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.
At this stage we limit our activities to part of the Eastern states of Australia and focus on living on rural (RU1) type properties. This opens an opportunity the live in freedom and in touch with nature.
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 supply ready to use product or we can supply you the know how for DIY (do it yourself).
The things I am telling you, I am doing and living it!
My name is Fred Mellenbergh and I have been retired for 17 years. I am well educated with an MSc in Engineering and Business Administration. For the last 5 years I have been building, researching and living off grid in my container city. And I am ready to share my experiences.
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 5 years now. My assistance to you can be done in 3 ways, as explained on the containers page. If you feel uncomfortable then I am happy to invite you 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.
How 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.
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 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.
You may have wondered, “if I only understood what they talked about”. Some of my essay can fill the gap.
These essays are not science books, but they are easy to follow. Reading them will expand your knowledge and understanding. They explain how the world around us works and what is happening, also what did happen in the past. There a numerous pictures for explanation.
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.
- This project has been in operation for about a year. I want to have a productive wind turbine, to compensate for the lack of sunshine during bad weather.
- 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 now install a green house. I would have liked some more sophisticated equipment in the lab, but I could not justify spending well in excess of $100,000 more. I have now set the wheels in motion for the greenhouse and hopefully before X-mas I might be growing something.
- 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 a batch.) 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 last 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 are connected and pinned down. But the small in-between pieces have 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 6 nails, making a total of 1080 nails to be hammered in. The weather is warm and it will most likely reach 35 degrees around midday. So I am mustering up the courage, and try 1-1.5 hrs before my breakfast and then 1-2 hrs after 4pm and have ago. I don’t really want to think about it, because 1080 is a large number. I just hope the knee will endure it.
