Toasty and warm in his home near Ballarat, Michael Robinson admits he feels both smug and guilty.
His house at Mollongghip is completely off-grid, so while rising electricity costs push other families towards and over the poverty line and are causing sleepless nights for the leader of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Mr Robinson has no such concerns.
"I couldn't see the sustainability of first of all paying a utility company to supply power to us and then paying for the privilege of turning a light on in our own home," he told ABC News.
So 15 years ago he began researching how to make his off-grid fantasy a reality.
He achieved his goal five years ago, creating "a sustainable building that would take care of my family and take care of the environment in a responsible way, the best we could".
'Little Forest'
The main room of the home — named Lille Skov ("Little Forest" in Danish) — is big enough for Mr Robinson, his partner Jo Taylor and their children Elke, 10, and Pia, 9, to skateboard.
Its large north-facing windows look out over Wombat Forest, while noticeably thick walls stuffed with highly-rated insulation create a comfortable barrier from the wintry day outside.
There is a wood stove next to a standard induction stove in the kitchen and a fireplace by the lounge room, but no other visible signs inside the home reveal its sustainable secret.
Pia and Elke have their iPads plugged in at the wall, the lights are on in the bedrooms, they often watch the large television in the lounge room, and they have long, hot showers every morning.
What is not visible from inside the home is the extensive 11.4-kilowatt photovoltaic (PV) solar system on the roof, the 78KW hours of battery backup and the hot water heat pump on a 350-litre tank.
"We have essentially a week's worth of power before the batteries go flat, [though] the sun is normally kinder to us than that," Mr Robinson said.
The position of the house also allows sunlight to heat the concrete floor.
Mr Robinson said the solar PV and battery system meet their needs year-round, except for a few days each year during the depths of a dark winter when the backup generator kicks in.
"I can't imagine paying to turn the lights on anymore," he said.
"It used to be something to dread every three months when the power bill would come."
Normal living
Mr Robinson says they live in a "really normal way".
"When we moved into the home, I didn't want to be conscious of the fact we were living off-grid, I didn't want to have to worry about it because I tend to stress and panic about stuff.
"The house performs really well so I don't have to worry … that was the main criteria — that comfort and no inconvenience."
Mr Robinson says despite many views of off-grid living, nothing in the house is "caveman" or "hippy".
"The fact that it is off-grid makes us feel a little bit smug sometimes," he said.
"But we feel like we are doing the right thing — that this would teach our kids the right things and it would set up our futures."
'Broadly mucked up'
Bruce Mountain heads a research team at Victoria University focusing on energy economics and policy in Australia and says people should give off-grid living serious thought.
"Solar plus battery-and-grid connection is now a seriously attractive proposition for most customers," Mr Mountain said.
"I think that will become very common in the next few years and I think after that some will consider going to the next step.
"I don't at this stage see many customers completely disconnecting — I think that will be a few years away — but I do see much greater decentralisation."
Mr Mountain says he believes the increasing cost of electricity from the grid is mostly caused by the slow transition to cleaner energy sources, which is "broadly mucked up at a federal level".
As a result, electricity customers are going to be in for a rude shock in the coming years, he says.
"There are enormous wholesale market pressures which are not being felt in the retail market yet, but I think they are almost certain to flow through."
Mr Mountain said the electricity grid depended on volume and scale, so as more customers peeled away from the grid through self-supply, the prospect of spiralling prices would increase.
"We are in for sizeable, strategic and economic changes for electricity supply," he said.
"We are really heading for a very tough situation now."
Safe as houses
Back in Mollongghip, Mr Robinson says the prospect of rising electricity prices makes him feel "bamboozled" that regulation and the volume-build industry continue to "let people down".
"People don't have an easy choice to live in an environmentally sustainable way," he said.
"We are four times as insulated from the outside here as a brand-new home built into the housing market.
"Those things should be options to tick along with the colour of the tiles.
"The houses should be stipulated to be facing a certain way; [when] you face north you get the sun.
