Which Climates Are Suitable For Shipping Container Homes?

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Updated On: December 21, 2019

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We have received emails from people all around the world making comments and asking questions. One of the most popular questions we receive is about which climates are suitable for shipping container homes.

Most people do consider their local climate before deciding whether to build a shipping container home.

If they live in the tropics they are concerned that their container home will be sweltering. If they live in colder climates they are concerned that their home will be cold all year round.

Shipping container homes are suitable for nearly all climates providing you thoroughly prepare your containers. Today we are going to look at how to prepare your containers to be suitable in both hot and cold climates.

Shipping Container Homes in Hot Climates

We’ve previously written in detail about how to keep your shipping container home cool during the warmer months.

Here we will focus on how to design your shipping container to be suitable in hot climates.

Shade

The best way to keep your shipping container home cool is to not let the heat into your home in the first place.

One of the most effective ways to do this is to keep the majority of your house in the shade. This stops sunlight shining directly onto your containers which would increase the temperature inside your home via solar radiation.

To keep your containers in the shade, plant trees or bushes if you have the space.

Two of the fastest growing trees are the Northern Catalpa and the Hybrid Poplar. Both of these trees grow at around 8 feet each year. Within a year or so they will be much taller than your container home and provide shade.

The Northern Catalpa grows an incredibly thick canopy of leaves. This really helps to block the sunlight from your containers.

Using Shade To Cool A Shipping Container Home

If you are going to use trees as sun shades, it’s also important to consider the orientation of your building. Remember that the sun will be at its hottest during the afternoon. Where is your building located? Remember that the major sunshine could be from the west in one location, but from the south in a different location. Plant most of your shading plants in such a way as to block the afternoon sun in your location.

Roof

If the sunlight gets through your shade-blocking plants, the next best thing you can do is make sure your roof is reflecting and not absorbing heat.

An easy step is painting your roof white if it is currently a darker color. White does a better job at reflecting light and heat energy away from your shipping containers.

Ventilating Shipping Container for Hot Climates

Unfortunately, it’s inevitable that at some point the ambient heat will enter your containers. When it does, your containers need to be prepared to expel the heat and keep you cool.

Make sure your home is exceptionally good at letting heat out. Otherwise, it will feel like you’re living in a sauna 24/7.

Both your insulation and ventilation should be properly designed and installed.

In terms of your insulation, most people use spray-foam insulation and we talk about this in much more detail later on in this article.

Ventilation can either be passive or mechanical.

Passive ventilation uses nature (wind) to cool down your house and is most commonly done with a vent or a whirlybird.

Mechanical ventilation is powered by electricity and is most commonly done with an extractor fan.

Read how to ventilate your shipping container home for more help on ventilation.

Shipping Container Homes in Cold Climates

In hot climates, we are trying to keep the heat out, while in colder climates it’s the exact opposite. We want the heat to stay inside our containers to keep us warm.

We’ve previously written in detail about how to keep your shipping container warm during the colder months.

This section is going to focus on how to design your shipping container to be suitable for cold climates.

Insulating Shipping Container for Cold Climates

If you don’t have adequate or appropriate insulation for your location, you’ll have a very hard time keeping your container home warm, and you’re spending on heating will be exorbitant.

You have three main insulation choices for your containers: spray-foam, panels or blanket insulation.

When we’ve spoken with other shipping container homeowners, the most often recommended is spray foam insulation.

Spray foam insulation provides a seamless vapor barrier, which is something the other two insulation choices don’t provide.  This is very important for controlling condensation.

Spray foam insulation is normally applied internally to the containers; however, it can also be sprayed on the external shell of the containers if you prefer to have the metal walls on the interior.

Shipping Container Home- Spray Foam Insulation

Image courtesy of Larry Wade

When you’re living in a cold climate, you want high R rated insulation (the R rating is the measure of how effective your insulating material is; the higher the number, the better the material will resist the transfer of heat).

One of the other benefits of spray foam is that it’s quite flexible and can be used to seal small gaps to stop warm air escaping from the container.

Roof

Losing heat via your roof is one of the most common ways a home loses heat.

The best way to prevent this and prepare your containers for a cold climate is to thoroughly insulate your roof space.

Shipping Container Roof Ventilation

Again, for insulating your loft, you can use either spray foam, panels, or blanket insulation.

If cost is a concern, blanket insulation would be an ok pick, but you need to seriously consider how you’ll deal with the potential for condensation. However, if cost isn’t a concern, spray foam insulation is the best choice.

