How to have renewable energy when you don’t have your own solar panels

When you’re renting, living in a flat or just can’t afford it, it’s difficult to get your own solar panels on your roof.

At Ecogoody, we are renting a house, but found a solution: getting our gas and electricity from the handful of companies that supply 100% renewable electricity and gas. The electricity comes from sources such as solar, wind and water, and the renewable gas from decomposing biodegradable organic material. The renewable gas, biomethane is created through a process called ‘anaerobic digestion’.

The prices for renewable energy are definitely similar to, and in some cases cheaper than the other energy companies.

All the energy companies have an online calculator to give you a quote for your energy usage, often based on the size of your house. The rates vary for each company depending on where in the UK you live. So, you are best comparing the prices of all the companies that supply to your area. The average UK home uses about 4000 kWh/year of electricity, or if using both fuels, 12,500kWh/year of gas + 3100kWh/year electricity. This can be a useful estimate for your calculations if you prefer to work it out in detail yourself.

At the moment of writing this, the only company supplying just 100% renewable electricity and gas is 'Green Energy'. 'Engie' have a special tariff that supplies 100% green gas and electricity. 'Ecotricity', 'Good energy', ‘Bulb’, 'Octopus' and ‘Tonik Energy’ supply 100% renewable electricity and a portion of green gas (varying from 6%-14%), some carbon offsetting their gas supplied through measures such as planting trees. ‘Fischer Energy’ supply 100% renewable electricity only.

Using freely available waste materials: TYRES & PALLETS

I’ve been learning a lot from Volunteer Friday mornings at Mount Pleasant Ecopark in Cornwall. In return for a few hours work in the gardens, tending to fruit, vegetables and the land, you get a very tasty vegetarian lunch, and a whole heap of knowledge.

Garages have to pay to get rid of old, damaged tyres so they will happily give them to you for free. Nothing better than reusing free waste materials. So here are some of the things you can do with the tyres:

1. Fill them with compost and plants. You can either leave the tyres on the ground and fill them up. Or if you want to move them around, place a flat piece of wood as a base to stop the contents from falling out. These guys then painted them so they look pretty!

2. Use loads of tyres and make rows of seating for an amphitheatre. Also, if you search online, plenty of eco-homes have old tyres in their walls.

3. Shelter and warmth for courgettes. When the courgette plant is young, place a tyre around it on the soil. This protects the plant from wind, and the black tyre will absorb heat, radiating it to the plant in the middle.

I also learnt that wooden pallets can be placed upright and made into planters. You can find used pallets being given away for free or very cheap. Just look somewhere like Gumtree. Again, wood is nailed or screwed on the bottom of each ‘shelf.’ Old compost bags are then cut up to make a waterproof lining for each ‘pocket’. Then compost is put inside and plants of your choice. In these pictures you can see spinach and chard growing very happily.

What simple things can you do when there are no recycling facilities at your city home?

When I first moved to London I noted a stark contrast between the fresh countryside air I had been used to since my childhood, and the air in London – now one of the most polluted in Europe. In the first months of my residency in the city, I frequently pondered on questions of sustainability, well-being, health and the environment. After a certain time however, it is easy to become accustomed to the hustle and bustle of city life. The pollution that once shook you is quickly rendered part of normality. I am a bit shameful to admit that this happened to me.  Heaps of rubbish on the street, the noise of never-ending traffic and the exhaust-filled air became daily occurrences, no longer seeming that noticeable. 

It wasn’t until a good friend asked me about my recycling practices, that I again remembered the significant sustainability issues to be addressed in London. An effective recycling system holds numerous benefits for people and the environment, ranging from global warming mitigation to cost-effectiveness. (Please see here for the London City Waste Clearance website, outlining some of the key benefits of recycling)

My friend’s enquiry into my recycling practices made me again remember that my rented apartment in London did not have any recycling bins. When I first moved in, I was immensely surprised by this. Assuming that there wasn’t much I could do to address this, I gradually forgot about it. However, my friend’s surprised reaction to the lack of recycling at the flat made me realise that I had to take some action. I wrote to the building managers of my apartment, who unfortunately took several months to get back to me.

Whilst I was waiting for the building manager’s reply, I was looking at alternative ways to recycle outside of the home and came across the following website: https://www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling The ‘Local Recycling’ website allows you to enter your postcode and displays your closest recycling stations. It turned out that my closest recycling station was only a ten-minute walk from my apartment. Who would have known? A bit of online research made me realise that there are actually plenty of opportunities to recycle in London. For months I took cardboard, plastic and other recyclable materials to the recycling station in the picture below.

Recycling station near my flat. If you don’t have access to recycling at your home, make sure to find your nearest recycling station. 

It felt good to know that I was making a contribution towards an effective recycling system in the city – a system that relies on participation of as many people as possible. After a few months, I heard from my building managers that they had organised two recycling bins for the block of flats my apartment is located in. I hope that my experiences will motivate others to contribute to recycling in the city and seriously think of how we can address sustainability challenges. In the end, we all have so much to gain from an effective recycling system. 

~ Written by Sasha ~

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