There are so many great free resources available to us online these days. Some of us want to be hands-on for our Off Grid build, there is a lot to learn about. YouTube is a great resource for finding information about Off Grid in general, power systems, DIY, product reviews and more. We’re going to highlight 10 of the best off-grid YouTubers that focus on various aspects of off-grid building. These aren’t in any particular order just channels I believe provide great information.
My Self Reliance – Shawn James
Shawn James is a Canadian outdoorsman and freelance writer. He set off to build his own log cabin with no power tools in 2017. His channel is loaded with videos chronicling his journey of the build, living off the grid, food, bushcraft and more. He has hundreds of videos to watch, so be sure to load these up on your tv. Who needs the outdoor channel? Be sure to check out the great video on his channel, Two Years Alone in the Wilderness. To me, this feels like a modern, extended take on the famous “Alone in the Wilderness” movie.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIMXKin1fXXCeq2UJePJEog
Primi tive Technology
Primitive technology was launched in May of 2015 by an Australian guy by the name of John Plant. He films everything on a block of land he owns in Far North Queensland, Australia. He freely admits that this is just his hobby and that he does, in fact, live with modern conveniences. His channel has grown to over 9.5 million subscribers with over 725 million views. The videos focus on different projects using no modern tools or techniques. They are so popular due to the sheer simplicity of the videos. John does not speak in the videos which I think leads to simplicity. If you turn on closed captions he does add notes along the way. I find the videos to be quite calming to watch. They’re easy to digest with most of them around the 10-minute mark.
Primitive technology is a hobby where you make things in the wild completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials. This is the strict rule. If you want a fire- use fire sticks, an axe- pick up a stone and shape it, a hut- build one from trees, mud, rocks etc. The challenge is seeing how far you can go without modern technology. If this hobby interests you then this blog might be what you are looking for.
From his website Primitive technology
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA
Jehu Garcia
Jehu Garcia is an electronics DIYer that focuses on making electric cars and home battery powerwalls. Although
Jehu goes into quite a lot of detail on how to build your own battery storage systems on a budget. Resulting in a much higher capacity unit then you’d get from a commercial system. If you have the time, patience and technical skills you could save yourself a lot of money. He provides a range of different DIY electronics kits you can use to build your own off-grid battery storage system.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/jehugarcia/
SolarCabin
SolarCabin is a channel from an Off Grid homesteader called Lamar Alexender. His channel focuses on how to make your own Off Grid cabin, power and more. Lamar not only goes through how to build your own Off Grid cabin but also the appliances, water, power, wastewater and more. He has published ebooks related to building your own cabin and his website has several different cabin plans you can purchase. His playlists are created to focus on various aspects of the builds. This makes it easy to follow his videos and the content. I really enjoy the honesty of his videos and the information is very informative.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCymqbXEQ6qfPi5v8DUZr6dA
DIY Solar Power with Will Prowse
Another great channel that’s focused on building your own solar power systems. Will Prowse is a great resource for all things Off Grid solar. He’s very honest with his tech and opinions even if the product he’s paid to promote isn’t the best. The video production quality is of a high standard and makes it easy to follow. The videos are highly educational and focus on all areas of solar power. If you really want to learn about solar power and building your own systems, this is the channel for you.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoj6RxIAQq8kmJme-5dnN0Q
MyLittleHomeStead
MyLittleHomeStead is a channel from a family that moved from the city to the country in 2005. Their videos are released on a regular schedule and are formatted like 20-minute tv episodes. They focus on all kinds of projects related to homesteading such as building an earthbag cabin, aquaponics, furniture and more. I really like how they cover a couple of topics in their videos to keep you interested. Their shorter videos usually focus on a single topic, such as installing a toilet. Their building skills and techniques are great and they do outline how they too learned a lot of their skills from the Internet. This is what is so great about living in today’s world, you can learn pretty much anything you want!
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr9ib9quyHJkEchOck4PG2w
GuildBrook Farm – Off Grid Living
The GuildBrook farm channel is a great channel that focuses on the ongoing aspects of living off the grid. The channel is from a family of four situated in the foothills of Appalachia. They focus on organic gardening, raising livestock, food preservation and of course build related tasks. They are quite active with their viewers and its evident that they are still learning as they go. It’s great to see their learning is out in the open. Part of living off the grid is that everyone’s situation is different and no one is right or wrong in how they choose to set up their off grid world.
The one thing that really stands out to me for this channel is how well the videos are produced and their playlists topics. They are clear and easy to follow the varied topics that they cover from canning, prepping, solar, their new deepwater well and so much more.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCloswWQLpsnzCy-KrJ6CfPw
Engineer775
Engineer775 is a channel run by a mechanical engineer by the name of Scott Hunt. The channel is coupled to his website, Practical Preppers. The videos focus on equipment and appliances you can use in
With the equipment, he goes into great detail and includes hot water systems, power systems, air conditioning, fireplaces to name a few. Being a prepper focused channel, a lot of the same tools, techniques and equipment match up with those wanting to go
YouTube Channel : https://www.youtube.com/user/engineer775/
Life Uncontained
Life Uncontained follows a couple and their journey on building a debt-free net zero container home. The build is focused around two 40ft recycled containers. They are doing all the work themselves and chronicling their entire build. I have found myself sitting on my couch watching their videos to see how they approach different aspects of their build. They do a pretty good job of outlining the tasks they are doing in the videos to provide a decent understanding as you watch.
They have been working on their build for over a year now and its shaping up into a great off grid build. I’m also a big fan of their music selection, it’s a nice change from the country rock so many of these channels use.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-l69It3hxAY3tkBH_utLNQ
homesteadonomics
Homesteadonomics is a channel run by a guy called Joe that lives out in the Arizona desert. His videos are focused on DIY, gardening, outdoors, home economics, preparedness, and other areas. His most popular videos are a series of him fabricating a travel trailer from scratch. It is a truly impressive series of videos with a great end result, considering just two years previous he was learning to weld. He also has a great workshop made from a shipping container that I’m very jealous of.
Some of the other videos that I have enjoyed from Joe are his sunken greenhouse and rainwater harvesting series. He has no access to town or well water where he is, so its a great set of videos if you are also in this situation for water.
YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMiTb1EJ5nhn_NbUyNu003w
Closing thoughts
The channels that I have outlined here are not all 100% dedicated to off grid builds but I do believe that they contain great content. There are so many different areas to consider when building and living off the grid. I tried to cover as many topics as I could. Do you have a