I’m starting out my first winter in a new apartment and my bedroom (and by proxy, bathroom) is by far the coldest room in the entire place. I think the reason for this is that it has two windows - one facing East and another facing North. Overall, I’d say my room is at least 5 degrees cooler than the next room over, and since we are paying for gas heat in this place, we’d like to keep it affordable.
I bought plastic to put over the windows, but after applying it earlier tonight, I’m finding that there is no difference. Still freezing. I’ve checked all the edges and they’re a pretty tight seal - I can actually still feel a breeze through the plastic itself.
Aside from buying another set of plastic and double-layering it, any suggestions on how to keep the heat in? I can’t really hang anything over the windows, as there is nothing to hang it on - Here is a picture of one of the windows in question. There’s nothing to hold onto there, just some venetian blinds, so no hope for curtains.
So I look to you northern Dopers who have to deal with the coldest temperatures this planet has to offer … what’s your secret?
Space heater? Electric blanket? Turn either one on for a bit just before you go to bed, then turn it off once you’re under the covers.
Warm jammies.
Hot, steamy sex.
Get a couple of big dogs to share your bed. (Or three, for a three dog night. )
I often take a very hot bath just before bedtime; actually makes those cool sheets feel kind of good, and the extra heat on my body plus the nice clean feeling make me drop right off. (And I usually have trouble falling asleep.)
If you have forced-air heat, partially close down the registers for the rest of the rooms. This gives more heat to the bedroom, which I’m guessing is the furthest from the furnace.
You can’t caulk at this time of year, it’s too cold, but next spring, go around the windows and maybe even the floors on the outside of the house. If there’s a big enough space, you can jam glass fiber insulation into the cracks with a screwdriver or putty knife.
I suppose you’re embroidering a wee bit, but if the bathroom is really that cold, you may have to run a small heater in the corner where the supply line for the toilet comes in. A toilet that won’t fill itself is a serious inconvenience. In a pinch, you can flush it by pouring a bucket of water from the tub into the bowl, but that takes you back a century. I’ve been there, in a previous house.
I only have one propane heater which is in my kitchen. It’s now 55 degrees in my bedroom. Last winter my bathroom had ice in the toilet bowl. I just bought an electric blanket. But I survive. And I’m insulating now and I’ll hopefully have central heat put in next Spring. I have a heated towel bar in my bathroom, so when I get out of the shower I have a nice warm towel to wrap up in. I often change in front of the heater.
If you’re allowed to put a couple of holes in the wall above the window, you could set up a curtain rod and hang some thick, warm fabric like velvet or a blanket from it. That should help keep the heat in, and it’s something I’m planning on doing in my living room.
A small space heater for the bathroom could also help, especially if you turn it on before you start your bath or shower to warm up the bathroom and the tile. Rugs, slippers, and slipper socks are also good insulation for cold feet.
Do you have a microwave oven? If so, are you familiar with those herbal packs they sell in stores and kiosks in mall to use hot or cold for muscle aches? For my second favorite way to warm up the sheets, you microwave one or two until they’re nice and warm and then put them between the sheets. They’ll warm them up nicely. Flannel sheets are also a very good thing, and they’re even cool and comfortable in summer.
Five degrees colder in a far end room is not a extreme air leakage. Having a thick curtain is a good thing up north, but you sound like a little more heat getting to your romm is needed. You might get your landlord to adjust the furnance fan to run a bit longer, to circulate the air better for rooms on thr fringe. Move the computer into the bedroom for the winter. You’ll see about five degrees higher temps. Use a halogen tourch light in the room. It will brighten the room, help you fight off winter depression, and heat the room. I got these lights for winter use, because I start to feel depressed under the lack of bright light. The other bonus is the heat in the bedroom goes up and the house is set lower.
