With the rise of Tiny Houses, the off-grid market has also experienced enormous growth worldwide. Off-gridcentrum in Wierden has been advising on off-grid living since 2019 and supplies products that you can use, such as solar panels, batteries, compost toilets, water filters and fixed water purification systems. A very wide range, behind which a lot of knowledge is hidden. Every reason to hear from founder and off-grid pioneer Nander Knobben how the off-grid market is developing.
Started in an attic room
I can still remember sitting in my attic room behind my slightly too old laptop and deciding to build a website. I already knew the subject. I noticed that the haste of society was becoming increasingly distasteful to me. I wanted to be in nature, I wanted to live outside!
Inspired by articles about independence and self-sufficient living, I decided to do more research. But that wasn’t easy. Finding really good information on this subject was quite a job at the time. I thought something had to change about this. I decided to build a platform with interesting information about financial independence, small living, growing your own vegetables and off-grid energy. I wanted to inform people, inspire them and help them realize their plans.
Sharing off-grid knowledge is super important
I met people who shared my views. Interesting conversations, podcasts and interviews arose. Each exchange taught me that the outdoors was interesting for many more people. Yet it was often enthusiasts who encountered the same problems.
There were few suppliers and even fewer private individuals who understood the operation of, for example, solar energy systems with a home battery or the filtering of rainwater into clean drinking water. I have a background in caravan and camper technology and was therefore already familiar with small off-grid systems for campers, for example.
My first real assignment
While I was developing in all kinds of areas of off-grid life, I came into contact with a young and enterprising couple from Hengelo. At that time it was a really special choice to build a Tiny House. Little was known about it, but fearless as they were, they did not shy away from the challenge.
During a cup of coffee in the workshop where the Tiny House was built, I was asked if I wanted to make their Tiny House completely off-grid. They had no connection for water, sewer or electricity. A challenge, but one that I had gained experience with in the meantime and I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into it. My first real assignment was a fact!
A few months later, this couple had virtually no fixed costs and had become completely independent of the grid. The fact that we got the Tiny House completely off-grid gave us a kick that I will not soon forget and I immediately had the feeling: I want to do this more and more often.
So we started to create one place and one store that can help with an independent and self-sufficient life. The Off-grid center became a reality in 2019.
No more fluctuating energy prices to deal with
With the Off-grid center we help people to become independent of energy suppliers, grid providers and fluctuating market prices. We mainly do this for people who are starting a new adventure in a place where there are no utilities, such as off-grid Tiny Houses or forest houses. We also help adventurers who emigrate to countries such as Portugal, Spain or Curaçao.
Due to increased energy costs, off-grid energy systems are also becoming more interesting for the “normal” housing market in the Netherlands. There is a significant increase in people who want to become more independent of existing utilities. They are aware of their dependence on current providers and look for suitable alternatives.
Off-grid Tiny Houses: growth market
In January 2019 we started at the Tiny House market. At the time, this market only had a handful of builders and few or no providers focused on the off-grid lifestyle. Now 4 years later, the market has grown a lot. Not only Tiny Houses have become increasingly famous, but other related markets have also taken off. The Tiny House market has also benefited from this.
For example, home batteries have become much cheaper due to new technologies. The high global demand has also led to gigantic increases in scale. Since corona, the demand for camper and camper accessories has also exploded. As a result, many suppliers of tiny living products have emerged. For example, we recently also added beautiful wooden toilets to our range.
Due to rising energy prices, people are becoming creative and coming up with alternative ways to save energy that are also used in Tiny Houses to keep themselves warm. As a company we see the development in the product range. In addition to our search for new products that can help people, we are also developing more and more products ourselves.
Growing while maintaining quality
We have grown rapidly in recent years. I started this company alone in 2019, but I now do this together with 20 colleagues. The team has grown quickly. The biggest challenge is to find the right colleagues and teach them the right knowledge about this unique market. When energy or gas prices rise, you see that the demand for off-grid increases. There are plenty of requests, the trick is to maintain quality as the team and the number of customers grow.
With due pride
It’s amazing that we now have a 500m2 warehouse in which we can prepare all systems before they go plug and play to the customer. But this is nothing more than a milestone. The biggest highlights are without exception the customer stories. I think we honestly have the nicest customers a company could wish for.
How people come to our showroom, sit down at the table and share their dream with us while enjoying a cup of coffee. The request for help: a completely customized energy system. And that we will then manage to ensure that this exactly meets the customer’s wishes. From dream to realization, we receive happy photos of beautiful off-grid systems from France, Portugal but also from the Netherlands.
That always gives a huge kick when you can help people reach a new level of freedom. We also have customers who live in a “normal” house and purchase an off-grid system or home battery. I have several customers who have reduced their energy costs from 400 euros per month to no costs with our help, and even situations where customers started earning from their generated energy. An energy bill of 0 is absolutely no exception for us anymore. But still, every time I succeed I remember my initial goal: Inform people, inspire them and help them realize their plans!
Nander’s vision of the future
We see that the Tiny House market is growing enormously and that all kinds of different companies are emerging with different initiatives. They do really cool things, but we also see that growth is stagnating in certain places, because people cannot find a place for a Tiny House. We hope that this will improve in the coming years. We have noticed that more and more customers are coming to us who already have a place for a Tiny House. When we started, hardly anyone had a place. I think this will remain one of the biggest challenges for future Tiny House residents. I hope that municipalities and project developers will continue to think along, because the need for small and sustainable housing is increasing.
We believe that Tiny Houses can be a solution to the housing problem, but also a means to reduce financial burdens. There are more and more single households that need less space, a Tiny House can be perfect for this. If you want to go off-grid, you have an extra challenge in your consultation with the municipality. You have to agree on whether or not to provide facilities such as electricity, water and sewerage and not every municipality is set up for this yet. Our role is to relieve people of their worries as much as possible. As soon as they have the green light from the authorities, we want to be able to deliver the right items as quickly as possible. In this way, people can experience independent and self-sufficient living as quickly as possible with just a few fewer connections. We hope to be able to do that more and more.
Leave a Reply