Agreed; despite the article stating a lot of research was required I don't think the author really put in the time or understood what would be required of them

Agreed; despite the article stating a lot of research was required I don't think the author really put in the time or understood what would be required of them to live off-grid, especially at the beginning. Going truly off grid requires either a breathtaking amount of labour, massive upfront capital, or both. It sounds like the author had none of those things. My grandparents heated their house in northern Ontario with only firewood for decades. Grandpa could cut down and haul all the trees he needed for a year in a week or two, but if you didn't want to pay for a kiln then it needed to dry for at least a year, so you were always working a year ahead. The house was designed with a massive brick chimney as huge thermal mass to absorb heat all day and slowly release it overnight as the fire lessened. Even then Grandpa would still stoke the stove before going to bed at 10 and he was always up at 5 to re-stoke the fire and do his exercises. Grandpa had to put labour into cutting trees, splitting logs, hauling wood into the house, and keeping the fire going. He also invested capital and labour into the house, making sure it was sufficiently insulated, designed for wood heat, and then he built it himself. Once he turned 85(!) he decided the labour was no longer worth it and they installed propane hydronic heat. The author complains of their solar not being sufficient due to rain, but didn't mention the size of their array or battery storage. Going off grid without much sacrifice requires a really well insulated house, an array probably at least 8-10 kW, and likely 10+ kWh of storage. That all doesn't come cheap, but since panels and batteries have come way down it's likely cheaper than the cost of getting BC Hydro to run a utility line to the property, which starts around 30k for rural properties and I've seen quotes over 200k. Their "composting toilet" was just a bucket, but there are great composting toilets out there that don't smell and do a fantastic job, they just cost money. Sounds like they were not happy investing labour into composting, and didn't have the capital for a low-effort tool.