I've known a lot of people who've lived off grid. None of them had a generator. Now that I think of it, a good portion of them didn't use electricity either.

I've known a lot of people who've lived off grid. None of them had a generator. Now that I think of it, a good portion of them didn't use electricity either. I think you are misconstruing the author's objective here - they were simply trying to do the analysis of what it would take to live 24x7x365 on solar + batteries as a replacement for grid electricity. They weren't trying to provide practical advice.