Ideas for Renewable projects in a RENTED house

[StuartP]

Hi everyone, I'm a long time lurker here, but this is only my second real post, the first one about the tumble dryer is still on my to-do list!

I'm currently renting my house so renewable projects are somewhat limited  as I need to be able to return the house to it's original state when I leave. This is a bit annoying as I previously owed a house and had many projects on the drawing board and some even making their way to into existence.

This is a bit of a "This is what you can do" for others in a similar situation as well as a "What more can I do?" for me and others.

So, my current (easy-ish to take with me at short notice) renewable/green projects are really limited to the garden/shed/garage:

Water
Water butts for watering the fruit/veg in the greenhouse (1x120l + 1x80l + 1x50l)
DIY irrigation system for the greenhouse consisting of a header tank in the shed, some hoses, valves and leaky watering hose inside growbags. Using this system I use less water and the growbags stay moist preventing the plants wilting. 250l isn't a lot of reserve when you have an 8.5m sqm greenhouse, so I can't afford to waste a drop.

Food
Reclaimed greenhouse (4.8m x  1.8m) half converted to Polycarbonate for growing our own fruit/veg (total cost so far £90)

Waste
Compost Bin for food, grass cuttings etc. and eventually compost for growing the plants in!


On the drawing board:

More loft insulation, something very cheap or easy to roll up and take away!

The tumble drier! I am still considering a coke-can style air heater panel to pre-heat (or completely heat) the air for the tumble dryer during spring/summer/autumn. Cost would be limited to a bit of ply, some screws, some glass/polycarbonate and 6" ducting. Most of those I have in the garage already so only the 6" ducting needs buying.

Using a section of the garage a a laundry room and putting a small solar thermal panel on the roof of the garage to supply hot water for the washing machine and maybe heat for the tumble drier too. Only problem here is the limited 'head' of water and getting the water into the garage without making big holes in the walls! Any panels, tanks, heat exchangers etc could be re-used in a future fully integrated thermal system, later on.

Experimenting with Thermo-electric modules, micro wind turbines and anything else that looks too-good-to-be-true!


What I'd like to do if/when I buy another house:

Solar PV, Mainly for the FIT payments which make an otherwise very long payback time look quite reasonable.

Solar Thermal, because I believe it is probably one of the most, or the most, cost effective renewable power source available to us right now.

Loads of insulation in the walls, ceiling, floors.


Has anyone got any suggestions as to what else I could do in my current place? I'm sure I've missed some obvious ones whist concentrating on the weird and wacky stuff.

Thanks for reading,

Stuart

[daftlad]

Welcome Stuart.
All sounds good.
For the hot water consider one of those solar panels with the built in tank, navitron were selling them cheap a while back?
Maybe the coke can heater could be used for heating north facing rooms? but that would mean getting a duct through the house, hummm?
Check out subsidies/ grants for insulation, I don't think you really want to be rolling up insulation when you leave, errr itchey. If there are no subsidies then look for the offers in the local DIY stores some of them are so good they are virtually giving it away.

peas

[MR GUS]

Unless you strictly observe proper composting protocol it's a dead duck! ..woyuld heartily recommend a decent wormery though, very handy not smelly (observe a few simple rules).

Insulation, bagged variety taped at the ends witha tough carpet tape for ease of movement without getting glassfibre everywhere.
Shading, consider temp shading depending on the encroaching heat, try & set up a cool area for the worst this summer throws at us, even if it's as simple as a sun-sail.

grass cuttings for a reg composter need to be carefully regulated.
My worms on the other hand make superb plant potting material!

Someone, Desp I think was selling a tank & panel stand mounted solar thermal set up that might suit your garage laundry room idea, with it's tank incorporated you have raised head. ..what do you do when outside it's operational months?

[skyewright]

Has anyone got any suggestions as to what else I could do in my current place? I'm sure I've missed some obvious ones whist concentrating on the weird and wacky stuff.

Is lots and lots of insulation around the DHW tank (and hot water pipes) too obvious to mention?

[StuartP]

daftlad,

Thanks for the welcome! Built in tank is a good idea, only downside I see is it is more obvious/obtrusive having a big steel tank sitting on top of the tubes, but I'll keep it in mind.
I had thought about a coke-can space heater as there are a couple of accessible ducts that could be used, but making it look acceptable (i.e. no big pipes trailing around the outside of the house etc) will probably kill the idea dead! But certainly one to keep on the drawing board.

MR GUS,

Thanks for the composting tips, My last compost bin gave me a fair bit of good (well it looked and felt good) compost and I just threw a mixture of food scraps, grass, paper card and other garden cuttings in! I must have got lucky. I'll look into the worms idea and try to be a bit more disciplined with my compost bin for now.

Outside operational months the washer and drier would have to revert to 'normal' use i.e. using their own internal air/water heaters.

skyewright,

Definitly not too obvious! Every time I go to the airing cupboard to get a towel I think an extra layer or two of insulation would save a few pounds. I must do that before summer really starts! But, turning that idea on its head I did think about using a small fan to blow some of the heat from the airing cupboard into the babies room (the airing cupboard is accessed from the babies room) at night to save using the electric heater to keep the temp from dropping too low when the central heating is off.

So, summer=insulate winter nights=don't insulate and leave the door open!