Roel Adriaans
Author and founder
Roel built the tiny house himself in 2018 and moved off the grid. Not for the romance of it, but for freedom. Freedom from utility bills that creep up every year. Freedom from a setup tied to fossil fuels. Freedom to live closer to nature instead of paying someone else to keep the lights on.
And not just off-grid. Off-grid and smart. As far as Roel knows, his build was the first tiny smart house: a tiny home that ran itself. Energy, heating, cooling, all of it on schedules and sensors that the house managed without input. Every outlet could be read and switched remotely. The brackets, sensors, and enclosures he couldn't buy off the shelf, he printed on his own 3D printers. The dream he was chasing wasn't only freedom from the utility company. It was a small, low-footprint home that quietly took care of itself.
Solar became the cornerstone of that switch. At first he didn't know an amp from a watt. The information he needed was hard to find. There was no single source that put the numbers, the parts, and the practical trade-offs in one place. He pieced it together over years from forum threads, datasheets, installer rules of thumb, and a lot of trial and error. He made mistakes along the way. Ask him about the first winter he underestimated his energy budget. Or actually, don't.
Why solar? Because it works. The sun doesn't send invoices. It doesn't ask for maintenance contracts. It just shows up, day after day, with more energy than a tiny house needs to run.
In 2024 he and his family bought the real house. The tiny house was repositioned to the backyard and given a new name: the tuin huis (garden house). Roel currently lives in the tuin huis while the main house is being prepared. The goal for that house is net-zero on the meter. Different building, same target: produce as much energy as it consumes, keep ownership of the bill.
Because the knowledge he needed cost so much time to gather in the first place, he decided to bundle what he had learned and put it online. That is the reason OFFGRIDDR exists, and the reason Roel is its initiator. One place where the numbers, the parts, and the practical trade-offs sit together, in plain language, free, for anyone who wants to do what he did.
To anyone who lands here: have a lot of fun reading, and a lot of fun learning. That is what this place is for.
Articles by Roel
- Making your own battery cables for a home batteryBased on findings by Robbert LievensA €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.
- What a DIY home battery actually costsBased on findings by Robbert LievensA 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.
- A €165 budget solar setup with used panelsBased on findings by Robbert LievensSix second-hand panels, a homemade wooden frame, a used inverter. Total spend: €165. How fast it actually pays back, and where the trick is.
- Sizing solar panels and an inverter for a DIY installBased on findings by Robbert LievensSeries, parallel, or a mix. How to read the panel sticker, match panels to an inverter, and wire a self-installed array safely. Robbert walks through real numbers with second-hand Marktplaats panels.
- A €30 touchscreen for the Victron Cerbo GXBased on findings by Robbert LievensThe factory Victron display starts at €200. A €25 Raspberry Pi 7-inch IPS touchscreen, an HDMI cable, two USB cables, and a 3D-printed case give the same functionality.
- A silent fan mod for the Victron Multiplus that doesn't void the warrantyBased on findings by Robbert LievensTwo 80 mm fans, a buck converter, a temperature controller, and a 3D-printed cradle inside the Multiplus bottom cover. Quiet continuous airflow that ramps up before the loud factory fan ever spins up.
- An €18 Action floor lamp turned into a live Victron state of charge displayBased on findings by Robbert LievensA discount-store LED floor lamp, a €4 microcontroller, and a 3D-printed base become a 1.40 meter live readout of Victron VRM state of charge. No code editor required.
- Building a 16 kWh home battery in a JK BMS enclosureBased on findings by Robbert LievensStep by step build of a 314 Ah / 16 kWh LiFePO4 home battery using the JK ESS enclosure, EVE MB31 cells, and a JK BMS. No manual is included with the case, so this video is the missing instruction set.
- Building a 16 kWh LiFePO4 battery for a Victron home setupBased on findings by Robbert Lievens16 prismatic cells, a JK BMS, a fire-retardant MDF box, and two 100 A fuses. The full build of one 16 kWh pack, with three of them planned for 48 kWh of off-grid storage.
- Building a Victron Lynx Shunt yourself for 200 euros lessBased on findings by Robbert LievensA Smart Shunt, a 3D-printed housing, copper busbars, and an optional 500 A switch with precharge. Robbert builds a Lynx Shunt replacement that beats the original on price and features.
- Class T, MEGA, or Adler EF3: choosing the right fuse for a home batteryBased on findings by Robbert LievensWhy a MEGA fuse can fail to stop a short on a 314 Ah lithium pack, what the AIC rating actually means, and which fuse types survive the math for a 48 V DIY home battery.
- Connecting a Victron ESS at 48 kWhBased on findings by Robbert LievensRobbert wires three Multiplus units into a three-phase meter box, extends the panel for safety, and runs 5x6 mm² cable to the shed. The careful version of a job most people rush.
- DIY 16 kWh home battery Q&A: cell compression, orientation, and plug-in mythsBased on findings by Robbert LievensFollow-up to the 48V build video. Robbert answers viewer questions on cell compression, busbar layout, stud variants, torque, mixing packs, and why plug-in batteries are a bad idea.
- DIY home battery at 48 kWh with a Victron three-phase setupBased on findings by Robbert LievensShort visual overview of the full system: 48 kWh of LiFePO4 storage, three Victron Multiplus inverters, a Cerbo, and 51 solar panels. The plan to take a regular row house off-grid.
