apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Can I add...
-Make your own bread (cheaper too!)
-Heavy drapes or blankets over windows
-only heat the section of the house you are in if you have that option.

Turn on the lights. Incandescent and halogen bulbs create light through heat and can significantly increase temperatures in a room.

hmm. i don't think that's green friendly.

my tips:

turning on the oven will warm up the whole place if your place is small enough.

you'll feel warmer wearing a scarf if you don't want to bother with a jacket.

an electric blanket works better than a heater because the blanket is concentrating on you, not the room.

get a dog.

Good hot water bottles are increasingly difficult to find, but are one of the best "green" heat sources I know. Throw a couple of small ones into your bed for half an hour before you sleep, and you'll be nice and toasty all night.

I use double-sided tape to attach bubble wrap to my windows, and a homemade draft blocker along my front door. Keeps my place warm, since I'm not heating up the great outdoors.

And yes, get a dog!

I love the hot water bottle I bought from Lehman's, and plan on buying another one since we fight over the one. It's a little stinky when you first get it since it's made from latex rubber, but it airs out.

http://www.lehmans.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=6055&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=hotwater bottle

A hot water bottle saved my parents' marriage early on. When it turned cold my mother thought that marriage gave her rights to warm her feet on my father. (She was as cold as a reptile and he was always too warm.) After releasing his grip on the ceiling, he was vehement in his refusal of this right! She bought a hot water bottle until electric blankets were invented!

I just wear a heavy-duty sweater and layer up things like socks and boot-type house slippers. Wrapping up in an afghan helps (and also helps justify buying those decorative afghans.) Those inexpensive smallish felt-type blankets tend to hold in the heat very well.

We have throws everywhere. On the sofa, in chairs, at the foot of the bed... There's at least one fleece and one woven throw in every room but the kitchen and bathroom. If it gets chilly, we just pile them on instead of cranking up the heat. It's just as good as piling on extra layers of clothing, but faster and easier to reverse if you start overheating.

Metal Sigg water bottles make great hot water bottles. Just put it inside a thick knee sock, twist the sock round the top to keep the bottle inside, then double the sock over so the bottle doesn't feel too hot. Mine stays warm right through to morning and I usually wake up cuddling it (sometimes after odd dreams that involve holding babies or small animals... :) )
They're the best ever if you're camping in cold weather because you can use your water bottle during the day, sleep with it at night, and use the warm water to wash with in the morning. Now if that ain't water efficiency, I don't know what is.

i dont have heat in my apt, here are my tips:

- make sure your place is well-insulated
- set the oven on 200 and leave the door open
- wear slippers or wool socks
- down comforters and heavy quilts work wonders
- dog bodies radiate LOTS of heat!

oh, and drink lots of tea! it will make your whole body warm...

Wow! Great tips, ATers! (I wouldn't have thought of using my Sigg bottle that way.)
Although I do have heat, I don't like to crank it up too much in my old, drafty building. I use socks, layered sweatshirts or turtlenecks (the old ones I don't wear in public anymore), and fleece throws (when sitting on the couch). And when I found a down bedspread on clearance, I added that to my bed linens. Toasty! When it gets really cold, I pull out the good ol' thermal underwear.

NYC has reached 37 degrees this week and I don't turn on the heat because my duvet is actually a -40 Coleman sleeping bag and I wear a handmedown LL Bean fleece jacket or the more expensive but incredibly toasty and draft blocking Kashwere bathrobe. I didn't have the heat on at all last winter because I had these three items.

We have an electric blanket laid out under the fitted sheet on our bed. About 15 minutes before we go to bed, we turn it on and crank it to maximum, then when we get in bed, we turn it off. Our body heat keeps the bed warm and cozy. Living in Canada with poorly insulated windows, this has been the greatest thing.

I never thought about not turning the heat on at all--in a house, that just isn't an option, since the pipes would freeze at some point in the winter. But yeah, if you had an apartment in a building, it's certainly possible that you could get away with not turning the heat on. Ideally an apartment with no walls facing the outside of the building. But it would still not be very comfortable.

all of these seem wasteful--how about putting an extra layer of clothes or a blanket? or layering an afghan/throw, putting your warm robe on and then putting it over you on the bed so you can grab it the instant you get out of bed? Why not wear warm socks and slippers? When I lived in NYC, in the winter, I didn't have to put on the heat in my apt because I was on the top floor--the summer was BRUTAL since we had a black tar roof, but the rest of the year was warm. In the winter, it wasn't too cold unless the wind chill was -30 below.

An oven uses up a HUGE amount of electricity. There's a reason that you need a special 40 amp plug to use one... Turning your oven on will waste way more electricity than a few light bulbs.

How about strapping an electric heating pad to your back or chair? They use much less electricity than an oven & because the heat is in contact with your body, you feel much warmer.