If you push it backwards through your meter, you can probably generate enough cash to make maintaining the system free. Depends on the prices of your hardware, and if you have enough extra panels and windys to create a surplus. Some places are windy and desolate enough to make wind a real good alternative. In western Nevada, the Zephyr wind is - as I understand it - pretty regular.
Ideally, you'd want a hydroelectric project, if you had a decent creek with some slope to the ground.
Depends how far off the grid you're talking. And helps to DIY everything, so you can save fees, and also know how to repair it.
I've seen it mentioned that people who are completely off-grid will get propane/electric refrigerators. If the electricity quits, the propane kicks it on.
Its also important, in my opinion, to be in a region where the climate won't kill you. There are times of year when you have to generate some heat, almost everywhere. But in some places, you have to generate massive heat. And energy is energy, so.. Less is better in all aspects.
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Every once in a while, I see a bank for sale. A gods-honest, granite pillared bulwark. Zero lawn. Just a bank on a sidewalk.
That'd be the shit.
I also saw, in Upstate NY a few years ago, a Masonic temple, for about eighty grand. Big stainless professional kitchen. Bowling alley. Ballrooms. And then club suites and classrooms upstairs. It was real cool.