Customer Reviews

How to Live Without Electricity and Like It

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Someday you will find yourself without electricty. Either you will be deprived of it, say, from a power outage, or you will be somewhere where elecricity is not. You need to know how to deal with it.This book is a positive step in making these lacks as painless as possible. Anita Evangelista tells us "how to" based on her own experience, having lived on a farm without elecricity for a number of years. You can either guide your destiny or you can be a victim of sociey or circumstance. Make the right choices. Buy a copy of this book. If you know someone living in the country, where power outages are a way of life, buy them a copy, too, right away. I recommend this book. I have used it.

This is an excellent all around informative book on aspects of livings sans electricity as well as how to live in a rural area sans commercial energy, water etc. An excellent aspect of the book is how it makes you think before you buy land and move, about things like using a spring fed water set up for both in home water as well as a refrigeration system. And how even a small solar set up with some storage batteries could serve a single or couple well for basic things like a computer or lights. The author also gets you to thinking outside the box about Amish style appliances that can run off of propane, natural gas. And wood burning stoves and furnaces.

Fact is common sense or knowledge about how to do without many modern well hyped conveniences is almost forgotten, so yes, this book is one I recommend to anyone who wants to learn alot that you either didn't learn in school or at home.

This is one of the books Michael Hyatt recommends be in a Y2K library. Despite the title, some of the techniques do use electricity; but Anita's electricity is under your control, not an external power company.

One of the areas which is subject to disruption by significant Y2K problems is electric power. It also has and will be interrupted by weather, natural disaster and drunks running into poles. It behoves us all to have the knowlege and equipment to get safely and comfortably through power outages.

This book is an excellant first step. Anita addresses just about every aspect of life which is likely to be dependant on the power grid and lists and compares the practical alternatives. Along the way she provides tips she learned the hard way.

I found the section on generating power to be a little too high level, but then again 'without electricity' is part of the title, so perhaps this was intentional.

These comments are about the 1997 release without Michael Ziesling, and may or many not be applicable to the new version

This oversized paperback is short on details and long on common knowledge. It's mostly just a few simple discriptions/reviews of stuff you can buy that's not dependant on household current, including solar battery chargers and 12 volt power inverters, which contradicts the title of the book. The best parts of the book was a short discription of how ancient structures in the middle east kept cool (many gravity fed buried masionary air tubes) and the "secret" to how certain native tribes dwellings remained confortable during winter and summer (mass/thick walls), but it gave little more info than that and you'd have to build a new house to do either. Very light reading.

This is the kind of book than can be difficult to find - a general work. Too many books will explain minor details of using a specific type of alternative power, but not any comparision with other forms. That is why I like this book so much. It gives side-by-side-by-side comparisions of the choices for heating, cooking, etc. Armed with the basics, you can then research into specific areas. That task is also assisted, as there is a listing of companies and books for further reading. For those considering or curious about living at least somewhat off the power grid it is a must-have book.

There are a few books out there about living without electricity and/or making your own. This is the best one I've come across.It hits lots of areas, from wood cook stoves to candle making to generators to kerosene lamps. If you ever plan to be without electricity on purpose, or if you think you might be cut off accidentally (and who hasn't), buy this book. Recommended reading for all back-to-the-land types

I liked the book. I love the idea of cool air tubes from the ground cooling your house without electricity.

She also made good points about the economics of those of us on-grid attempting to save money by living without electricity...if you don't do it right, it'll cost a lot more!

For the amount of money, its just not worth it. First of all, it is not a book about How to Live without Electricity. Its a book about living off the grid. Its not a good treatment of the subject of living off the grid. The batteries they recommend are not what you would want to be using, no mention is made of things like Edison Cells. Its just a poorly put together book in general. There are much better books on this subject.

i thought this was a great book on a subject its hard to find much written about. i think everyone should have a copy just in case. remember katrina?

First all this is a oversized paperback that is available for $8.00 - $12.00. The $31.80 that they want here is either a authors dream price or a mistake. The information aside from being very outdated (1997), is information that is readily available on "the net" free. This information is very general with very limited practical on hands use. After reading this book you would have to buy another to actually "do" anything. If you were living in a cave then this information may be new and useful to you. Amazon has much better, current books at less cost with much more useful info. The only reason I didn't give it one star is that I didn't "hate" it.