Self-sufficiency is the new ‘en vogue’. Housing shortages, rising costs and a mistrust in the way our food is produced are fuelling a move to the way that our grandparents used to live. Vegetable gardens are popping up in apartments and back yards alike, chickens are becoming more commonplace, and entire groups on social media are sharing and devoting their time and energy to a way of life that promotes the basics and arguable a better way to live. Who wouldn’t want to avoid the high prices of some what unreliably quality of fresh fruit and vegetables or have access to fresh eggs laid that very morning!
For some, self-sufficiency is not enough, and they have taken a step further starting to look at an entire life free of the constructs of modern pressures for a variety of political and social reasons. But this is nothing new. Every generation has had people who have chosen to live ‘off grid’ and live a life with a set of challenges and rewards like no other. Likewise, every generation has people who have invented, built and recreated gadgets that can assist with a lifestyle that is not reliant on the mainstream.
People like Mike Kantz, an innovator who spent many years developing new technologies using Magnetic Research and Graphene Products for Energy that could be used to assist with off grid living.
His youtube channel PMMG4HYBRID is a plethora of videos showcasing some very clever tools that when replicated could be used to successfully break away from the stranglehold that the national grid has on those who choose to live without traditional sources of power.
Choosing an ‘off grid’ lifestyle has its many benefits but there are also the downsides. Council compliance with health and sanitation requirements can be daunting, finding a suitable plot and finding alternative sources of things that many of us take for granted like running water and electricity can all render some projects in the too hard basket. Utilizing the technology that Kantz has built could be a game changer.
Kantz came from humble beginnings in, opening a record store at 17 following in family footsteps who tended to spot an opportunity to fill a gap in the market. A family of entrepreneurs, Kantz had little formal education but was a hard worker who challenged himself constantly.
He always had a love for inventing things and started a youtube channel detailing his designs that started to grow a following. Challenging conventional physics, he developed an alternate energy using magnets and the ideas kept coming. His videos show models progressing from a small generator that could power a camp site through to an entire home power station with a 24v battery system.
Unfortunately, his untimely death in April 2021 put a stop to any more improvements on his inventions, but his legacy continues through his daughter Sarah and his wife Sherri who are keeping his channel running.
Sarah had this to say. “My Dad grew up in Elkhart, Indiana. From an early age he had a curiosity and an affinity for electronics, almost electrocuting himself with a toaster, trying to take it apart to see how it worked when I think he was only 4. By the time he was around 12 years old, he was repairing lawn mowers and go-carts for spending money, for people in his neighbourhood. At age 16, he was obtained his pilot’s license. Before graduating high school, the following year, a man visited my Dad and Grandparents at their home, to offer my Dad a full scholarship for the study of Electronics. They moved to Florida after he graduated, and he married my Mom and started a family of his own about a year later. Throughout his 20s and 30s. he maintained an interest in Alternative Energy and worked on various projects as a hobbyist when he had the time. He had a long career in Graphic Design as well, having taught himself Photoshop when it was a brand-new application, and later creating a small niche business with large format printing in our town of Ocala, FL. He later turned his attention again to alternative energy, at first studying the work of Michael Faraday, Nikola Tesla, and the like. After years of research and experimentation he gained tremendous ground, and began producing YouTube videos showing the results of his work and findings. He built the website, assembly of products, instructions, and packaging all himself as a “one man show”.
How Magnets can help you leave the National Grid