Do the Amish Use Electricity? Yes, but Not from the Public Grid



  • Old Order and New Order Amish do not connect their homes to public utility lines; the Beachy Amish and Amish Mennonites, who drive cars, do use grid power.
  • The Amish do not regard technology as evil in itself. They limit it to protect family and church life and to keep the separation from the world they read in Romans 12:2.
  • Amish communities decided against the grid as it reached rural areas in the 1920s and 1930s; the Lancaster County Amish had rejected it by 1920.
  • Batteries, gas lamps and refrigerators, diesel-driven air and hydraulic power, and small solar systems supply much of the power Amish homes and shops use.
  • Rules differ by affiliation and church district; the most conservative groups light their buggies with kerosene lanterns and run shop machines by belts.
  • Most Mennonites use electricity. Among horse-and-buggy Old Order Mennonites, the Groffdale Conference has it in its homes and the Stauffer Mennonites do not.

Yes, but most Amish do not take power from the public grid. Old Order and New Order Amish forbid connecting a home to utility lines, yet many of them use batteries, diesel engines, compressed air, hydraulic power and solar panels. Each church district sets its own rules, so practice varies from one settlement to the next. Do the Amish think electricity is sinful? No. The Amish do not regard technology as evil in itself, according to the Young Center for…

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