KGE Real Estate

Last time I wrote I talked about the idea of building a shipping container home. The first and foremost thing on my mind with that idea was whether I would be able to find a reliable source for the containers here in Winnipeg. If we were on the coast or in a much bigger city I would not be concerned because those place have trade deficits. Those trade deficits mean there are a lot more containers coming than there are going and so many of those containers get sold. Well, luckily, one of my buddies knew someone in town who sell them.

This company brings them in mainly from Toronto. At first, the idea of bringing containers in from a couple of thousand miles away worried me because it would go against the low carbon footprint of the green concept and we are looking to get this building LEED Certified. However, when one of these containers is ordered the shipping company gets it packed full to bring goods to Winnipeg. Therefore, the purpose of the shipping container remains as a shipping container right up until it gets to Winnipeg and then it gets retired. Once it is retired, it is now a locally sourced item, which is an important factor to the green concept.

Once we knew that we had a source for the containers, I figured I should play around with something closer to the real thing than just the simply computer model I have. So where else to turn but to LEGO. Yes, I built a LEGO model of the house, starting with 4 individual containers. This will help me to understand how it would need to be modified to maintain the structural integrity and eventually the thermal integrity.