Offgrid living

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The Amish are said to be good with off-grid systems. Are they ever village-encompassing? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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The Amish are often thought to object to the use of electricity, but actually they only have a problem with the grid due to being interconnected with the outside world. They use solar, wind, generators (fossil fuel based), and various other clever hacks.

IIUC, there’s a self-reliance value going on. The grid makes it quite unclear who provides the energy from where, and being reliant on unknown entities outside the village is a non-starter for the Amish.

But what about within the village? I get the impression the Amish are quite okay with transactions and interconnectedness within a village. So my question is - do they ever have a village-wide micro grid? Or even shared power between a couple households? Or are each of them always off-grid on a per-household basis?

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

At least in the communities around me there is no hypocrisy. Amish bishops are clear that their rules attempt maintain their strict hierarchy, "God" first, then your local bishop, then your father, and below that is non-owning castes of women, farm, animals, and children. Attempts at escape or any deviation from that hierarchy is met with punishment and abuse.

Amish w/phones

Around us every Amish household has an "outhouse" by the road with a landline connection that is billed in the name of an English neighbor. The family then uses that phone just like any other household landline, but because it's out of the house and not billed to any member of the family it's not "worldy". The head of the household then pays the English neighbor the monthly phone bill for their service.

Amish in cars

They are fine with any vehicle that doesn't involve a license or registration to drive. Amish men drive non-cab tractors, skid steers, bicycles, and e-bikes on local highways. They draw the line at anything that will allow their kids or wives to be able to escape their cult and the reach of their morality police. E.G. cars that require licenses to drive.

Amish banking

This is outside of the technical scope of things but Amish have co-op banks with account numbers and everything just run by their church deacons/bishop. They have no problem with being given numbers or W-2's as long as it increases the Church's control over their lives.

When we had problems with a neighbor not paying his freezer bill, which is similar to the phone bill arrangement I mentioned earlier, we went to his Bishop and his Bishop informed us that this man has no control over any of his finances. All of his paychecks are deposited to a church account and he is provided an allowance from that

batteries

RE: Your edit, the Amish around us fought tooth and nail against signal lights on their buggies even after their community experiences dozens of deaths and injuries per year because they choose to drive wooden buggies controlled by skittish horses on state highways at night.

I laugh at your statement about safety being a priority for the Amish community. My county has 3 times the average farm worker debilitating injury rate for our state, when you dig into the numbers 85% of those farm injuries are within the local Amish community, including children as young as 3.