I took two sheets of Aluminium foil, placed them inside a book with one page separating themI checked to make sure they where insulated from each other, and that they do not connect anywhereWith a piece sticking out of the book of each foil plate, I hooked up my gater clipsStuck a 9v battery for about 10 secondsUnhooked the battery and gave it a testAll I get is zero, nothing, no change, not for one second, only zeroI for some reason cannot get two metal plates to hold a charge of any kindThe battery has a 9v charge on it.
forget about itEven if (as stated) it is legal to live in it, it just won't workYou'd need to replace all glass with double pane glass, rip out the floor and put in floor insulation, rip out the roof and put in roof insulation and new roof material, make sure it adheres to fire codes, building codes, etcetcWould almost certainly be a lot cheaper to tear it down, get the permits to put up something new, and build a new house there from scratch.
A few things you might also want to consider in this attempt First, the capacitance level you might get with this experiment is very smallIn the picofarad range, which means it will very easily give up its chargeMany Fluke meters can be set for a high impedance input for DC measurementsThe input impedance is 25 mega-ohms on these metersThis should allow you to read the valueAlso, these meters have a capacitance measurement capability that will give you a measured value for your capacitorSecond, some books use inks that are partially conductive and thus will short out your capacitor or quickly bleed off the chargeThis type of ink is used to reduce static electrical charge that may appear on the pages making them harder to turnTo test this place waxed paper above and below the aluminum foil, then place it in the bookHope this helps, Newton1Law
You have some very good ideas there,but first check For permits that way you won't be spending until you know you can.And with the landlord,they may not want the changes you want to make to the property.