Windows

When constructing a shipping container home in a cold climate, the last key thing you need to be aware of is window sizes and placement.

In addition to roofs, windows cause your container home to lose a lot of heat.

The Victorian Government of Australia states that “A single pane of glass can lose almost 10 times as much heat as the same area of an insulated wall”. You can see that it’s very important to bear this in mind while you’re designing your container home.

Given that windows lose so much heat, you probably don’t want to design a container home with large floor to ceiling glass panes in a cold climate like Alaska. While insulated window with double and triple panes do exist, they are more expensive and still lose quite a bit of heat.  If you must have windows, consider adding insulating shades or drapes to minimize the heat lost through the window.

Now that you know that shipping container are suitable in pretty much all climates, let us know whether climate went into your decision on where to locate your building.

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33 Responses

    1. The process is similar regardless of geography, though there may be slight differences in regard to climate control. Recommend reading through the dozens of articles on our website that address planning, design, and construction of container homes, and potentially looking into our eBooks as well available on our store http://www.discovercontainers.com/store/

  1. I’ve read a lot about insulation in the past few hours and have seen conflicting info, so I’ll just ask here. Would wool insulation be good for a northern Maine small container home (Two 8×20s, so 16×20 total)? Would there be any major cons to using wool vs spray foam? I am really trying to keep my build as environmentally friendly as possible. I’m looking into Havelock wool. Thanks for any response 🙂

    1. We don’t recommend any type of porous, open-cell material for a northern climate because of condensation. Recommend you read these two articles about heat transfer, condensation, and insulation:
      https://www.discovercontainers.com/container-condensation-prevention/
      https://www.discovercontainers.com/essential-knowledge-about-heat-transfer-in-shipping-container-buildings/
      https://www.discovercontainers.com/5-methods-to-insulate-your-shipping-container-home/
      And then read this article about someone who built a home in Ohio using fiberglass batts and had severe condensation issues:
      https://www.discovercontainers.com/projects/riverside-hideout-container-home/

  2. I’m planning to build a container backpacker hostel in Himalayan region of india. Precisely near Manali. Which will work better in both ways performance and cost effective?

    1. We’re not 100% clear on your specific question, but feel free to reach out via the Contact Us page on the site. If you goto the ‘Visit’ section of our website, you can see there are several hostels built with containers in tropical areas, including at least one in India.

  3. I’m looking into building a container home in the South of France, which insulation would be the best

  4. What happens if you live in a climate that’s both very hot and very cold? I live in Canada so during the winter months it can go down to -30 to -40 degrees Celsius. In the summer it can go as high as 36 degrees Celsius. So how do i build a container home that will be warm in the winter but also cool in the summer?

    1. For the most part, all the same rules apply. You’re trying to prevent the movement of heat: either from the outside to the inside (in summer), or the inside to the outside (winter). You do that by having a good layer of insulation on the roof, floor, and walls. There are some peculiarities of combatting summer heat though, like shade or reflective coatings (to prevent radiation heat transfer).

  5. In planning to build my house in california desert joshua tree area, how would the insulation work ? I Lan to put air conditioner in each ara i will use 2x 40’ containers for each room , living/dinning/kitchen and separate bedrooms and bathrooms. Looking forward to get more info about insulation ans shipping containers thanks!

    1. If you haven’t already, take a look at our article on insulation: https://www.discovercontainers.com/5-methods-to-insulate-your-shipping-container-home/. In a desert environment, along with using a heater and air conditioner, insulating the walls, ceiling, and floors will be important to maintaining a comfortable temperature. If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out to us via the Contact Us link at the top of the page!

  6. Hey
    I live in Kuwait, where the temperature are at extreme which is 50C in the summer and 2-6C in the winter. My question here is that will it be appropriate to start a restaurant with modern idea such as the shipping container and to build it completely with that itself. If No, what are the limitations? And is it cheaper that building with bricks and mortar?

    1. There are a variety of reasons people choose to use shipping containers for construction, most of which we’ve covered elsewhere on the website. However, pursuing this type of construction only in the pursuit of saving money is generally not a good idea. While many people are able to save money compared to brick and mortar construction, there are a lot of variables at play that prevent this from being universally true. Instead, it’s best to consider some of the other benefits of container construction that might be beneficial for a restaurant. Things such as portability (move to a new location if/when necessary) and modularity (expand floor area if the restaurant does well) should be factors for you. The temperature extremes you mentioned are a challenge for any type of construction. Any building will need a lot of insulation to thrive in that environment and containers are no exception.

