FREMA
Independent off grid shipping container living solutions
We use modified shipping containers to limit the costs. Plus the off grid features create independent living conditions, free from most public services.
Revolutionising Sustainability:
Container Living Solutions.
Off-Grid Power.
Water recycling.
Hydroponics & Greenhouses.
Pave the Way for Eco-Friendly Living.
We are all about HELP.
We are offering a solution to the Australian housing crisis.
We can provide the DIY (do it yourself), knowledge (including where to purchase the components), via a number of ebooks, that you can buy from this site.
In some cases we can supply specialized parts for your project, like special container gutter brackets.
My name is Fred Mellenbergh and I have been retired for 18 years. I am well educated with an MSc in Engineering and Business Administration. For the last 6 years I have been building, researching and living off grid in my container city. And I am ready to share my experiences.
Containers intro Why modified shipping container living?
You can live in 26 sqm or 52 sqm or more internal living floor space, very comfortably, for a fraction of the cost of a unit. And you can also have copious extra storage.
Now I show you container living in the container city. (10 containers.) I have built it all by myself and have lived here for 6 years now. My assistance to you can be done via ebooks with telephone support.
If you feel uncomfortable then I am happy to invite you (and your party) to my city and give you a half day of my full attention to your needs. Then you can verify the comfort and freedom of my life.
Off GridHow about Off Grid Power, generating your own?
For recycling grey water, I can either explain how it works, or supply you the essential bits. You may well ask does anybody else use this method. Well, I don’t know, because I have not found anybody, but it works for me.
Sustainable Living – greenhouses and hydroponics.
I am working towards that goal. I am already free from the bulk of public services. The phase I am working on now is to build a greenhouse for growing essential vegetables. I want to experiment with hydroponics, temperature and humidity control plus maybe CO2 enrichment, and above all nutrient variations, to see if I can get almost continuous crops through the year. Plants on steroids.
I write & sell essays (or Ebooks) on a wide range of subjects.
I must written dozens upon dozens of them, but not all are being published.
There are 3 groups of them:
- on building the sustainable container living setup.
- on several basic science subjects, general home building, and engineering topics, not to make you an expert, but to make you aware.
- on life topics, enlightenment , “global warming”, and sustainability, where I often share my thoughts.
You can buy these ESSAYS from the shop on this website and get a download.
Please explore!
Please keep me in the loop and I will register with my name and Email.
If I can understand your family’s interests, I can either work on or tell you
about things of benefit to you.
There are always things to do and operations to improve. However I have 3 projects that I want to work on. There is a separate page on this site, where I talk about them and what status I am at.
- The wind turbine project was started about 2 years ago. It works, but I am not happy with it.
- The Hydroponic concept has been in my mind for decades and I did some work on this 25 years ago. But in this location there is an opportunity to delve deeper in some of the aspects. That is why I built and finished the laboratory and the greenhouse. I would have liked some more sophisticated equipment in the lab, but I could not justify spending well in excess of $100,000 more. Now it is time to start to playing with plants.
- I need to find easy method to measure the effectiveness of the water recycling. (Or more to the point when do we dilute the grey water with fresh, or when do we discard what is left in the tank.) Not everybody has a laboratory to test things.
This is a small anecdote about the frame for the greenhouse.
Some 4 weeks ago I was at my sons place. When we tried to block the sheep, I ran uphill, but I tripped over the dog and then I splattering onto the gravel track and finished up with bursitis in my right knee. Two weeks later I picked up a load of 20 x3m long railway sleepers plus 17 sheets of Villaboard.
Over the next few days I worked on laying this frame, wearing my knee pads with extra foam padding to help with the bursitis. That was all good. All the 14 long sleepers did get connected and pinned down. But the small in-between pieces had to be nailed to the long sleepers.
Now there are 9 x 5 =45 small pieces, each having to be fixed with 4 x 45 = 180 brackets. Each bracket takes 4 nails, making a total of 720 nails to be hammered in. The weather was warm and on many days it would reach 35 degrees around midday. So I am mustering up the courage, and tried 1-1.5 hrs before my breakfast and then 1-2 hrs after 4pm and have ago. I did not really want to think about it, because 700 odd is a large number. I would just hoped the knees would hold up and I got on with the job.
