How tall are the ceilings? Bravo on building a seemingly perfect space for your needs, but as a tall person I'm often curious about the scale of solutions like this.
Hey Max the fold out table lets you dangle your feet under it with a lowered section right? That is pretty much Japanese style. What the Japanese do is put a heat source under it, so they don't heat the whole house but just locally. You could do that electrically or infrared.
Not being a tiny home or shipping container home fan in any way, I was sceptical about this video. But really did enjoy it. If you lived in the place for decade, it's real home with a nice view. ( No designer reveal of a house no ones really ever lived in, that some couple says there going to downsize into from a 3 bedroom house.) And yes a shipping container with one wall all windows doesn't look too bad. No attempt to pass it off an an architectural marvel, cause it's just boring rectangle. I appreciate that honesty. And I love he is using recycled UPS batteries instead of some overpriced lithium powerwall or whatever.
I live in Bedford and have seen this a few times when out riding round the marina. So cool to find out more about it. Really creative use of space and energy. Kudos.
I live in a small house too, together with 9 other homes. The problem is that these homes are typically always free standing in open areas, and in this example in relatively cold water. Our small house has more walls to the outside air than our previous row home (with similar insulation), and it is in a windy place. As a consequence, it needs a bit more energy for heating. Then there are a lot of projects with small homes with very little insulation. If that is combined with electrical/infrared heating (no heat pump) it can actually become quite consuming. In our community by now half the houses switched to airconditioning heatpumps as a source for heating to bring the consumption down. It is a very practical affordable way to get efficiënt heating. Way more efficient than infrared.
@@EugeneLambert Yes definitely possible. However, it adds cost and complexity. And limited suppliers/instappers. If you get an aircon (split AC) for heating it is very affordable.
I was hired as an engineer to create houses out of containers many years ago. In order to comply with building regs they have to be insulated and this is a nightmare due to thermal bridging in a metal box. Thermal bridging always produces damp. It's easier and cheaper to do the same size unit with SIPs.
I was thinking for years about a floating rotating house that tracks the sun, using the solar gain and also optimising solar generation and solar thermal production. Probably a small air to air heat pump for heating and cooling
Very inspirational - an air to air heatpump/AC unit would be a very cost effective heating option as well for a space like this I imagine but the space efficiency of the IR heating is really nice and I bet feels great. Very cool.
I could live with Imogen in any kind of house😂 Brain&looks👌 It would have been nice to see some figures of energy consumption. 1.4kW is quite low heating power. Can you really survive with that in UK? Here in Scandinavian you need 60-100W per square meter in well insulated house.
This a marvellous combination of practicality, creativity and style! You've got to believe that you could genuinely live in the space and this succeeds in that regard. Max could be leading a design and build company for these kind of modern sustainable dwellings ... people would be queueing up to pay their deposits!
I would buy one in the future. You should have included his willingness to make another one for someone, and at what price. No matter the cost, I’m pretty sure that he will find more than zero buyers.
7:26 I think this is a "solution" that creates bigger problems: bad smells from the bathroom can go straight into the kitchen through that hole in the wall. Also, so can any sounds...
Really interested in ASTECtherm but their website is a bit basic! I’ll contact them. We have ceiling infra red heaters in the kitchen and bedroom but want a bigger one in the garden room where I work. Agree that it is infuriating that we cannot use the energy in the cars to power the house. We have 2EVs with 110kWh potential useable batteries which far exceeds our 15kWh house batteries to store energy generated from our 8.5kW array. Even in winter, On a sunny day we are generating 22-30kWh per day and a lot of that is just going back to the grid for a measly 8p/kWh. Some great ideas which many of us could adopt for larger, more conventional properties. Thanks for sharing your home with us Max.
Bearing in mind you are not too concerned with efficiency, because the sun is your supplier and doesn't charge you for what it supplies, can you not turn a generator with a wheel jacked up? Obviously it will need something a bit more complicated, but you get my drift.
The floor turning into a table is a cool idea. But in practice, it just seems like you are eating off the floor. Have to constantly be cleaning the table.
VW bidirectional charging is DC based. Therefore you need a DC charger, which will not be cheap. Ac bidirectional system are also not available yet, but will possibly be cheaper
I'm pretty sure his VW cost him more than the house. :D Which is a seriously impressive achievement. I mean, not for VW, but containers aren't super straightforward to insulate and waterproof which is why the whole movement hasn't taken off like a rocket for housing.
