Frugal Energy Renewable power and aquaponics, built frugally

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The Shanty

Whatever you are building -- a backyard setup, a rural block, an old brownfield site -- the first thing you need is a roof. Not a house. Just a roof. That single structure is the shanty, and it does more work than anything else you will put up.

Group portrait of the Dalton masterbuilders, Wolverhampton, late 1800s. Thomas Dalton at back left with pipe and pickaxe; James Dalton bottom right with pipe and his dog Prince; William Dalton with large saw and carpenter's apron; Alexander Staveley Dalton far right.
Daltons at work, masterbuilders, Wolverhampton. Back left: Thomas Dalton (pipe, pickaxe). Bottom right: James Dalton (pipe, with dog Prince). Centre: William Dalton (large saw, carpenter's apron). Far right: Alexander Staveley Dalton. Photo from the collection of Christine Donald, nee Dalton.
Rosedale, Warstones Road, Penn, Wolverhampton -- a house built by W.A. Dalton Builders, with the W.A. Dalton Builders sign displayed on the finished building and three men standing outside.
Rosedale, Warstones Road, Penn, Wolverhampton -- a house built by W.A. Dalton Builders, my great grandad William Dalton's firm. The sign on the wall is their calling card.
A homemade micro-shanty lean-to beside a garden shed, with two solar panels forming the roof, two repurposed black drums underneath, and an MPPT charge controller wired on the shed wall
My first micro-shanty -- a lean-to against the shed with two salvaged solar panels as the roof. Two repurposed drums underneath, MPPT controller on the wall. Same idea, much smaller scale.
Freshly completed shanty: timber frame, IBC tanks, gravel floor, tools scattered -- the garden setup still to come
Just completed. My two brothers and their mates built it -- I was the junior labourer. IBC tanks in, gravel down, garden setup still to come.
Shanty interior in use: timber frame overhead, potted plants on shelving, IBC tank to the right, garden shed alongside
The same shanty a year or so on -- propagation bench, potted plants, IBC tank, and the garden starting to take shape. Same instinct as the Daltons, different climate.

What one roof gives you

A shanty-style roof is the foundation that makes everything else practical:

  • Rainwater -- gutter the low end of a skillion into IBC tanks and you have free water without a tank installation
  • Solar -- the sloped roof already faces the right direction; panels go straight on
  • Shade -- in Queensland, shade is the difference between working outside and not
  • Shelter -- work in the rain, store things that cannot get wet, keep out of the sun

Where to start