I lived in a very drafty, very expensive to heat fraternity house in college. There was a lock on the thermostat to keep folks from sneaking the heat up higher. I used an electric blanket to keep warm at night, and wore appropriate clothes during the day.
Wear more clothes, and as others have said, get an electric blanket.
My electric company (PSNH) has a usage sheet of how much energy/cost certain items use to heat. It can be found here .
From that link:
Appliance, Typical Wattage, Percent On Time, Average Hours Used, Average Monthly kWh, Typical Monthly Cost
Electric Blanket 165 50 240 20 $2.66
If roomie objects to the $2.66 increase (or notices) it on the elecectric bill, then you’ve bigger issues.
I’m a little suprised at how people are almost attacking the OP here. Just because you have the option of using a timer, doesn’t mean that you should. If the radiators can be controlled individually when the timer is off, why can’t all the roommates just use their heat whenever they want, and not worry about the timers?
I don’t think the OP should have to buy a heating blanket/space heater/whatever. He just wants to use the utilities that are available to him. If the other roommate gets cold because of it, she can get out of bed and turn on the unit that is provided by the flat, or buy an electric blanket.
I think this is more of the roommate being too lazy to get out of bed and turn on the heat in the morning than anything else.
I didn’t understand why you would want to turn the heat off but after reading WhyNot’s explanation, it makes sense. By a space heater. They aren’t that expensive and they will do a great job of heating your room. Wear some warm pajamas and you’ll be fine.
A modern space heater should cost about $30.00 US and if tipped over will shut off. Turn it off in the morning when you go to class and you’ll be fine.
I lived in a building for two years where the utilities were included in rent. What this meant was that the heat would come on in October and if it got cold before then, tough luck. We bought a space heater and that would heat the bedroom to where it was pretty warm inside.
On a second thought, I forgot to mention that I think you should try to compromise. Ask her how long she wants her heat to come on before she wakes up? If she says 3 hours, say you want the same, from the time you wake up. I don’t think that is too unreasonable. And if the heat also goes off a few hours after everyone is asleep, then you would really only lose a few hours of heating time, which might not be so bad. Nice triple post btw.
Thanks for all the replies, guys. I want both negative and positive feedback, that’s why I posted.
First…
Symptoms of anemia(scroll down a bit). Aside from this though, I just tend to get very cold at night.
I’m surprised by the tone of some of the negative posts (i.e. I’m whining etc.), I really want to sort this out. If I didn’t I’d just tell her to fuck off.
Not having a space heater has nothing to do with aesthetics. I just think it’s silly to pay for something extra when I have a tool for that purpose. I do appreciate the suggestions and it may come to that so thank you. I’m totally for a compromise, I’m just not willing to be cold. You can interpret that as you want (i.e. I’m selfish). I posted on here for other opinions, I really don’t think either of us is right or wrong. I fucking hate when she makes it out to be Kim vs Mr Jim. She has to be open to alternative suggestions too though.
We have radiators on a thermostat and they can be turned up/down/off/on like any other type of heat. We also use timers and turn the heat very low at night and during the day when no one is home. This sounds like the system that the OP has.
I find radiators very confusing but in my last flat we were able to have them at varying levels with no problems. I work with 40 engineers (!) so I will check with one of them to be sure though.
The point is that if your “compromise” involves her being too hot at night (and spending extra on unneeded heat), it’s not really a compromise. A couple other people agreed with me that we get too hot at night - it’s very hard to sleep if it’s hot out. It’s no more fair to expect her to be sweating and unable to sleep than for you to be cold.
My compromise doesn’t involve forcing heat on her, it gives her the choice to moderate her own room temperature. If she is hot she can turn it off. If I am cold I can turn mine on.
She can’t sleep if she’s hot.
I can’t sleep if I’m cold.
That’s why we have individual radiators.
I guess I am thicker than I thought cause I don’t see why that is so selfish.
Didn’t you read the thread? Apparantly, that’s the whole problem!
But you’re not stating her whole problem. You’re oversimplifying.
She can’t sleep if she’s hot.…until the morning comes when she wants to be warmer.
You can’t sleep if you’re cold.
She’s got a two parter - needs cool overnight, and warmth before waking. The timer serves this need. No other option does - to warm the room your way, she has to wake. She doesn’t want to do that, she wants to be comfortable for her whole sleep cycle, just like you do.
You’ve got a one parter - needs warm to sleep. Easy-peasy, make yourself warm. You’ve got dozens of options for this, even if you discard the hat wearing out of hand! Many of your options also give you the bonus benefit of adjusting the temperature without waking - by kicking off the blankets or using an electric with a thermostat.