I've heard of ridiculously cheap leases & incredible discounts from dealers because despite its name the iD-buzz has not set the world alight & the sales expectations are far from the expected pre-delivery hype
Lovely house . One of the problems of those houseboats is sewage flushed directly to the river. But that one would surely have a sewage tank and reusing water.
Really nice! But yeah, people ask me why I didn't go for a heat pump in my 1920s detached house. I told them that there really is no point until all the windows have been replaced and the insulation is upgraded quite a bit. Boring, but so important. I did really like the tricks he used. Might be interesting to try. And the infrared heating on all the ceilings. That might be interesting....
Love the repurposing, up-cycling aspect of this story. That this shipping container has retired to a boat marina as a tiny container home is an ultimate repurposing lifecycle journey. Curious if the container home is mounted on repurposed narrow-boat, or has floatation via other means? It's not clear if we're seeing a dock or part of a house-boat deck at 0:17.
I could just imagine the grief i would get from the boss going for a stinky pooh whilst she was cooking tea with that hole in the wall :D great idea tho. I love the idea of living on the water, but only once the child flies the nest!.
Since you will be heading to Australia perhaps a tie in video with 'Living Big in a Tiny House'? Bryce has covered quite a few off grid tiny homes around the world.
The numbers on money spent, cannot be true. Just a small research will prove this to be untrue. Plus you should consider the cost of the van as well. It might be a van and not part of the home, but since the plan is to use the battery bidirectionally, then it should be considered as part of the house. The floor table, though creative, it’s a hygiene hazard. The water tap is also creative, but again, a hygiene hazard and really bad on privacy. Unless you plan on living alone forever. The bed and clothes combo is ok, but again some mild hygiene issue there. We did not get a glimpse of the clothes washing machine/area etc. Possibly because it’s not so artistic, but still part of the home and part of life. The washing machine drum and other lights, though artistic, you surround yourself with junk. Lastly, books and knives don’t go well together. Unless you hate books. Artistically, all these look nice. But beyond that, this is not the way of living you should be dreaming of.
This houseboat has featured in other "green" type prigs. You might get a different but on the same theme prog on a George Clark production. This is not a new theme btw. There are dozens of similar takes on recycling containers all over YT. Some very enterprising projects turning containers into an at least four storey "block of flats" ... somewhere in London iirc.
@@jonevansauthor It depends on a lt of factors, what the costs would be? Rent or own, taxes, insurance, etc. The video doesn't speak about how the container is floated, and that's not as likely for many folks to attempt; is my thought.
Why should it be ok to use alot of concrete and have inefficient walls just because you live smaller? Concrete that there usually is alot under the floor in houseboats is very carbon intence in production. 35% wall area of windows wastes alot of energy. Usually the insulation performace of the walls and cieling is poor as the volume is narrow and low. Time is overdo to not have blind spots when showing these alternatives.
@@max_mcmurdo Solar gains without proper shadowing gives over temperatures many months of the year. In the winter time you need extremely good u-values of the windows to benefit the energy over 24 hours. What is under the floor and how much?
I'll believe that bidirectional VW when I see it. VW's software updates are atrocious and they promise lots of things that never materialise. (ID.4 owner). Great video otherwise.
the shipping containers are brand new, not really recycling, plus there's no insulation so energy bills will be much higher than a normal home would be. wish people would get over this shipping container hype, its a bad choice, only for clicks and fashion in today's markets
How can buying a shipping container cost less than buying siding? You have actually built your house inside of siding as you still had to build floors, walls, and ceiling inside the container. Seems like it would have been cheaper and easier to just put siding on those walls.
Thank you so much for coming to visit 🙏🏼
How tall are the ceilings? Bravo on building a seemingly perfect space for your needs, but as a tall person I'm often curious about the scale of solutions like this.
That was really cool! Thanks for sharing you home!
Hey Max the fold out table lets you dangle your feet under it with a lowered section right?
That is pretty much Japanese style. What the Japanese do is put a heat source under it, so they don't heat the whole house but just locally. You could do that electrically or infrared.
@@fennsk standard container height is 8' (the sizes are in old money), but you can find high cube ones, at 9'.
Damn, you have such a cool place to live!
Not being a tiny home or shipping container home fan in any way, I was sceptical about this video. But really did enjoy it. If you lived in the place for decade, it's real home with a nice view. ( No designer reveal of a house no ones really ever lived in, that some couple says there going to downsize into from a 3 bedroom house.) And yes a shipping container with one wall all windows doesn't look too bad. No attempt to pass it off an an architectural marvel, cause it's just boring rectangle. I appreciate that honesty. And I love he is using recycled UPS batteries instead of some overpriced lithium powerwall or whatever.
