This article was written in collaboration with De Groene Hoed Duurzaam.
De Groene Hoed has been the go-to address for expert advice and purchase of installations for sustainable homes for ten years. Founder Dominic Tegelbeckers and his team recieve more and more questions from (future) Tiny House residents and builders and have therefore launched a special website for Tiny House installations. A knowledge base full of relevant information about the many options available today to heat, cool, provide hot water and cook in your home.
Simple and cost-effective sustainability
Groene Hoed Duurzaam was founded with the aim of making gas-free and sustainable living easier and cheaper and focuses on decentralized solutions. The integral home installations are often complex systems and it is sometimes quite a puzzle to find out what is needed and what the most efficient combinations of systems are. This requires a lot of research and investments in advance, which forms a barrier to the application. . Dominic believes that the greatest sustainable catch-up is made when private individuals can get started in their own home. With ‘quick-wins’: alternatives to existing installations that are cheaper and simpler.
Small investment, big effect
By generating hot water yourself you can save 25% on gas and this does not require large investments, according to Dominic. This way you can already prepare for making your home all-electric. There are easy solutions for saving water in the shower and kitchen, without having to use a gas boiler. Solar boilers, instant heaters and electric boilers make it possible to heat your water without major investments and with the power of the sun. You can expand this immediately or in the future with a heat pump system.
Another efficient solution for heating your home is the air conditioner or air-to-air heat pump. If you heat your living room and kitchen with it, 50% of your energy needs for a compact home are met, says Dominic. A simple solution with a great effect: that is what they love at De Groene Hoed.
Tiny Houses as study objects
Dominic does not spend all his time at De Groene Hoed, he also taught at the Construction and Innovation department at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences until the end of 2023. There he worked with students on real assignments around holistic sustainability. How can you use stored energy as efficiently as possible? Do more with less is what it comes down to and Tiny Houses are an excellent subject for these assignments.
The challenge is to use as few installations as possible, only what you really need. By properly insulating the home, using collective systems, using the best sustainable energy sources and playing with when you use the energy. With his students, Dominic researches integrated systems for robust neighborhoods that are climate-adaptive, can organize their own energy and where biodiversity plays an important role.
We have to change and a lot is going to change according to Dominic. There is a great opportunity because the paths are not there yet, everyone is still figuring out how. He really enjoys seeing how things come together and being involved with them. Dominic: ‘The sustainability transition is framed as a burden and cost item, while that is not the case. The residential areas of the future can have much better quality without necessarily costing more money, as long as you look at the picture integrally.‘
A good example of a product that can be used in Tiny Houses is a new boiler that can be connected directly to solar panels without an inverter. This is particularly interesting for small off-grid houses. A backup is possible to a battery or mains connection, for when the sun does not shine. The heating element works at low power and flexibly: with a small amount of electricity it will heat up a bit and take a nice long time, so that you can also charge for eight hours with eight hours of sun. This way you can get by with just two solar panels. With the thirty liter capacity you can shower for about eight minutes.
Knowledge base, webshop, showroom
All acquired knowledge is reflected in the services of de Groene Hoed Duurzaam: up to date information about the best installation systems and combinations thereof. De Groene Hoed works with a range of partners and sometimes introduces products to the Dutch market itself, which can therefore sometimes be offered at a lower price.
You can do research on the website and immediately order your Tiny House installations once you have made a choice. Would you like to see the products first or seek advice? That is also possible, there is a small showroom in Rotterdam that you can visit.
For the well-informed do-it-yourselfer or the skilled installer, there is also the specialized, more technical website Econo.nl.
Installation and service
De Groene Hoed does not have its own installers but works with a number of partners. This means that the installation of your purchased products is properly taken care of by skilled installers. The De Groene Hoed team can focus on researching new products, thinking about the best product applications and providing good service. That’s what they are good at and what they like to do most.
Installations can of course break down. Dominic’s preference is to repair rather than replace. This is more difficult with electronics. New products are becoming increasingly smarter, but as a result they often cannot work well with other products. That is why he is sometimes consciously looking for ‘as dumb a product as possible’, such as dumb boilers, so that you can control them externally.
The ideal Tiny House installation
Tiny Houses often involve customization and that also applies to the installations, but at de Groene Hoed they of course have their preferences. For the average Tiny House this is the combination of air conditioning and boiler. Good air conditioning can heat all year round and the ability to cool is also very pleasant. If you cover the entire roof with solar panels, you will have more than enough power when cooling is needed and you will avoid feeding it back into the power grid. An electric boiler in combination with solar panels has a high efficiency and can be heated when the sun shines. An alternative to this combination is air conditioning + underfloor heating or convector heater.
Are you having trouble choosing your installations? Then you can ask the Groene Hoed for advice. It is important that you know what you want. For example, what your power needs are, what equipment you want to use. Send the plans for your Tiny House to them and describe what you want to achieve so the team can make a plan for you.
Four tips when choosing an installation package
Dominic and his team would like to give you a few considerations before choosing your installation package:
- Think about the energy consumption of your equipment and the limitations of your connection. Make sure that your heating and hot water solution fits your generators. Available power connections often have limitations, for example because you are at a temporary location or at a campsite where a limited power connection (6 or 10A) is available. Inventory the energy needs of your equipment.
- Adjust your heating and hot water solution to your solar power generation. Make sure you can be flexible with it; try to select products so that you use your own solar power as much as possible.
- Choose heating types for the lowest energy consumption and the highest comfort.
- There are often space limitations regarding the placement of installations in a Tiny House, for example there are no available walls. Select your products here. Large buffer tanks are often not practical.
Last but not least
It is important to familiarize yourself with the possibilities when you build or have your Tiny House built. Know what you want. How big is your house, what do you want to achieve with the installations, which room do you want to heat? The better you know, the better the advice about the correct installation. The De Groene Hoed website is very helpful, but you also have to think about your wishes and needs yourself. That is the first step, the next is to request advice or order your installations from De Groene Hoed. They are happy to serve you.
You can of course also find De Groene Hoed Duurzaam on TinyFindy:
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