Striving towards sustainable renting? Linnet Good looks at options for those who don’t own the home they live in.
Most renters in Australia live in older dwellings, not designed or built with environmental principles in mind. Dependent upon the will of the owner to retrofit systems and appliances to bring them up to standard, tenants can be handicapped in the movement towards sustainability. Yet there are nearly two million renter households in Australia, and with housing affordability decreasing, the proportion of renter compared to owner-occupied households seems set to rise.
For most renters, even for those who could afford it, investing in a retrofit of their home is not viable. Spending money on another’s property without secure tenure doesn’t make much sense. Leases in Australia are typically six to twelve months long—often not enough for savings in bills to pay back an investment in energy or water saving measures.
If you rent, however, as well as approaching the landlord to request improvements, you can do some things yourself. Any alteration to the property must have the owner’s permission, and many property owners may be open to energy and water efficient improvements.
Adopting a co-operative, non-adversarial approach in negotiating with your landlord is more likely to succeed. To strengthen your argument, you can point out the benefits to the landlord, let them know of any rebates or grants available to them and possibly offer to share costs.
Five best actions tenants can take on energy
GreenPower: If paying for utilities like electricity and gas, elect to switch to accredited GreenPower. For every kilowatt-hour consumed, the company must buy or produce that amount from accredited renewable sources. The more households switching to GreenPower, the more investment in renewable technologies there will be.
Reduce energy use:
- Turn off electrical devices at the power point
- Where possible, close off the living space for winter heating and open it up for air circulation in summer. Set thermostats for optimum performance (heaters to 18-21°C and air conditioners to 25-27°C).
- Shade windows externally from summer sun.
- Change lighting to low energy options.
- Insulate your hot water pipes using lagging (available at plumbing suppliers), a thick, foam rubber tubing with a lengthways slit.
Draught-proof:
- Close gaps using door sausages or draught stoppers, weather stripping around doors and windows and caulking to seal cracks between walls, window frames and doors.
- Reduce heat transfer through windows by using heavy and/or lined, close-fitting curtains or blinds that hang to the floor, with closed pelmets at the top.
- Cover permanently open ventilation outlets
- Cover your ceiling extractor fans
- Fit a damper to functional fireplaces, or block the chimney if the fireplace is still functional
Insulate: Insulation of the walls, ceiling and floor, plus draught-proofing, will make a huge difference to your energy usage. Without insulation, your house is ‘naked’: no coat to stay warm in winter and no protection from the sun’s heat in summer. Where the landlord will not invest in insulation, tenants may have to improvise.
Double-glaze (well, sort of): DIY bubble wrap ‘double glazing’, or transparent membrane ‘double-glazing’. This latter is a tough, clear membrane that attaches to the existing inside window frame using double-sided, clear adhesive tape, and then is shrunk to be taut and smooth with a hair dryer. It is a cheap, do-it-yourself solution with instructions provided (for more information go to www.clearcomfort.com.au). According to the manufacturers, you will have 11% more efficient cooling and 17% more efficient heating when correctly installed.
Read the full article in ReNew 102
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 at 5:05 pm