The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - The Telegraph Magazine
Inside story
How to live off-grid
The current focus on sustainability raises questions about the eco-friendliness of all aspects of our lives. For Georgina and Gareth Fulton, the decision to go off-grid was made for them in 2013, when they moved to the Elmley Nature Reserve on the Isle of Sheppey, off the north coast of Kent, and embarked on an entirely new lifestyle.
The couple, now both in their mid-30s, took over the running of the Elmley estate, which belongs to Georgina’s farming family, after Gareth retired from the Army and they moved back to the UK from Cyprus. The RSPB had leased it for the previous 30 years, as the reserve is a breeding ground and migratory destination for thousands of wildfowl.
No maintenance had been done for decades on the main farmhouse or the adjacent farm buildings, which were gradually falling apart. The estate was already connected to mains water, but power was provided by a dated generator, with LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) used for cooking and heating.
The couple moved into one of the cottages while they worked out how they could run Elmley so that it could continue as a nature reserve and also provide an income. They realised early on that connecting to the grid was never going to be an option, due to how much it would cost – ‘nearly seven figures’, according to Georgina.
‘Facilities were pretty basic,’ she remembers of their early days there. ‘I was pregnant with our daughter, Ellie [who is now five; the couple also have a son, Barney, four]. After she was born, I had to check before I switched on the kettle – if the washing machine was on at the same time, the whole electrical system went into meltdown. Not what you need as a new mother.’
‘When we first moved in, we had to trudge out to a shed in all weather if we needed to turn
the generator on or off,’ adds Gareth. They now have a more modern one, which turns on automatically when you flick a light switch in the house, and have invested in solar panels. They’re also adding a wind turbine to cut down on the diesel needed to fuel the generator during winter, when solar power alone isn’t enough.
Once they had set themselves up, the couple decided to make Elmley the first national nature reserve to offer overnight accommodation, and began with two shepherd’s huts with cooking facilities and en-suite
shower rooms, powered by solar. ‘We always say there’s normal time and there’s Elmley time,’ says Georgina. ‘There aren’t many distractions, so most people when they come here are early to bed and early to rise. What you appreciate is the sense of peace and space, and being surrounded by nature.’ There are now six shepherd’s huts on the reserve, which are booked months ahead.
Encouraged by their successful debut, the Fultons decided to restore the dilapidated Victorian grain store, which is now an atmospheric wedding venue – an adjacent barn lined with solar panels contains a battery system and diesel-fuelled generators to provide back-up power when needed, and guests stay in bell tents in the nearby field.
The most recent and ambitious aspect of the Fultons’ development plan has been rescuing the centrepiece of the estate, the near-derelict farmhouse. They hired architect Tom Dunn, who they knew had already completed several offgrid projects, and tasked him with restoring and extending the farmhouse, and turning it from a warren of dark little rooms into a warm, light-filled house. As well as modernising the interior, he added a contemporary extension to the side, which now houses a large, openplan kitchen and dining room.
The decoration throughout, by interior designer Francesca Rowan-plowden, shows that living off-grid doesn’t have to mean a lack of luxury. Wallpapers and fabrics with rich colours and patterns make the house comfortable and stylish, giving a sense of the building’s history but also a contemporary edge suitable for a young family.
Being off-grid inevitably presented a number of additional problems, such as how to equip the house with internet access (they beam in ‘line of sight’ internet – an over-the-air internet connection to buildings that requires a clear line of sight to a dedicated mast on the mainland). Then the dimmers on the lights repeatedly fused the entire electrical system as they were sensitive to the variances in power frequency that come from relying on solar power and generators, and had to be swapped for simpler versions – a frustrating hitch that took time to resolve.
‘One thing we’ve learnt over the past few years, though, is that as long as there’s hot water, good wine, comfy beds and the internet, most people are happy,’ says Georgina. On- or off-grid, some things never change.