I have to say that I find your definition of “compromise” humorous.
Mr Jim, I don’t think that either you or your flatmate is being particularly unreasonable. You just have mutually unobtainable goals, with the current hardware. Is it possible to get a timer that will work with the individual radiators? Then you could leave the main switch on and use individual timers for each room. If not, then it does seem like it’s easier to come up with a solution that will keep your warm all night than one that will keep her cool for most of the night.
I see what you are trying to say, but I disagree that it is simplifying.
We each have a one parter - being comfortable and warm/cool/whatever enough to get the good nights sleep we both deserve. How she achieves that is her business. She can have complete control of her own heating but when she tries to control mine I have an issue with it.
Neither of us is responsible for the other but neither of us can hinder the other either.
I’ll add it to my questions for the engineers at work** iamthewalrus(:3=**. Thanks.
It’s not your heating. And this is why people still think you’re being obstinate and egotistical. Maybe you should take that as a signal that your perspective on this is perhaps not so correct as you think. Particularly when, once again, your “compromise” involves no actual compromise on your part and you’ve decided, out of hand, to reject any solutions that might involve you doing something different.
I sure as fuck wouldn’t want to pay extra for heat when only one person in the household wanted it.
You think your roommate is being unreasonable, but from what you’ve posted here, you sound like you’re just as unreasonable as she is (and I don’t blame roommie #3 for not wanting to get in the middle of your power struggles). You’re trying to control her heat, by having the whole apartment heat on when she doesn’t want it on (or she has to get up in the night and adjust it back and forth). That’s a pain in the ass, especially when your radiator already has a timer that could be used.
Get the space heater and use the timer on the heater for the whole apartment. I have a tiny little space heater that I use to toast my feet before going to bed (I can’t sleep with cold feet - we all have our things), and it is just wonderful. Get one with a proper temperature setting that you can set to a specific temperature, though, not just an adjustable dial. See, you’re looking at using a space heater as a loss; it actually opens up a whole world of freedom for your room to always be as warm as you want it to be, even on a cool summer night. Plus, you can toast your feet - what more could you want?
If you’ll read the thread you’ll see that I offered to pay the difference on the bill right off the bat.
I don’t think my perspective is “correct” at all. As I said I neither of us is right or wrong we just have different ideas. If you think I am being egotistical and obstinate maybe you should take a step back and see that this is a thread on a message board asking for alternative perspectives. I don’t have to take them but I do certainly appreciate all of them. Even yours.
Ok I think you’re a bit confused, it’s actually the opposite of what you just said. She actually wants to control the entire flat’s heat by having the whole place off when I want it on (well my room specifically, the others can decide their own).
I can sympathize. I’m a warmblood who seems to always end up living with reptiles. It can be very difficult to find a happy solution, especially if both sides insist their’s is the only way and that the other person is just being completely unreasonable, as the two of you are BOTH doing.
I also have similar problems to both of you. I’m very warm and must have the room cool to get to sleep (otherwise I toss and turn and sweat half the night, getting no sleep). BUT, I have a serious temperature drop in the middle of the night. It doesn’t wake me up to fix it (not even enough to drag a blanket up), but again, I toss and turn and freeze and wake up exhausted. Needless to say, I’d be siding with your roommate if I lived there; we’d only have to quibble about what time things happened.
My solution was to buy programmable thermostats for our central heat system, and buy electric blankets AND electric mattress pads (this seems to be an important factor) for the chilly ones on top of that. This was by agreement with the rest of the household, however. My exothermic pals now swear by their warm beds and wouldn’t live without them - it apparently works much better than heating the room for you folks who are permanently cold, especially on the extremities.
This winter, because I’m in a much larger and more expensive house and don’t really want to heat the whole thing at night just for me, I may well try the electric space heater with a timer for my room. (The electric blanket solution won’t work for me because I’d still have to pull up a blanket and turn it on - I just don’t wake up that much.)
The issue for y’all seems to be not so much the temperature (since each room has its own radiator that can evidently be set to different levels), but the timer. You want the timer off and heat running all night, she wants the timer on with a change in heat level. I doubt the different wake times is that much of an issue - she probably wouldn’t care if the heat came on three hours before she got up rather than one.
You never answered an earlier question, so I’ll ask it again. You don’t want to use the timer because you want heat to run all night. She wants to use the timer so she doesn’t have heat all night, just in the morning before she wakes. Could you turn her heat on for her at the time she wants, thereby solving her problem, since you get up earlier anyway?
Many of your options also give you the bonus benefit of adjusting the temperature without waking - by kicking off the blankets or using an electric with a thermostat.