Creeky,
It depends where you live. The hardest thing to do is to heat and cool. Heating in Northern US climates like mine where it can get to 20 or 30F below means that you need alternative heating methods, you can't do it on PV alone. It's the middle of May now and we had a frost two nights ago with several days of overcast. There's no battery that can cover that. You can burn wood sometimes but if the outside temp gets too high you'll get a back draft.
Living off the grid means greater expense for batteries and a shorter life. Why not let the grid charge your batteries and only use them when the power goes out?
I'm over $500.00 ahead on my electric bill and I use it to my advantage. In the winter I use electric heat to supplement my oil and reduce costs while my batteries don't get overworked. What are you gaining by not letting the grid work in your favor?
As for time, being off grid doesn't save you time or give you any extra time. In fact it takes more time to live off grid. And it's not a breeze either when those batteries get low on an overcast day and that genset has to kick in.
I guess you're in England and Europe is easier for you as far as inverters but there are good inverters in the States. Outback, like mine for example which are very highly rated.
I agree that you can start slow and build but you still have to know where you're going as building for off grid involves different equipment than off grid/intertie. What you want is flexibility and that means land. Can you put in a microhydro? Probably not, how much land do you have? Enough for a windmill that will actually accomplish something? That takes real estate, you can't put up a windmill on a 1/4 acre lot, well you can but you can't get it high enough to do real work.
Sure you can shut off the grid but you'll have to spend more on other resources to heat, cool and cook.
Rob
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