  7. Hi,
    I live in India and I am planning to insulate two 20 feet containers.The summers are very hot (40 Degrees) and it gets around 20 degrees in Winter. Also I am planning to air condition the container and it is going to be a Cafe. Is it enough if I use Spray Foam for wall and celing ? Some 35 sqft of the container space is going to be a kitchen and can the same material be used to insulate the kitchen as well? The kitchen is not going to be air conditioned but naturally ventilated … so could it be left without insulation?

    1. Keethana,

      Spray foam insulation is a great choice. At a minimum, you’ll want to use 1 inch (2.54cm) of spray foam. The more foam you use, the less energy it will take to cool the building. If you are not going to air condition the kitchen, you don’t need to insulate it. However, you will need to build an interior wall between the kitchen and the rest of the space, and insulate that wall.

  8. Hi,
    I live in the tropics (in India) where the summer temperatures are now touching and even crossing 40C fairly regularly while winters are moderate, but in a container home this could be an issue too. Also facing frequent power outages in my area, I’m planning on setting up solar panels on the roof as well as a wind turbine. The panels will need to be shade-free but will they provide shade for the container rooftop? I can plant shorter trees/shrubs around the house to keep the sides cool.

  9. Hi I live in Nigeria, a temperate and warm region. I am considering the option of container home. Could please advise on the type of insulation to be adopted.
    Thank you

    1. Hi Ezekiel,

      Please read our articles on insulation and if you still have any questions be sure to email us 🙂

  10. Hey tom,

    Looking at growing some basic herbs in my Container over a cold and snowy winter. Do you think if I paint the roof black and use spray foam insulation that it would be sufficient, or would I need to consider some solar powered heating on top pf that?

    1. Hi Chris,

      It’s hard to say without knowing where you live and what you’re trying to grow.

      Send us an email and we’ll see if we can help.

  11. Hi , i live in northern canada, where it can really be humid and cold. Id like to use a sea container to make a garage/ gym. Would it be an inxepensive way to keep it dry without connecting power to it? thanks

    1. Hi Max,

      We know of a few container homes which have been built in Canada. These homes don’t require power to keep them dry- they are well insulated and have good ventilation.

  12. Hello,
    I live on an island in the CNMI. We are surrounded with salt water, we get occasional typhoons, and our islands are really humid. How will a container house fare on these conditions?

    1. Hi Maria,

      Your main problem here is going to be the salt water- how near to the coast do you live?

      Provided that you take the correct preparation steps and maintain the containers, we don’t see it being a problem.

    2. I’d like to build a Shipping container home in tropical locale. I’m considering using spray foam on inside and probably outside as well. Are there rust issues with water getting between foam and metal walls ceilings and floors of container? Can I put spaced wooden siding on the outer walls that let’s water drip off side of building? Will the water collect and rust on outside or condensate on inside and rust? Or will the foam be adequate detergent for this happening?
      Thank you for your article,
      Shamar

  13. Hi

    I live in South Africa (western Cape), we are looking to put a container home in a mountain area, so in summer its really hot and winter get snow on the mountains.

    would it be possible not to insulate and just get aircon that blows hot and cold or will I need more? worried about putting it under trees as that would block out the little bit of winter sun and make it dark.

    Katherine

    1. Hi Katherine,

      It’s always possible to regulate the heat without insulation. However, you run the risk of large utility bills. Insulation just provides a way to reduce heat transfer and thus limit the speed of temperature fluctuation.

  14. Hi!

    I live in a place where all four seasons take place, so I am concerned of both keeping my container home warm in wintertime and keeping it cool in summer. You are mentioning spray-foam as the best insulation material, but do I also need to apply other insulation materials e.g. panels or blankets? Or is spray-foam enough? And would it help to keep my container home cool in summer? And is this spray-foam enough to prevent mold and humidity in my container home?
    I kindly thank you for your response in advance.

    1. Hi Dzintis,

      In most cases, a thorough coating of closed cell spray foam is enough insulation. More is always better, but you can start to run into a cost/benefit analysis. If you spend an extra $1000 on insulation to save $5/month on your utility bills, that probably isn’t a great use of funds. We also recommend spray foam over other insulation materials due to its low permeability to water vapor. Check out our two-part article on condensation to learn more: https://www.discovercontainers.com/container-condensation-science/

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