval pathway of its own, which varies by council, so ask about that one specifically rather than assuming it travels with the rest.

The honest answer on living in one Questions to ask your council
No hard sell

Tell us about the block.

Send us where it is, what's at the boundary and how you plan to use the home. We'll tell you what an off-grid set-up would need to cover, and what you should be asking your council.

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or call 0429 461 659