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Living Without Electricity

Their place is different because it has no electricity. There was a camping stove on the ceramic hob and no sign of a washing machine, refrigerator or a TV set. The only appliance in the flat was a big old radio, and that was disconnected.

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When I got to Arnau and Marcel’s apartment in El Clot, Barcelona, I noticed something strange. There was an unusual silence that made me feel like I was no longer in a city. Turns out, their place is different because it has no electricity; There was a camping stove on the ceramic hob and no sign of a washing machine, refrigerator or a TV set. The only appliance in the flat was a big old radio, and that was disconnected.

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VICE: How come you don't have electricity?
Marcel: One morning, a couple of men from the electricity company came by to tell us they were going to cut it off because we hadn’t paid a year's worth of bills. We had just moved in, and had no idea about that debt – it belonged to the previous lodger. That was a hard time, we were left stranded. We tried everything we could think of to have our electrical supply restored but to no avail.

What was it that you did?
Marcel: We tried to contact the company every day, for two weeks. We wanted to complain, but were also prepared to pay whatever was necessary to get the electricity back. After getting no response, we began to think about alternative solutions to improve our day-to-day life. We started to experiment, talked to a few people and soon figured out that we could do it all by ourselves. We've really enjoyed it, too. We're definitely not engineers but we learned as we went along and by asking our grandfathers a lot of questions. It's been like this for six months.

What were the biggest changes you had to adapt to?
Arnau: Firstly, food. We can't preserve food for a long time, so we had to change our diets. For example, we hardly eat meat these days. We buy the food we are going to eat that same day. Sometimes we get free fruit at the market, if they have small imperfections.

Then it was the light. At first we used candles, but they're too expensive so we had to come up with a more ambitious system. We investigated the possibility of generating our own electricity with a solar panel but that was too expensive, too. So we built the bicycle, instead.

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How did you do that?
Arnau: With the help of some YouTube tutorials, we managed to build a bike that helps us charge our mobile phones and computers. It also provides enough electricity for a lamp. Through the bike and an alternator, we transform mechanical energy into electricity, which is stored in a 12V car battery.

Marcel: We estimated that half an hour of pedaling charges the battery completely. Then we have to transform that energy from 12V to the 220 we need for lighting, charging appliances, etc. We use a power transformer.

Do you take turns pedaling?
Arnau: No, whoever feels like it, does it. And if one day there’s no battery, well, that’s it. We can always go to the library to charge our laptops. We've learned to adapt to not always having electricity and to manage consumption.

You have hot water for showers, right?
Marcel: Yes, we tried a few things that didn't work and eventually came up with a system, which consists of filling a deposit connected to the shower with hot water. Then we inject pressure with a pedal pump. It allows us to have short showers.

When I arrived, I found you melting candle residue.
Arnau: As I said before, candles are pretty expensive so we have to melt the ones that can no longer be lit, and make new ones. We have a stove we made with a beer can – it uses denatured alcohol. We melt the candle residue in a cup and make new candles using brand new wicks, which we braid so they last longer.

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How do you wash your clothes?
Arnau: We go to a launderette in the neighborhood. It's nice cause that way we've met a lot of people we'd never have met otherwise.

Would you say your experience of living without electricity has been positive?
Arnau: We have decided to look at the whole thing positively. We could have just done nothing about it, but we’ve turned the tables and managed to self-manage our lives outside of society's norms.

You never realize what certain things are worth, until you no longer have them. It’s like an awakening of consciousness; we've found that self-management is way more rewarding. Experience becomes more important. You might only own a few things, but sharing them with people helps enjoy them a lot more. This cutoff has been like a revelation to us. We definitely value the things we have more.

Marcel: It's also brought us closer to our roommates. When we had electricity, we'd spent most of the time in our rooms, minding our own business. These days when we get home, we meet at the hall and spend some time talking on the sofa. We’re more of a community now and we really like it this way.

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