Green Your Garden With An Eco-Shed

The following is a guest post from KuleKat.

If you are fortunate enough to have a garden then there's a good chance you also have a shed or similar outbuilding, if for no other reason than to store garden equipment. But have you considered what other uses you might put your shed to?

The great thing about garden sheds is that they're, well, in the garden - a relaxing environment, away from the distractions of the home and ideal for chilling out or, alternatively, for focusing on work or a hobby.

The not so great thing about garden sheds is, you guessed it, they're in the garden. And that means no power, which in turn means no proper lighting, heat, cooling, power tools, internet access, phones, coffee/tea making facilities or indeed any of the other usual accoutrements of modern life.

Oh sure you could "run a cable" out to the shed, but you need to first identify a suitable point to run it from, fit an isolator switch, dig a deep trench and fit armour shielding to securely route the cable through the garden, obtain electrical safety certification and explain to your insurance company why this was a Good Idea™.

Alternatively you could look at the "problem" of how to add power to your shed as an "opportunity" instead. How about finding a better use for those big, flat panels that sit atop the shed and keep the rain out? Rather than seeing them as simply a "roof" think instead of a "solar panel mounting platform". Well, what else were you planning on using the space for?

Even a small shed has several square meters of redundant roof space conveniently divided into two separate planes angled just about right for collecting solar energy. This is way more than you probably need to power a small office or workshop, but of course you don't have to carpet the whole area with solar panels up front.

The obvious direct benefit of kitting out a garden shed with solar power is that you can very easily and inexpensively create a whole new section of useable space within your property, but it's the indirect benefits that may ultimately prove more valuable.

A key indirect benefit is that it provides a perfect opportunity to safely experiment with aspects of eco-technology that you might otherwise balk at for mainstream applications. Attempting to run lighting sufficient to work by and powering a laptop computer and a few other appliances that naturally suit a 12v DC low-voltage supply is a whole lot less scary than jumping straight into converting your entire house to solar power.

But even if it's not exactly going to change the world overnight, you'll hopefully have had some fun, learnt something and be better informed and prepared to explore these technologies further. And some day you'll look back and wonder how on earth you managed without an eco-shed!

Find out more from this original article about the solar shed.

KuleKat is interested in the defining features of our times (climate change, oil depletion, technology and so on) and what it all means and more importantly what WE as individuals can do about it.

Photo: : rebecca : via Creative Commons