We’re moving today, leaving behind months of living in tents for a place with actual walls. It’s strange to think about—walls that don’t flap, a roof that doesn’t need constant adjusting, and actual infrastructure. Water. Electricity. These are things I used to take for granted, but now they feel like something I need to get reacquainted with.
One of the first things we sorted out was the electricity. When we called the power company, they got us set up quickly and mentioned they have peak and off-peak hours for energy use. I haven't lived someplace with that before, but I like the idea. During peak hours—when everyone is running appliances, blasting their heaters, or charging cars—electricity costs more. During off-peak hours, when demand is lower, it’s cheaper.
It makes sense when you think about it. Power companies have to balance supply and demand constantly, and demand spikes in the mornings and evenings when people are home using everything at once. By charging more during those busy times, they encourage people to spread out their usage. It’s a way to prevent overloading the grid, reduce strain on power plants, and make everything run more smoothly.
For us, coming from a solar setup where we had to plan everything around what the panels could produce, this doesn’t feel all that different. With solar, you charge during the day when the sun’s out and conserve at night when you’re running off the batteries. Now, we'll charge our battery packs during off-peak hours, at night, and use them to run devices during peak hours, during the day: a flip from solar panel. Planning energy use like that becomes second nature after a while, so the idea of shifting heavier usage to off-peak hours feels familiar. I like that there’s still a rhythm to it—it’s not just endless energy coming out of the walls.
This move feels like a big step toward different things, but I think we’ll carry a lot of the off-grid habits with us. For now, I’m just glad to have a roof over our heads and a way to figure it all out as we go.
