Building Off the Grid

Definitely, some creative ideas with homes.

BTW svader, I feel the same way when I see British TV in the US. I mean really, driving on the Left side of the road, people can get killed doing that.

I am in construction, have huge problem with lack of good safety practices on this episode, COB building in Oregon. The young lady doing the work has flip flops and doing concrete work. She had no dust mask when concrete dust was flying, no gloves when applying wet concrete on the footings, did she not ever hear about lime poisoning? Then, I really had enough of the show when I saw her digging with shovel with her bare foot. One older fella had only hard hat on when all were standing about while cutting out an unstable middle support. Sloppy all the way around and just wrong way to do a good job and stay safe thru it. Terrifying examples on how to work safely! I would bet they all end up with some terrible skin,lung problems or injuries due to their awful work habits.

Forget the intended drama for this type of show. After having worked on an industrial site where safety was driven into our very beings...go home in the same condition as you did when you arrived for work...I am disgusted at the MASSIVE amount of safety violations these people commit. Proper use of gloves, shoes (one man did a show barefoot), safety glasses, tying off/harnessing, lack of respect for nature, improper use of tools because of lack of knowledge...the list is endless. The show should be ashamed to air something with such disregard of personal safety. I've known people to lose limbs due to their shortcuts; people have died because they didn't pay attention to a live electrical boards; and costly mistakes are common when a communication process isn't in place. You have an opportunity to showcase the necessary and appropriate way to do things, and yet, this far, you have failed.

So I watched one or two episodes. The first was about Northern America in the glaciers... Respectable. The second was in an area of great Bushland.... Hollywood drama to the max. The cut scenes made out like there was some fantastic hardships. And perhaps there were, but the exaggerated drama lost me when the people filmed made it obviously appear worse for the camera than it likely was.....

Not true to the experience that was portrayed from what was filmed. Over drama for the sake of film.

Week after week this show illustrates the problems in building off the grid. Anyone interested in doing this must watch this show. Even if you're not planning to do it, it's still worth watching to educate yourself.

Part of the enjoyment of this shows is not only what you can do, but what you shouldn't do. The #1 problem is under-estimating the time to build. #2 is failing to account for the weather, which is a major part of any construction. #4 is materials and #4 is personnel. Watching people struggle through this is very interesting.

I also like the locations which are usually beautiful, though I don't understand why you can't build off the grid in more hospitable places.