‘Levitated towards water’ that’s a skill 😆
I remember watching Max build this amazing to see he is still there. Sure he had a funky laundry system too. Super cool build
Max has come a long way.👍
I am really glad I found this channel. I enjoy every video.
Truly minimalistic… but loads of knick-knacks! Gotta get that V2 bidirectional charging up-and-running!
Very interesting, and thank you for covering such an inspiring project.
I live in Bedford and have seen this a few times when out riding round the marina. So cool to find out more about it. Really creative use of space and energy. Kudos.
I live in a small house too, together with 9 other homes.
The problem is that these homes are typically always free standing in open areas, and in this example in relatively cold water.
Our small house has more walls to the outside air than our previous row home (with similar insulation), and it is in a windy place. As a consequence, it needs a bit more energy for heating.
Then there are a lot of projects with small homes with very little insulation. If that is combined with electrical/infrared heating (no heat pump) it can actually become quite consuming.
In our community by now half the houses switched to airconditioning heatpumps as a source for heating to bring the consumption down. It is a very practical affordable way to get efficiënt heating. Way more efficient than infrared.
I wondered whether he could have gone for a water-source heat pump ...
@@EugeneLambert Yes definitely possible. However, it adds cost and complexity. And limited suppliers/instappers.
If you get an aircon (split AC) for heating it is very affordable.
I remember this shoot being talked about in your previous holiday podcast, the toilet humor on that one is ahem, lovely
I love what has been done. It shows the power of up cycling and what can be done with a few clever tricks. A great example of more is less.
Wow .. Great set up Small home + Solar+ EV = Awesome and Affordable !!
Thank you 🙏🏼
Thank you.
I was hired as an engineer to create houses out of containers many years ago. In order to comply with building regs they have to be insulated and this is a nightmare due to thermal bridging in a metal box. Thermal bridging always produces damp. It's easier and cheaper to do the same size unit with SIPs.
I’ve had success with both 🙏🏼
I was thinking for years about a floating rotating house that tracks the sun, using the solar gain and also optimising solar generation and solar thermal production. Probably a small air to air heat pump for heating and cooling
Very inspirational - an air to air heatpump/AC unit would be a very cost effective heating option as well for a space like this I imagine but the space efficiency of the IR heating is really nice and I bet feels great. Very cool.
Watched Max with George on his small spaces program, absolute genius when it comes to seeing what you can do with limited space.
Well done! Looks wonderful!
I think the Floating Homes episode of George Clarke Amazing Spaces from 2015 (where Max converted the container) is still available on Channel 4
Really like the style of the story and how you're telling it. You both look very passionate.
Cheers from Italy 🙂
Grrrrrrrreat idea
Amazing build. Lucky man!
I could live with Imogen in any kind of house😂 Brain&looks👌 It would have been nice to see some figures of energy consumption. 1.4kW is quite low heating power. Can you really survive with that in UK? Here in Scandinavian you need 60-100W per square meter in well insulated house.
This a marvellous combination of practicality, creativity and style! You've got to believe that you could genuinely live in the space and this succeeds in that regard. Max could be leading a design and build company for these kind of modern sustainable dwellings ... people would be queueing up to pay their deposits!
nice
Fabric first! 😃😃👌
Awesome, what a dream location!
Spotted Max’s pad straight away from the thumbnail. Great guy and ethos.
Thank you 🙏🏼
Beautiful
I have been enjoyed, so thank you for delivering.
I would buy one in the future. You should have included his willingness to make another one for someone, and at what price. No matter the cost, I’m pretty sure that he will find more than zero buyers.
Great episode. Much thinking
7:26 I think this is a "solution" that creates bigger problems: bad smells from the bathroom can go straight into the kitchen through that hole in the wall. Also, so can any sounds...
Agreed but never found it an issue so far
I love it when a levitate toward an idea...
🤗THX MAX FOR SHARING YOUR HOME,WITH CLEVERE 💡 THINGS AND I LOVE ❤️ RADIANT HEATING 💚💚💚
Thank you 🙏
Very cool! Very inspirational! And I'm very jealous of the bus!
Yay! Bedford! My hometown!!!!
Inspirational for any first time buyers. Probably cost less than your average deposit!
