An example of an objective summary

Living ‘off-grid’ suggested answer

There are quite a few challenges when living off-grid. First, it may be difficult for people to

keep their life simple right away; at the same time, they may find ordinary everyday tasks

become difficult and time-consuming. More importantly, while there is no electric service,

solar energy is limited, meaning people will have limited natural light in winter, for

instance, they can’t read during winter evenings. As a result, people need to adapt to

seasonal daylight patterns, for example, they need to arrange furniture to make best use of

light from the windows. Having no electricity also means no food refrigeration, no washing

machine, and limited hot water. In other words, people need to figure out other ways to deal

with food leftovers, to handwash their clothes, and to get firewood for boiling hot water.

Living ‘off-grid’ will make people spend their time very differently. They will no longer

have electronic entertainment: no TV, no movies, and no videogames. Instead, they need to

learn to use hand tools, to spend time on cutting firewood and maintaining chainsaw by

themselves. All these changes may create tension among family members or with people

outside the family, so people need to learn to compromise and be patient.