Having lived without running water and electricity, I am totally positive that I do not want to live that way again. Candles and oil lamps might be fine if the power is out temporarily; but not when that is how you live every single day. You can't really see enough by candle light to read, or do much of anything else, except maybe find your way outside to the outhouse. ( we might not think of it as that; but running water is indeed technology as much as electricity is). Building a wood fire every time you want a pot of coffee gets old, too, not to mention uncomfortable if it is in the heat of summer; but in the winter that would be fine because you would have to keep feeding the wood stove around the clock anyway. Wood heat is nice; but it makes the house very sooty because every time you open the stove door to add wood, smoke and soot come out. You can either go outside each time and pack the wood inside the house, or you can stack it inside and have lots of spiders and other bugs. As far as alarms, I am totally in agreement on that part, @Ken Anderson ....... I hate alarms passionately ! ! Thankfully, Bobby is in agreement with this; so unless it is absolutely necessary, we never set any kind of an alarm.
I don't even mind alarms because when I do set one, I'm up before it anyway...never fails...I have my own built in alarm system that hasn't failed me yet.