What is the best way to heat my apartment and save money?
Question by T.Horn: What is the best way to heat my apartment and save money?
I live in Ohio, in a one-bedroom rental in an old house. My heating is a mix of hot water radiators that keep the temperature at about 66 degrees, and 40-year-old Singer baseboard heaters to supplement them. I also have a portable furnace/infrared heater. I pay for electric, but not hot water. My electric rate is $.00584/KWH.
So far, my electric bills have been quite reasonable — about per month, even this December. But I’ve only been using the infrared portable furnace when I’m in the living room and have only turned on the electric baseboard in the bedroom for about an hour at a time, to heat it up before bed or in the morning. It’s gotten to the point, though, that it’s too cold to have no heat on in the bedroom. The portable furnace’s fan wakes me up, which rules it out as an option. Should I keep the baseboard in the bedroom running all the time, or would that run up a huge electric bill? I’m a grad student and want to keep my bill under 0. What’s the best way to heat my place?
I should add that my landlady is a complete slumlord who legally gets around having to heat my apartment to a tolerable 68 degrees by having these prehistoric electric baseboards installed and billing the place as “a mix of electric and radiators.” They’re so old they don’t have anywhere to plug a thermostat into.
Best answer:
Answer by Jen
Get a space heater.
What do you think? Answer below!
I would use a portable space heater in the bedroom and keep the door close…so the heat stays in that room.
Ideally you should set them at whatever temp you are comfortable and leave it. But i understand about pinching pennies. Depending on what type of electric baseboard heaters you have you can plug them into a timer so they come on and off at the times you want. Like a hour before bed to heat up the room, then a hour before you wake so it’s warm. You can ask your landlord to turn up the temp on the boiler alittle also. With hot water radiators it should and will get your place warmer than 66. Hope this helps
call your landlord your boiler should be heating you little apartment nicely assuming you have a radiator in each room
Your landlord should be providing more heat. I think there are specific rules as to what temperature must be maintained at certain times of the day. Check with your local village authorities.
buy a timing switch to plug in the bedroom heater, set it so it comes on and switches off at the times you want
Thanks for your info!
Infrared heaters have numerous advantages over the standard heater that is employed today by households around the world. The concept is relatively simple.