Nice job 👏 👍
Kindness is Always Free, The Highlander😊
Really interested in ASTECtherm but their website is a bit basic! I’ll contact them. We have ceiling infra red heaters in the kitchen and bedroom but want a bigger one in the garden room where I work. Agree that it is infuriating that we cannot use the energy in the cars to power the house. We have 2EVs with 110kWh potential useable batteries which far exceeds our 15kWh house batteries to store energy generated from our 8.5kW array. Even in winter, On a sunny day we are generating 22-30kWh per day and a lot of that is just going back to the grid for a measly 8p/kWh. Some great ideas which many of us could adopt for larger, more conventional properties. Thanks for sharing your home with us Max.
Bearing in mind you are not too concerned with efficiency, because the sun is your supplier and doesn't charge you for what it supplies, can you not turn a generator with a wheel jacked up?
Obviously it will need something a bit more complicated, but you get my drift.
❤❤ love seeing ASTECtherm heating such an eco build.
Fancy Wellies😊
The floor turning into a table is a cool idea.
But in practice, it just seems like you are eating off the floor.
Have to constantly be cleaning the table.
VW bidirectional charging is DC based. Therefore you need a DC charger, which will not be cheap. Ac bidirectional system are also not available yet, but will possibly be cheaper
I'm pretty sure his VW cost him more than the house. :D Which is a seriously impressive achievement. I mean, not for VW, but containers aren't super straightforward to insulate and waterproof which is why the whole movement hasn't taken off like a rocket for housing.
Van was 33k plus VAT
I've heard of ridiculously cheap leases & incredible discounts from dealers because despite its name the iD-buzz has not set the world alight & the sales expectations are far from the expected pre-delivery hype
Impressive creativity - love the video. 👏👏
Lovely house . One of the problems of those houseboats is sewage flushed directly to the river. But that one would surely have a sewage tank and reusing water.
Yes I can confirm nobody at the marina puts their waste water into the marina
A saniflo solves that issue in an instant. It will handle all waste with ease & pump it ashore in a 32mm pipe
Really nice! But yeah, people ask me why I didn't go for a heat pump in my 1920s detached house. I told them that there really is no point until all the windows have been replaced and the insulation is upgraded quite a bit. Boring, but so important. I did really like the tricks he used. Might be interesting to try. And the infrared heating on all the ceilings. That might be interesting....
It’d be very expensive
@@paulb1951I know. But not doing anything won't work either.. Unfortunately..
Love the repurposing, up-cycling aspect of this story. That this shipping container has retired to a boat marina as a tiny container home is an ultimate repurposing lifecycle journey.
Curious if the container home is mounted on repurposed narrow-boat, or has floatation via other means? It's not clear if we're seeing a dock or part of a house-boat deck at 0:17.
Mounted on marine pontoons
I love it!
An interesting company you could look up is Makar. They’ve been around many years, using sustainable materials and low energy.
I could just imagine the grief i would get from the boss going for a stinky pooh whilst she was cooking tea with that hole in the wall :D great idea tho. I love the idea of living on the water, but only once the child flies the nest!.
Great video. Xxxx
Does it move by itself or does it need towing to go anywhere?
Needs towing but can be pulled by hand
@@max_mcmurdo Pulled along the canals like narrow boats of old? 🐴
Hi Imogen. Love your work 👍
Since you will be heading to Australia perhaps a tie in video with 'Living Big in a Tiny House'? Bryce has covered quite a few off grid tiny homes around the world.
Keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks!
She is so cute!
Would this be a fast way on land to build affordable, economic to run homes?
Absolutely but tricky in England, Wales have a good scheme though
I saw the scaffold tap system, and remembered you talking about it on the end of year chat with Bobby and Jack! Awkward!
I thought to myself, hang on, that looks just like Max McMurdo. 😂
Interesting theme with your videos … I’m given the VW T-Roc to peruse in the adverts
Wonder what insulation was used on the container??
Grafotherm condensation paint then 75mm cellotex and a cavity, think I’d make it even thicker though if I built it again
❤
*YOU CAN BUY A VILLA WITH A POOL FOR £50K WHERE I LIVE*
Thats why I live here.
250-500 a month for the place? That's like a mortgage payment!!!
The numbers on money spent, cannot be true.
Just a small research will prove this to be untrue.
Plus you should consider the cost of the van as well. It might be a van and not part of the home, but since the plan is to use the battery bidirectionally, then it should be considered as part of the house.
