Advice please

[biff]

I am only a short distance away from the mains,
                                       One pole and one day to connect.Even the 2" red mains pipe is installed out to the road and the tail were left in the meter box which I later removed.I think the connecting fee was 1138euros back in 2001.I never applied.In the beginning it was because I was still building away and based elsewhere.Each time i came here I thought it would be nice to be able to just flick the switch without bothering with the generator and I set up a small new 12v x 550ah battery bank,charged of the geni which saved a packet on fuel and drove the mobile home in which I lived while the house was being built.The house was built to sell but I got to like the place so much I sold my other place in the town instead.
      Friends in the trade,laughed and told me I was off my head,One actually told me that he spent the first half of his life trying to get out of that place,the Bluestacks.We had a good laugh over that.It was no great intelligent financial brainwave that I moved.I just loved the place for the peace and quiet,great room first class neighbours and 4 legged Biff and wise Xena could relax and enjoy.I also had my shed planned and had several dream projects up my sleeve.My grandfather was born on the other side of the hill and lived there untill he was about 12yrs old.He and my great grandfather walked away and reached Lifford where my Great grandfather died shortly afterwards.Lifford was an administration centre and for some reason people thought that food would be more readily available.My grandfather was a quiet man who seem to do the right thing.I vaguely remember him,He was very old and outlived his second wife by 10 whole years.It surprised me to learn that he had been married twice.His first wife died of consumption and his second (my granny) deliverd 7 of a second family of which my old man was the eldest.Its hard to believe that the old man was born over 100 years ago .Maybe this goes someway to explain why,at the slightest sign of world crisis,I set sail for aldi,s or lydl and stock up on trays of tinned food.I dont think about it,I just do it. . In the years to come,we might just discover that the desire to be off grid is in the genes.
                                                                              Biff

[V]

Firstly, thank you, thank you, thank you for all of the fantastic ideas and guidance. I will be asking a few more questions tomorrow and following up on this generous advice.

But I probably should chime in here and say why we want to do this. Easterdown is > 500 metres from the nearest connection to the grid, but we didn't have to buy it. It ticked many boxes for its location and amount of land we need, but deep down, we want to do this (the genes referred to in the previous post?). 

Mostly it is for the 'magic'. Batteries, electronics, photovoltaics - these are amazing inventions and discoveries, and we'd love the chance  to experience and learn about what it is to 'harness the forces of nature', first-hand. It's one of the reasons I make cheese.

Second reason is that we think that the UK is realising that it needs to sort out its addiction to burning fossil fuels. Likely future is that every household will need to have some kind of micro-generation and self storage, shared via their grid connection. Like the Internet of electricity, all homes being nodes that send and receive.

I've lurked on this list for a few months and think that all of you are great examples to anyone hoping to be self sufficient in  electricity, whether you are off grid or tied. Homes that are off grid now will provide invaluable testing, monitoring and proof of concept. We would love to be part of that.

But I'm not saying it is an easy decision for us, we are both daunted and frightened along with being inspired. All of the information you've supplied will help us get through the problems. Thanks and more later.