Grid? What Grid?

Been a little while since I posted, what with the holidays and all, but I haven't abandoned my quest. I read a delightful little article today on off-grid living. The numbers are a little off, as you can see from the comments, but the meat of the article is solid.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026851.600-how-to-unplug-from-the-grid.html?full=true

It got me to thinking, most of this stuff is actually portable. I'm not saying that you're going to be backpacking it through the rockies, or carting it on the back of a biodiesel dirtbike. Those of you who live in the city are well aware of the situation with the housing market, however, and know that no home is permenant these days. Why invest in a 25,000$ off grid system just to move?

Well, there are actually many portable solar panels on the market, most of them can even be folded up and stored. I am actually considering using a folding system as a curtain in my living room, as we have huge 7 foot windows. Now, it might not take me totally off the grid, but it should run TV, computer, light (Swirly Bulb, of course) and charge my cell phone. That's about all the electricity I use besides AC, water heating, and cooking. And considering the amount of cooking I do, probably also surmises the bulk of my electric usage as well.

I'm also fairly high up, and a stiff crossbreeze usually runs past the corner of my loft. I expect a wind turbine of smaller size, like the ones used on sailboats, would suppliment the system nicely, and might provide enough power to sustain battery power through the evening.

Something else that I have put heavy consideration into is solar-thermal heating. I've not done any research into it, but if we could cut down the air conditioner, even though the HVAC core is on the landlords grid, it could provide some extra sustainable comfortability.

In the end, spreading the offgrid energy supply into multiple renewable sources should provide enough versatility to stay afloat, and as long as I hand pick the systems and install them myself, tear down shouldn't be a problem, and I can keep them small enough that I can move them to my next location when my time at this one is finished. I know, it's not true off grid living, but if the power did go out, which it has before, I would be much more comfortable than my neighbors.