The floor table, though creative, it’s a hygiene hazard.
The water tap is also creative, but again, a hygiene hazard and really bad on privacy. Unless you plan on living alone forever.
The bed and clothes combo is ok, but again some mild hygiene issue there.
We did not get a glimpse of the clothes washing machine/area etc.
Possibly because it’s not so artistic, but still part of the home and part of life.
The washing machine drum and other lights, though artistic, you surround yourself with junk.
Lastly, books and knives don’t go well together. Unless you hate books.
Artistically, all these look nice.
But beyond that, this is not the way of living you should be dreaming of.
I think there was a little bit of praise in there, I’ll take it! 😂
Did I see a chimney for a wood burner on the roof?
Yes I fitted that originally 6 years ago but now only recommend and instal bioethanol burners
"I'm sat" got to love the English people lol.
California?
So... What's it floating on?
Water, usually.
Standard marine pontoons
This houseboat has featured in other "green" type prigs.
You might get a different but on the same theme prog on a George Clark production.
This is not a new theme btw. There are dozens of similar takes on recycling containers all over YT.
Some very enterprising projects turning containers into an at least four storey "block of flats" ... somewhere in London iirc.
@@ahaveland 🤣Well played.
@@Ambot51 Thanks for the open goal! I thought you'd enjoy that... 🙂
So, this house could have also been built on land, correct? That would make it easier to do for many folks, I think. Though the view is very nice.
Land is probably a lot more expensive than the marina but yes, the same stuff could be done on land.
Quite so. There are dozens of similar projects on YT.
@@jonevansauthor It depends on a lt of factors, what the costs would be? Rent or own, taxes, insurance, etc. The video doesn't speak about how the container is floated, and that's not as likely for many folks to attempt; is my thought.
"Levitated towards water" 🤣🤣🤣
I think he means gravitated.
😂😂😂 I guess paddle boarding is levitating towards water?!
£250pm - £500pm mooring fees?! That's rent/mortgage money! 😂
very cool, but not for me.
This chik s name sound like the chemical interaction of the battery 😂
Why should it be ok to use alot of concrete and have inefficient walls just because you live smaller?
Concrete that there usually is alot under the floor in houseboats is very carbon intence in production.
35% wall area of windows wastes alot of energy. Usually the insulation performace of the walls and cieling is poor as the volume is narrow and low.
Time is overdo to not have blind spots when showing these alternatives.
The solar gain from the south facing bifold doors is great, I don’t have any concrete ballast
@@max_mcmurdo Solar gains without proper shadowing gives over temperatures many months of the year. In the winter time you need extremely good u-values of the windows to benefit the energy over 24 hours.
What is under the floor and how much?
So the Buzz cost about as much or more than the whole home then. VW may want to consider that.
I strongly support the insulation evangelization. Less energy needed i less enery spent. Amen.
I would prefer not to have poo shoes on my dinner table😊
I remove my shoes and poo before walking on the table! 😂💩
Rug?
@@max_mcmurdodoesn’t matter, still not very hygienic 😅
Everything electric in London 28th, 29th & "30th february". Realy? 😂
Just testing you! I've updated it to March. Thank you :-)
@@EverythingElectricShowI love your show and work. Keep going 💪🏼
Still burning stuff, ugh ffs just build a Victron system, solar & wind power, bet he can get a 16amp shore connection too.
Quite tight 😂😂£60k van. Most expensive in the world haha
I'll believe that bidirectional VW when I see it. VW's software updates are atrocious and they promise lots of things that never materialise. (ID.4 owner).
Great video otherwise.
I'm glad I don't have to live there.
Why?
the shipping containers are brand new, not really recycling, plus there's no insulation so energy bills will be much higher than a normal home would be. wish people would get over this shipping container hype, its a bad choice, only for clicks and fashion in today's markets
I can confirm it was a used container and is insulated 👍🏼
what insulation? what thickness? and how old was the container?
@@max_mcmurdo ?
@@max_mcmurdo ?
@@max_mcmurdo still no answer?
Floor as Table?? Ewwwwwww. Really?
Fun but non practical
The idea of using the floor as a table makes me want to vomit. Really not hygienic and triggers my OCD.
Ha ha I’ve survived so far 🙏🏼
How can buying a shipping container cost less than buying siding? You have actually built your house inside of siding as you still had to build floors, walls, and ceiling inside the container. Seems like it would have been cheaper and easier to just put siding on those walls.