The Crate Outdoors: A to Shed

Blokes might like to spend time in sheds, but I’m married to a woman who’s just built one.

As we try to pull various different elements together in the hope of moving into a house with power and water, it was time to address the need for shed. To meet safety regulations, the batteries holding the electricity generated by our photovoltaic panels need to be stored away from the house. The risk of fire associated with any electrical equipment and the possibility of sulphuric gas emission from the batteries makes this mandatory, so a shed was urgently needed, otherwise no batteries – and no power.

Also housed in this structure will be associated monitoring equipment, an inverter for converting the DC current from our panels to AC for home usage, and our trusty generator for back-up.

Digging pile holes: The toolbelt and hat look the part, but the pink gardening
gloves spoil the image, somewhat

Rose is an extremely capable woman, possessing the kind of mind and skills to create what she sees in her head quickly and efficiently. I could draw you an amazing shed, but for this time critical task, she was the best man for the job. And even if she wasn’t, I knew it was her idea of heaven to tackle this project, so I embraced the role-change and did the shopping and laundry while she got started.

Rose's saw point

Dean got the list of material she needed, and also gave us a huge amount of help with digging the pile holes and setting them in place. The shed will be right in the path of the same gales which caused one of our walls to need extra reinforcing, so it needed to be as sturdy as possible, and Dean helped us make sure that it will stay firmly anchored to the ground.