Renters staying warm
How to deal with a cold apartment, rooming house room, or rental house
One of my most popular pages, on energy efficient electric heaters, seems to draw a lot of traffic from people living in rental units who are struggling to keep their apartment warm without spending a fortune on heating bills.
The fact is that in most jurisdictions, landlords who require the tenant to pay heating costs don't have much of an incentive to provide a well-insulated home or efficient heating equipment. Windows are leaky, do not have proper thermal insulation between the panes, and don't have low-e coatings to prevent heat radiating out from within. Walls have poor insulation or none at all. Doors have gaps around the edges. That leaves you, the tenant, either freezing in your own home, or spending a fortune on heating, or trying to find an electric heater that won't send your electricity meter spinning at sixty miles an hour!
But necessity is often the mother of invention, and people often find innovative ways to cut their rental unit heating costs. This is the place to tell us your story, read about what other renters have done, or comment on the stories of others.
Once you've ranted about your situation, you can point your friends to your story and get them to comment on it too - you'll have your very own web page on our site. Of course, we reserve the right not to publish a story that doesn't meet our quality or legal requirements.
How will you keep your rental warm this winter?
Let's face it - many rental units are poorly insulated or drafty, and if you, the renter, are responsible for heating, you need every possible idea to stay warm without spending a fortune on energy. Tell others about your situation - where the leaks are, what you're doing about it, how you plan to stay warm. Who knows, you might even get a helpful tip or too from other renters who've had similar experiences.
Other renters and their woes
Click below to see contributions from other renters who are struggling to stay warm this winter...
Rental apartment too hot
My apartment building's too hot in winter and there's no thermostat I can use to turn down the heat. Just this constant blast of hot air through the vent,...
Seven foot windows - how I keep the cold out
We're renting a hundred-year-old clapboard house in a small town in northern Indiana. The ceilings are probably ten feet high and the downstairs windows ...
Little things make big savings!
Not rated yet
We are pretty cost conscious when it comes to saving money on heating. We've done all the large things like insulation and energy efficient light bulbs....
Surviving zero insulation
Not rated yet
I live in the upper floor of a rental house and there is zero insulation in the walls. I have baseboard heaters and I pay for the electricity myself.
Vancouver ...
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