OFFGRIDDR · Power your home from the sun, wind, and water
What if you could power your home from the sun, heat it with your own wood, and eat from the land? You can. Here’s what it takes, and what it costs.
How off-grid works
Three steps. Every off-grid system is some version of this.
An off-grid system runs in three stages.
- Harvest: the sun strikes the roof array while wind turns the turbine, so the site makes its own electricity through daylight hours. The garden and the woodpile fill the same way.
- Store: that electricity runs down the conduits into the battery bank, which fills while production stays ahead of demand. Food and firewood are stored the same way, against the same winter.
- Use: after dark the bank runs the house. Lights stay on, the pump lifts water into the tank, and the day’s harvest is already in the ground and the store.
Explore off-grid living
The architecture of an off-grid home. Pick a category. We go deep.
Ways to make and store power
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Coming soonWells, rainwater harvesting, filtration, and greywater.
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Coming soonGrowing, preserving, and raising your own food off the grid.
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Coming soonHeating, insulation, and building for self-sufficient living.
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Coming soonComposting, septic, and handling waste without municipal services.
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Costs, climate, food, insurance, and what off-grid living really takes.
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What’s your off-grid path?
Pick the closest fit. Each leads to a tailored read.
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Latest articles
The most recent additions to the knowledge base.
A €40 hydraulic crimp tool, Klauke-style lugs, and heat-shrink. Robbert walks through the exact workflow he uses for 35 to 70 mm² battery cables, and explains why he never solders them.
5 min readA pack on its own is not a home battery. Robbert walks through three full Victron setups (3 kVA, 5 kVA, and 3-phase) so the price of a working installation, not just the cells, is finally on paper.
5 min readSix second-hand panels, a homemade wooden frame, a used inverter. Total spend: €165. How fast it actually pays back, and where the trick is.
3 min readCalculators
Thirteen tools for sizing an off-grid system. URL-shareable, so a configuration is a link you can send to a friend.
List your household devices, see daily and yearly kWh. Start here before sizing solar panels or batteries.
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Estimate yearly energy output from panel count, panel wattage, and your region's sun yield.
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Estimate how many solar panels you need from annual kWh, panel wattage, and sun hours.
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Size a battery bank from daily load, voltage, autonomy days, and depth of discharge.
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Recommended continuous and surge inverter VA from continuous load, peak load, system voltage, and phases.
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Required MPPT voltage and amperage from panel count, Voc, Imp, string configuration, and battery voltage.
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Find the minimum DC cable cross-section from current, length, and allowable voltage drop.
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Calculate a recommended DC fuse rating from inverter power and system voltage.
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American Wire Gauge to metric cross-section reference table.
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Estimate what percentage of your solar production you actually use, with and without a home battery.
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Years to break even on a solar + battery investment. Compares scenarios with and without Dutch saldering after 2027.
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Estimate the total cost for an off-grid system across three install paths: DIY, off-shelf kit, and professional. NL/BE retail ranges.
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Runtime, burn rate, and cost per kWh for a backup generator on diesel, gasoline, propane, or natural gas.
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