WTF WSJ?

Saw this article pop up in the Apples News app from the Wall Street Journal's magazine, Buy Side, and was, like, "Cool place and off the grid? Wow!" The headline and sub-line definitely pulled me in. But then I read the article.

 

Short story: A wealthy engineer and his wife built a home in Australia. Some deets:

• the house cost $4.5 million for 6,700 square feet ($672 a square-foot)
• the owner (an engineer) wanted the house to be salable, which agents told him required four bedrooms, three or four bathrooms, a media room, and a four-car garage
• the rainwater system has 8,000 gallons of storage with city back-up
• on-site wastewater treatment
• 18kw solar array with 20 kw of storage with city backup; not enough to power the home in the winter
• the solar panels and batteries cost $60,000
• average annual rainfall of 22.5 inches per year

Well, OK. The house is unquestionably gorgeous and stunning (as it should be with a $4.5 million price tag). But off the grid? Seriously, WSJ? The place is connected to the city water supply and the electrical grid. That ain't off the grid. The article even states that the house has to pull from the grid during the winter. And 8,000 gallons of storage is not enough for two people in a place with 25.5 inches of rainfall a year and a large, outdoor pond (would really need to be more like 45,000 gallons).

Yikes.