Skills-first off-grid learning
Learn to live off the grid — for real.
No recycled listicles. A structured path through the skills that actually keep you alive and comfortable — power, water, food, shelter and the rest — with accurate calculators and honest, cited guides.
- 9
- skill tracks
- 5
- calculators
- 100%
- safety-first
Practical, not prepper.
Real skills for real independence.
Skills, not articles
Nine tracks organised so you progress from beginner to capable practitioner — each tells you what to know, what to learn, what gear you need, and what to do next.
Tools, not guesswork
Solar, battery, rainwater, water and food calculators with published methodology. See the math, check our assumptions, and stop over- or under-building.
Honest about danger
Electricity, fire and water can hurt you. Every task is labelled DIY, Skilled or Professional, and we point you to codes, permits and qualified trades where it matters.
The nine skills
Everything you need to be capable
01 Electricity Power
Generate and store your own electricity
Power is the skill most people think of first — and the one where sizing mistakes cost the most money. The good news: off-grid power is a so…
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02 Water Water
Collect, store and purify a reliable supply
Water is the resource you cannot live without — and the one most people underestimate. A person needs more than they think, and every source…
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03 Growing & Storage Food
Grow, preserve and store your own food
Food self-reliance is a compounding skill: every season of soil you build, every jar you preserve, every seed you save makes next year easie…
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04 Shelter & Building Shelter
Build a warm, dry, durable home
Shelter keeps you warm, dry and safe — and it's where off-grid mistakes get expensive and dangerous. Whether you build a tiny home, retrofit…
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05 Heat & Cooking Heating & Cooking
Stay warm and fed without the grid
Heat and cooking are where off-grid living gets cosy — and where it gets dangerous. A well-chosen wood stove can heat, cook and dry clothes;…
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06 Waste Waste & Sanitation
Handle human and household waste safely
What you do with waste determines whether you're off-grid or just camping badly. Human waste, greywater and rubbish all need safe, legal han…
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07 Comms Communications
Stay connected when there's no cell tower
Off-grid doesn't mean off-contact. The question is how you'll reach help in an emergency and stay connected for work, weather and family. La…
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08 Tools Tools & Maintenance
Fix, build and maintain everything you own
Everything off-grid breaks eventually, and the nearest hardware store or tradesperson is far away. The most valuable off-grid skill isn't an…
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09 Preparedness Emergency Preparedness
Plan for the things that can actually go wrong
Preparedness isn't about the apocalypse — it's about the boring, likely scenarios: a storm that cuts power for a week, a bushfire warning, a…
Explore this skillThe tool shed
Do the math before you spend a dollar
The most expensive off-grid mistake is building the wrong size system. These five calculators run entirely in your browser — private, free, and transparent about how they work.
Solar Sizing Calculator
Size a complete off-grid solar system — panel array, battery bank, charge controller and inverter — from your real daily energy use and location.
“How many panels and batteries do I actually need?”
Open toolBattery & Runtime Calculator
Find out how long a battery bank will run a given load — or how much battery you need to run your gear for a set number of hours.
“How long will my battery last, and what size do I need?”
Open toolRainwater Harvesting Calculator
Estimate how much water your roof can collect from local rainfall, and whether your tank and demand line up across the dry season.
“How much rain can I catch, and is my tank big enough?”
Open toolWater Demand Estimator
Estimate your household's daily and annual water needs across drinking, cooking, washing, toilet, garden and livestock.
“How much water do I actually need each day?”
Open toolFood Storage Calculator
Plan a long-term food store: how many calories, and how much of each staple, to feed your household for a chosen number of months.
“How much food should I store, and of what?”
Open toolLearning path
From “where do I even start?” to a working homestead
Most beginners drown in disconnected advice. Our roadmap sequences the skills in the order they pay off: assess your site, secure water and shelter, then power, food and resilience — with clear checkpoints so you always know what to do next.
See the roadmap- 1
Assess
Understand your site, climate, needs and budget before buying anything.
- 2
Water & shelter
Secure the two things you can't live without — first.
- 3
Power
Design a system matched to your real (measured) energy use.
- 4
Food & resilience
Grow, preserve, store — then plan for what can go wrong.
Field guides
Deep, cited, genuinely useful
Getting Started Off-Grid Living: Benefits, Challenges and a Practical Reality Check
A clear-eyed way to decide whether off-grid living fits your site, budget, skills and support network, with a practical first-month plan before you commit.
Food Growing and Preserving Food Off Grid: A Practical Starting Plan
Plan a resilient food system around your climate, water and time, then grow, preserve and store food without trying to do everything in the first season.
Getting Started The Off-Grid Skills Roadmap: What to Learn First
A practical, ordered path from complete beginner to capable off-grid practitioner — the skills that matter most, in the order they pay off.
Trust & expertise
Know your limits. Respect the work.
Off-grid skills involve electricity, fire, structural work and water safety. We mark every task with a clear skill level and flag the codes, permits and professionals that apply — so you learn fast without hurting yourself.