Dai - I am sure the merits of these have been discussed before. Try searching on the site.

I would still like to hear anyones thoughts, if possible.

Shipping containers are a form of over-designed house so can be used. However, by using one, you are taking it out of the second hand system (for use a as shipping container). If this means that one more has to be built, you have effectively spent a vast amount of embodied energy on the structure.

So I doubt it's truly 'green'. In addition, they're not a good size for rooms and they are difficult to convert properly. There's another thread on this forum (somewhere) that this is discussed in more detail.

cheers for that.

Lots of footage on youtube!

Yes they are....but once they are used what do we do with them? second hand containers are almost £10 cheaper per square meter than masonry cavity construction (both exluding insulation and plasterboard/plaster skim). So this is could be an option to one recycle a structurally sound component and two a solution to provide affordable housing....more info will become available as I write my dissertation, I will try and keep you all posted.

Dai, have you seen these http://www.myspacepod.co.uk/

"Yes they are....but once they are used what do we do with them?"

Depends how used they are: Some can be refurbed and re-used for shipping. Others may be too degraded for shipping or there might not be shipping demand: These can be refurbed for temporary works use (such as toilets). Past that point parts can be recycled or scrapped at a relatively low environmental cost. Generally, failure is in the preformed thin wall cladding rather than the sub-system.

Or you can take scrap steel out of the system and build effectively very over-designed houses with unusual cladding arrangements, difficult room sizes and a tendency to conduct heatloss to the worst insulated point or break

I can't see any environmental benefit to doing this. It's a fun idea though providing it's not you that has to live in one.

The thermal conductivity is exceptionally high: From a design point of view it might as well not be there except to act as a heat loss mechanism

Good luck with the paper.

They are already used to here to a surprisingly large extent for the type of technology.

I need the thermal conductivity to allow me to calculate the U-values, my paper is going to look at the technical side, type and location of insulation, Infiltration, ventilation etc.

Dai, I'm sure you appreciate that a standard ISO container is a steel box and therefore as jon and chuckey point out has an extremely poor thermal conductivity.

If in fact you're talking ISO reefer containers then there are two classifications under the ATP standard. One normally insulated where the U value of the box has to be better than 0.7W/m2K and the other heavily insulated where is has to be better than 0.4W/m2K. The latter of these two is also the U value that refrigerated trucks involved in the transport of perishable goods has to achieve.

Its worth noting though that the thermal performance of these containers and indeed some trucks worsens dramatically with age as damage to the outer skins allows moisture to penetrate the foam. This is more prevalent in containers that are insulated with injected PUR foam whereas many trucks now use XPS

Thank you everyone for your input! It was very much appreciated

True, it's an alloy with self sealing properties but these become irrelevant if you paint it: The design of this steel is for shipping so allowing rust to form as a protective barrier (when alloyed) is a good idea. Not so sure that allowing rust to form on internal structures is a design criteria that one would typically choose: Generally for internal domestic structures you would seek to completely prevent internal rusting and so these particular qualities (of the cor-ten steel) become a bit irrelevant don't they?

Hi CWatters,

Normally, we have kingspan for facade with PUR core. and the wall, when we put container each other, U value should be counted by 2 walls, not only one, so the wall U value will be less than 0.4m2.k/w. For the roof, same story as facade, we are going to put flat roof system of kingspan, which is much lower U value than EU standard.

Hi Jon

Painting
Surface protection
Surface preparation
（1）Before and after the final moulding, all panels are to be impeller blasting treated and meet Swedish standard SA 2 1/2 (approaching to a white metal surface). Roughness of the bottom surface is 25~35µm, and remove all rust, dirt, rolling oxidative skins and other exotic stuffs.
（2）All door fittings are warm-plated with Zinic, and the coating thickness is 70µm.
（3）All fastening fittings such as tapping screw, screw cap, hinge, lock protruding wheel, bonding fittings, fillet are all Zinic-plated. The coating thickness is 130µm.

Bottom paint coating
Before assembly
The surface of all steel sheets is painted with 2 layers, 10-150µm-thick Epoxy zinc rich primer after the impeller blasting treatment. Then the steel sheet will be immediately moved to the drying room for drying.
Post-assembly
（1）All welding gaps are impeller blasting treated to remove welding dregs, splashed welding balls and burned coating resultant from welding.
（2）The assembled containers should be surface-painted with two layers of Epoxy zinc rich primer.
（3）Thickness of dry film of the primer paint should be 35~40µm (including the first layer of primer) on the exterior surface and pedestal of the containers, whereas, it is 25~30µm for the interior surface.
Surface paint
When the Epoxy zinc rich primer dries, the surface of all containers are to be painted with high-powered chlorinated rubber top-coat.

bottom paint
After the sheet-spreading work is done, all pedestal and floor are to be daubed with 200µm-thick bottom-sealed bitumastic paint whose main component is asbestos/bitumen.
Exterior surface： 100~110 µm
Interior surface： 50~ 60 µm
pedestal： 235~340 µm
Bottom surface of the bottom plate： 200 µm (minimum)