Shipping Containers Blog

Posts Tagged ‘metal container’

Many of you seem to think that no matter how nice a shipping container home can look - and it can look very nice indeed - there is no getting around the fact that a shipping container is a metal box and therefore will be like an oven in the summer, and in contrast, damp and freezing cold in the winter.

Not so. The reality for shipping container insulation is that space age technology has come to its aid. There is now such a thing as Ceramic spray insulation. This is a relatively new development, and in fairness, not in general use in the UK, yet it is NASA approved, and particularly effective when applied to the metal container surface. By this I mean the Corten steel that shipping containers are made out of. Super Therm is probably the most well known brand.

Ceramic spray insulation is applied like paint, and it stops cold and heat transference. When it is dry you can paint it any colour you like. Best of all it doesn’t narrow the container like traditional insulation used to, so you can actually make use of the 8ft width of the container, rather than struggle with the 7′6″ you used to be left with after traditional insulation.

Testing in the US shows that if you use a shipping container for accommodation using the Ceramic Insulation spray, the structure will probably be more energy efficient than a traditional home. As an added bonus when you coat the shipping container’s corten steel surfaces with it the shipping container becomes virtually rust proof.

This leaves us with the issue of ventilation - something that always worries people using shipping containers to store personal items etc. The truth is that for housing, when windows and doors are cut into the container they give the structure a similar amount of ventilation to that of a traditional house. The windows themselves can be double, or even tripled glazed. Electrical supply allows for air conditioning to be fitted should that prove necessary for the location, so ventilation is more than taken care of.

And, just to set the record straight, shipping containers used on marine voyages are fitted with vents which have pvc baffles which allow air in and keep sea water out. Sometimes additional moisture traps are placed inside when the cargo is particularly vulnerable to damp conditions. After all, no-one wants to go to the expense of shipping merchandise from one side of the world to the other on a four month journey and find that everything is ruined inside. So you don’t even have to worry about condensation in a traditional shipping container either.

Science has come to the aid of the shipping container and is allowing us all to see them not just as metal boxes but as practical spaces for modern day living with the ability to deliver the standards of energy conservancy that we need. How amazing is that?