This just sort of stuck out to me. A breeze should not go through a plastic sheet without there being a hole in it. It may feel like it’s coming through the sheet, but it must be from somewhere else. Light up a stick of incense and let the smoke trail around your windows, that will tell you where the air is really coming in from. Electric outlets are notorious for this, so check them too.
You can install a curtain rod over the window and hang thermal curtains. They’re advertised that way and have thick quilted fabric.
My son had the coldest room in the house (we only had one, old-fashioned opening from where heat came into the house). He went the electric blanket route. They really make a difference.
Another thing you might try is to put a fan halfway between the warm rooms and your bedroom. That will draw the warm air from that part of the house. You don’t want to be close enough to it that you feel a breeze. Just for circulation.
I checked last night and I think it may have something to do with my heating vents. The one in my bathroom doesn’t seem to be working at all while the one under the cold window feels warm but doesn’t really blow out air. I’m going to call my rental company and see if they can take a look.
One last thing - before you use a space heater, check your lease. We specifically forbid the use of space heaters in our lease. Why? Well, just about two months ago, we had a house rendered unlivable by fire due to a space heater. The tenant did not have renter’s insurance (of course the home was insured), and they lost about 90% of their possessions. According to the terms of their lease, they may be held legally responsible for the damage. Just an FYI.
When I was in a similar situation, I just put up curtain rods and curtains. You can always caulk in the holes and paint over them when you leave.
That said, are you hip to heated mattress pads? They’re the greatest. You can find them at places like Linens ‘N’ Things and other bedroom-type places.
A good heating blanket is essential. I turn my heat way down at night and snuggle up under the heating blanket - mine even has a “preheat” setting, where it gets it really nice and toasty warm for me to get into and then turns itself down to the temperature I like at night.
As for the plastic, you mean the kind you shrink with a hair-dryer, right? Because I put that stuff up and it really helped a lot.
Are there storm windows on the exterior of the regular windows? You shouldn’t really be able to feel the plastic blowing if the storm windows are shut and the interior windows are tight.
If you have no storms, you should double the plastic layer. If the interior windows are loose (if there are gaps where the two halves meet, or if there are gaps [even tiny ones] at the sides or bottom, or if they are weighted windows and there are gaps/holes where the ropes go into the window trim), heat will just fly out of those gaps. I have had great luck with buying a small roll of pink insulation. I cut it into strips with scissors and lay it wherever there are loose spots and either tape it or staple-gun it into place. It’s not the most attractive look but it works extremely well. You can get these small roles of insulation at Home Depot or Lowe’s. They’re about $4.00 per roll and one roll is enough for many windows.
You might ask your landlord if there are supposed to be storm windows and they “forgot” to put them up.
I live in a huge older home, and although the landlord put up storm windows, they’re not caulked :smack: and the old windows don’t seal as tight as they should. Each year, we put up rope caulk along the window edges–it can easily be peeled off during the summer once you open your windows again. We also seal off the windows by covering them with shrink wrap plastic (we bought our at Home Depot), and of course, by using drapes.
I would second checking for leaks by using incense. We found that it wasn’t exactly a problem with hot air leaking out, as much as it was cold air wizzing in. Oddly enough, light switches and electrical sockets seemed to be a large source of cold air entering the house.
Heating blankets are good, but not much good if your nose is frozen… :dubious:
Get a small space heater, and turn it on about twenty minutes before you bathe with the door closed. Put a box fan in your bedroom doorway, blowing outwards some time before you’re going to bed. This make a convection current with the colder air going out of your room and warmer air coming in. This way your overall household temperature will be more even.
Adding, be sure to set the fan on the floor so it sucks out the coldest air from the bedroom. Also, if you have a ceiling fan in the bedroom, set it so it blows downwards to get the warm air off the ceiling. Ceiling fans should blow down in the winter, and suck up in the summer but most people don’t do this. The reasoning is, it’s a more effecient way to manage temperature. Suck the warm air upwards in the summer, so the cool air can be around you, blow the warm air down onto you to keep you cozy in the winter.
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