- DIY lithium home battery thermal test at 5 kWBased on findings by Robbert LievensRobbert puts his 16-cell LiFePO4 pack on a continuous 4.5 kW discharge for three hours with a thermal camera running. Where the heat shows up, and where it doesn't.
- LiFePO4 16 kWh battery Q&ABased on findings by Robbert LievensWhy 60 V fuses on a 48 V pack, Class T versus MEGA, the case for a torque wrench, and why DIY beats commercial for repairability. Comments-driven follow-up to the build.
- LiFePO4 vs lithium-ion: why home batteries use the safer chemistryBased on findings by Robbert LievensNot all lithium cells are the same. Robbert breaks down the difference between LiFePO4, lithium-ion, and lithium-polymer, and why house-burning headlines almost always come back to the same chemistry.
- Making DC cables for a Victron home battery systemBased on findings by Robbert Lievens70 mm² cables between three Victron Multipluses and the Lynx busbar. The tooling, the cable tray that wasn't big enough, and why proper hydraulic crimping matters.
- The Victron Cerbo GX: what it does and how to wire itBased on findings by Robbert LievensEvery port on the Cerbo GX, what each one is for, and how to integrate it into a 48 V Victron setup using the existing busbar instead of a separate adapter.
- Turning a Victron Lynx Power In into a distributor for 70 euros lessBased on findings by Robbert LievensThe Victron Lynx Distributor is essentially a Lynx Power In with four fuses and indicator LEDs. Robbert shows how to convert the cheaper unit yourself and skip the premium.
- Updating Victron Multiplus firmware and connecting it to the CerboBased on findings by Robbert LievensThree Multiplus units are wired and powered. They won't talk to the Cerbo yet. The fix: update the firmware, configure the grid code, set up three-phase, and load the ESS assistant on each unit.
- Victron 3-phase home battery with 48 kWh LiFePO4 storage: 2025 summaryBased on findings by Robbert LievensA consolidated walkthrough of Robbert's three-phase Victron build: 3x 5 kVA Multipluses, 48 kWh of DIY LiFePO4, a self-built Lynx Shunt that saves €200, and the Q&A that drove the design choices.
- Victron three-phase home battery Q&A during the buildBased on findings by Robbert LievensMid-build follow-up: why an RCD has to sit between main switch and subpanel, why Victron over cheaper alternatives, fire safety with LiFePO4, and the case for 3D-printed enclosures.
- Victron three-phase home battery: preparationsBased on findings by Robbert LievensBefore the cables and the wiring, the mounting board. Robbert lays out the wall, drills for the Multiplus units, installs wiring trunking, and explains why every choice has a reason.
- Victron three-phase install: answers to the questions that came inBased on findings by Robbert LievensEarth-leakage automats, neutral splitting, 25 A vs 40 A breakers, why 5 kVA over 3 kVA, AC-coupled vs MPPT, and the bypass switch. A round of Q&A on the three-phase Victron build.
- What the Victron meter box install taught him: a debriefingBased on findings by Robbert LievensAfter the first meter-box install video, comments piled up. Robbert went back and addressed the sharpest ones: AC outputs, frequency shifting, the 1.0 rule, and emergency stops.
- Wiring a Victron home battery with soft-start DC cablesBased on findings by Robbert LievensConnecting a fully charged 51 V pack to three Multiplus units with empty capacitors is a recipe for a hard spark. Robbert walks through the lamp trick that pre-charges the inverters before the cables go on.
- Wiring the Victron into the meter cupboard with emergency powerBased on findings by Robbert LievensRobbert takes the three-phase Victron set off the temporary bench connection and ties it permanently into the meter cupboard. Result: the house keeps running when the main breaker drops.
- Who is Robbert? The builder behind the extreme DIY projectsBased on findings by Robbert LievensA profile of Robbert DIY Projects: self-taught electronics, a backyard tropical pool, a Disney-style fairy ride in the veranda, a 4K Unreal Engine game, and now a 48 kWh Victron home battery.
- How To Calculate Your Solar Energy Needs in kWhThe math behind sizing your solar system. List every device, multiply by hours, add a buffer, divide by your sun hours. Here's a worked example.
- The Battle Of Electric Currents: AC vs DC PowerIn the 1880s, Edison's team killed dogs and a horse with AC to make it look deadly. He lost anyway. Here's why your wall socket is AC.
- Off-Grid vs. On-Grid Solar: Which One Is Right For You?Two ways to do solar: cut the cord, or stay tied to the utility as backup. Each has real costs and real upside. Here's how to decide.
- Exploring Saltwater BatteriesThere's a battery you can literally pour water on. It won't catch fire. It's made of salt water and cheap metal. Here's how it works, and why it's heavy.
- Lead-Acid Batteries: A Comprehensive GuideThe battery in your car was invented in 1859 and the chemistry hasn't really changed. Here's why this 165-year-old technology still powers cars, boats, and off-grid homes.
- What You Need To Know About Lithium-Ion BatteriesA lithium battery the size of a paperback runs your phone for over a day. The same chemistry powers cars, drones, and almost every solar home battery sold today. Here's how it works and why it matters.